art
271 Previously Unknown Works of Picasso Revealed
Retired French electrician Pierre Le Guennec revealed 271 previously unknown works of Picasso that he had sitting around in his garage, worth about $80 million. Though Le Guennec claims he legitimately received the pieces as gifts, the Picasso family is suing Le Guennec, claiming he stole the works.
Le Guennec worked for Picasso for three years until the artist died in 1973, at which point Le Guennec continued to work for Picasso’s widow, Jacqueline, for the next thirteen years until she died. According to Le Guennec’s lawyer, Le Guennec asked Jacqueline for pieces of Picasso’s work and she gave them to him over time–a reasonable possibility–but the Picasso family claims that the sheer quantity of the pieces “gifted” to Picasso makes the claim less believable. (read on @ geekosystem.com)
I sometimes wondered what the use of any of the arts was. The best thing I could come up with was what I call the canary in the coal mine theory of the arts. This theory says that artists are useful to society because they are so sensitive. They are super-sensitive. They keel over like canaries in poison coal mines long before more robust types realize that there is any danger whatsoever.
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| — | Kurt Vonnegut “Physicist, Purge Thyself” in the Chicago Tribune Magazine (22 June 1969) |
