A retired electrician in the South of France and his wife have revealed that they possess 271 hitherto unknown works by Pablo Picasso, all dating from the first third of the 20th century. PierreLe Guennec, who installed alarm systems for the revered artist during the last three years of his life, says that the works were gifts.However, Claude Picasso, the administrator of the Picasso estate, disputes the claim and is suing the pair, saying that they obtained the works illegally. The French government has seized the works pending investigation.

Including lithographs, paintings, drawings, and a Blue Period watercolor— none of which appears in the inventory of Picasso's estate — the trove is valued at €60 million ($79 million), according to French paper Libération, which broke the story. Experts estimate the nine Cubist collages alone to be worth €40 million ($53 million). The 71-year-old electrician managed to have the works authenticated by the artist's estate in September, but the estate subsequently sued for possession of stolen goods and the works were seized last month by the Office Central de Lutte contre le Trafic de Biens Culturels, the French art-trafficking squad.

Le Guennec has claimed at times that the works were gifts that Picasso personally gave him, and at other times that they were bestowed by the artist's last wife, Jacqueline. Claude Picasso told Libération that it was impossible that his father would have given so many artworks to one person: "that's never happened, it doesn't make any sense… this was part of his life."