The public will get to see the works next year in Paris.
France will receive nine works of art by Pablo Picasso as part of a settlement between his daughter, Maya Ruiz-Picasso, and the French government. The group of works — six paintings, two sculptures and a sketchbook — was donated by Ruiz-Picasso to help pay for an estate tax bill, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said at a press conference Monday at the Picasso Museum in Paris. .
“It is an honor for our country to welcome these new works of art by Picasso. They will enrich and deepen our cultural heritage,” Le Maire wrote on Twitter.
During the press conference, Le Maire presented one work to the public, called the 1938 painting Child with a lollipop sitting under a chair. According to Olivier Widmaier-Picasso, the artist’s grandson, the painting depicts his mother Maya. Widmaier-Picasso attended the ceremony along with Maya and his sister, Diana. The oldest work in the collection is Don Jose Ruiz, an 1895 portrait of Picasso’s father.
French citizens have been allowed to settle similar debts to Ruiz-Picassos with a payment of art, books and collectibles of national importance since 1968, although such high-profile gifts are rare. The collective value of the nine properties has not been disclosed.
The gifts will enter the national collections of the Musée Picasso in Paris in 2022, said Roselyne Bachelot, France’s culture minister, who added at the press conference that the artworks will be exhibited as a whole to the public in the spring of 2022.
“It is with deep emotion that I come to celebrate the entry into the national collections of the works,” Bachelot said, calling the donation an “exceptional event”.
