Two-year suspended prison sentence to the couple who claimed to have left to sleep 271 works of maîtredans his garage. The court of appeal of Aix-en-Provence on Friday confirmed the conviction for receiving stolen property.
possession of stolen goods, confirmed on appeal. On Friday, the court of Aix-en-Provence has kept the two-year suspended prison sentence rendered in first instance, in 2015, against the torque of The Guennec. The justice did so definitely not raw Stone, ex-electrician, and his wife, Danielle, also retired, when they pretended to be the owners of 271 sketches and graphic works of Pablo Picasso. Today this fund is estimated to be between 60 and 100 million euros. It will soon be handed over to the son of the artist, Claude Ruiz-Picasso, representing the six heirs of the painter.
According to Le Guennec, the leaves had been stored for forty years in the garage of their home in Mouans-Sartoux (Alpes-Maritimes). At the beginning, they had argued that they had been given for the services rendered by the husband Picasso in 1971 or 1972, a few months before the death of the master. But the Minotaur, when he offered, was never without sign and date. However nothing of what was presented was.
Pushed to its limits, before the court of appeal of Aix-en-Provence Pierre Le Guennec had changed its explanation: only Jacqueline Picasso, the last wife of the artist, was at the origin of the “gift”. A few months after the death of the painter, it would have asked Pierre The Guennec “please put in [him] into reserve bags”, “between 15 and 17″. Later, she would have asked her to return them to him, inviting him, however, to keep in a gift carton.
Me Éric Dupond-Moretti, lawyer of the accused, was added to have the certainty that Jacqueline (committed suicide in 1986) had hidden a number of works. “Not for concealment but because the family is being torn then”, both on the estate and on the conditions of the inventory of the different types of houses-workshops of the author of Guernica. In front of him, the lawyer of Claude Ruiz-Picasso had instead supported the thesis of a “laundering” of stolen works. At discharge, it was the former electrician himself, who had come to find the heir to the painter in 2010 so that it authenticates on the stock.
Rest today to share between the beneficiaries the proceeds of a sale or, directly, of these 171 paintings on paper, drawings, various lithographs, 91 the studies performed in two books, and especially nine wallpaper rare since they date back to the invention of cubism with Georges Braque. To be a treasure relating to the period 1900 – 1932 (from the arrival in Paris of the period known as the return to the classical order, Picasso became world famous as from before the Great War), in which it is mentioned in the archives, yet very provided, to the greatest artist of the Twentieth century. “For the moment the leaves are still under receivership in a strong room of the Bank of France. They should be made available to us in a few weeks”, said Christine Pinault at the Picasso Administration (which manages the rights).
During the trial in the first instance, Jean-Jacques Neuer, lawyer to the Picasso, had argued that the defence of The Guennec was driven “from Geneva by what the art market is becoming more cynical and more hidden”. But, on this point, the police and justice do not seem to have advanced. Similarly, the scenario sketched by the Picasso Administration remains without material evidence. According to it the 271 works will come from flights performed by Maurice Bresnu, aka Teddy, the driver of the Picasso, entered the service of a painter in 1967 and died in 1991. He had been a part of his living. A sale was held at the galerie Krugier, Switzerland, under the title of “Collection Teddy bear”. The rest would have resulted in at Mouans-Sartoux? For the time being it has only been established that the widow of Maurice Bresnu is a cousin of Pierre Le Guennec.
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