Reports of Pierre Le Guennec's astounding cache of 271 works by Picasso have riveted the art world. As ARTINFO previously reported, nine Cubist collages and a "Blue Period" watercolor are included in the trove, whose total worth is estimated at $79 million. But questions remain as to how Le Guennec, who worked as an electrician for Picasso between 1970 and 1973, obtained the artworks, which have been seized by the French government pending an investigation. The Picasso Administration, which manages the artist's estate and is headed by his son Claude Picasso, is suing Le Guennec and his wife for possession of stolen property, while the electrician claims that the artworks were gifts. ARTINFO has surveyed new reports appearing in the French and international media that reveal more information about the electrician's story and Picasso's gift-giving proclivities.

><br>>Although he has been characterized as ungenerous, Picasso actually did often bestow artworks on friends and employees, as reported by Le Monde. He gave several pieces to his chauffeur between 1967 and his death in 1973. In fact, the chauffeur's heirs will auction off some of the works on December 9 by Drouot in Paris. Picasso was also very generous with his barber, Eugenio Arias, who became a close friend — both were Spaniards, anti-Fascists, and sympathetic to Communism. Their friendship lasted from 1947 to Picasso's death, and Arias received approximately 60 works in all. (After Picasso's death, Arias himself showed an extremely giving spirit, establishing a museum in his hometown of Buitraga del Lozoya and donating the Picasso works.)

Picasso was careful to sign and date all these pieces, often inscribing them with personal messages. By way of comparison, Le Guennec claims to have received 271 works, only one of which is reported to be signed and dated. Even if the cache inside two notebooks are not counted individually, the gifts would still number 175, far more than any other known gifts from Picasso.

><br>>The Le Guennecs have offered vague and somewhat inconsistent accounts of how the works came into their possession. In one interview, Danielle Le Guennec said that as her husband was getting ready to leave one day, Picasso handed him a box containing the artworks. Speaking to the media again, she said that they were given in a garbage bag and came from the garage of Picasso's villa, La Californie, where numerous artworks are known to have been stored. But when interviewed by French radio station RTL, Le Guennec attributed the gifts to both Picasso and his wife, saying that he continued to work for her until her death in 1986, but that he cannot remember when the artworks were given.

In her RTL interview, Danielle Le Guennec emphasized her relationship with Picasso's wife Jacqueline Roque, describing her as a good friend "for 14 years until her death." When asked if Jacqueline could have bestowed the artworks on the couple, Claude Picasso (who is the son of the artist's previous companion Françoise Gilot) told Libération that "she could have sent a postcard or given a little book. But a collection like that, it's out of the question." Picasso biographer Pierre Daix, who knew the artist personally, told German newspaper Die Welt that it is not possible that Jacqueline would give anything away without her husband's knowledge: "She was completely submissive to him. She wouldn't move a little finger unless he told her to."

><br>>Questions have arisen as to why the Le Guennecs approached the Picasso Administration to authenticate the works at this point in time, after sitting on them for almost 40 years. Some have speculated that it was an effort to wait for the statute of limitations for theft to run out; however, there is no French statute of limitations on possession of stolen property, which is the basis for the Picasso Administration's lawsuit. When asked by RTL why he sought to have the works authenticated at this time, 71-year-old Le Guennec said that he had recently undergone surgery and wondered how much longer he would be alive, which made him realize that he needed to provide an explanation for how the works came into his possession before leaving them to his children.

><br>>The couple stored the Picasso works in their garage, and when asked by RTL if he ever looked at them, Le Guennec replied, "Never." "I wasn't at all aware of their value," he said, visibly agitated, to the throng of journalists that congregated outside the couple's home in Mouans-Sartoux. The penalty for possession of stolen property ranges from five to ten years imprisonment, but the charge first requires that theft be proven. The couple was held for questioning and then released, and so far no charges have been filed.