World
Italian family believes painting found in a dump in 1960s is a Picasso and seeks authentication
MILAN (AP) — An Italian family hopes to prove definitively that a painting discarded from a villa on the island of Capri more than 60 years ago is a Picasso, and has been gathering scientific data to persuade Picasso’s estate administration in Paris to make the definitive call.
The rolled-up canvas of a female figure was discovered in a pile of trash that a junk dealer was hired to discard in the early 1960s, and it hung innocuously in the family living room and then restaurant in Pompei, near Naples, for years until his son decided to investigate.
“My mother called it ugly,” the junk dealer’s son, Andrea Lo Russo, said Thursday. “Here, we are used to landscapes featuring the sea.”
Lo Russo said that his first inkling that the painting may be an important work came when he saw a Picasso in a middle school textbook, but neither his teacher nor his father were persuaded. His curiosity persisted, and in his early 20s, he and his brother drove to Paris and brought the painting to the Picasso Museum.
“They looked, and they said, ‘It is not possible,’” Lo Russo recalled. He said that he declined their invitation to leave the painting for further examination, not wanting to relinquish it.
Over the years, Lo Russo said that his attempts to verify the painting exposed him to fraudsters who tricked him out of money, and even landed him under investigation for suspicion of trafficking in forged art — which was dropped after he produced paperwork showing his attempts to verify the painting’s origin.
After decades of trying to determine the painting’s provenance, Lo Russo believes that a recent battery of tests carried out by the Swiss-based Arcadia Foundation finally offers proof that it’s the work of Picasso.
They include lab tests that show the paints used were consistent with Picasso’s color palette during the period in question, said Luca Marcante, a trained chemist who founded the Arcadia Foundation in 2000 to investigate the provenance of artworks. Most recently, a handwriting expert authenticated the signature on the upper-left hand corner as that of Picasso, Marcante said.
The only entity that can authenticate the painting is the Picasso Administration in Paris. It hasn’t responded to a series of inquires over the years. Marcante said that he’s preparing to share the most recent findings with them.
“You need to understand, they get dozens of inquiries every day from private people believing they have found a Picasso,’’ Marcante said.
Contacted by The Associated Press, the Picasso Administration declined to comment on the case.
Marcante put the value of the painting at 6 million euros ($6.6 million), but said that if fully authenticated, it would soar to 10-12 million euros. After years of hanging casually in the Lo Rosso family home, it’s now in a vault in Milan.
Marcante said that the painting is strikingly similar to a 1949 painting attributed to Picasso called “Tete du femme,’’ which is included in the online Picasso Project curated by the Sam Houston State University in Texas.
Marcante said that there is photographic proof Picasso visited the ruins of Pompeii in 1917, and asserts that he likely also visited nearby Capri, where he may have painted the Lo Russo-owned canvas sometime in the early 1940s, leaving it behind “forgotten in time.”
Marcante is convinced that the found painting isn’t a forgery, because of the differences between the two, including different ceilings, and a missing edge on the seat.
The painting “Tete du femme,” appears to be of Picasso’s one-time lover Dora Maar, given the dark hair and dark eyes, according to Enrique Mallen, the Picasso scholar who runs the online project. He cast doubt on the theory that Picasso would have created two paintings that were so similar.
“From what I know of studying Picasso for 30 years, he would never do an identical copy of his own work,’’ Mallen told The Associated Press. “He was quoted as saying, ‘You can copy anyone expect yourself.’”
The only record of “Tete du femme” was in a 1967 book, where it was listed as being in a private collection in Turin. It has never turned up in other references, Mallen said.
Mallen underlined that his online database, which numbers more than 41,000 Picasso entries, assembles images of paintings, sculptures, drawings and other works attributed to the artist, but doesn’t attest to their authentication — something only the Picasso Administration can do.
Marcante called the “Tete du femme” “a ghost painting, because no one has ever seen it.”
“The only real one is ours, that we have examined in a scientific manner. We are convinced of our work, and of the results science has given us,” Marcante said. “We can touch this painting with our hands. It is real, it is authentic.”
If the painting his father discovered is confirmed to be a Picasso, Lo Russo said that the family is still trying to figure out if they would sell it, caught in a whirlwind of inquiries since news of the painting’s suspected provenance surfaced this week.
“We are confused ourselves,” he said.
World
Argentinian flight instructor jumps to death from plane, 22-year-old student forced to land alone
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A flight instructor jumped to his death out of a small aircraft over Argentina, forcing the student pilot he was teaching to land the plane herself.
Leandro Andrés Bertazzo, 42, was on board a two-seat Cessna 150G on Saturday when he made the decision to jump out over the province of Córdoba, according to CNN, which cited its Argentinian affiliate TN.
“He made this tragic decision on board an aircraft with another person by his side,” Eduardo Álvarez, director of the Flying Parrot Córdoba flying school where Bertazzo worked, told TN. “It’s impossible to think about it or understand it, but the human mind is so complex.”
An undated photo of Leandro Andrés Bertazzo, a 42-year-old pilot who jumped to his death from a plane on Saturday, July 4 in Argentina. (Instagram/Leandro Bertazzo)
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Rosario, the 22-year-old student, later told authorities that Bertazzo told her, “You know what you have to do, carry on,” before taking off his gear, opening the door and leaping out, according to Álvarez.
Opening the door of a plane midair is incredibly difficult. Álvarez said it would be akin to trying to open the door of a car traveling 124 miles per hour.
Cessna 150m FRA150M climbing out after take-off with flaps deployed and hills behind. (aviation-images.com/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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Álvarez said that Rosario managed to land the plane safely, despite being in “complete shock.” There was no damage to the plane, according to TN.
Álvarez noted that Bertazzo had gone on a flight with another student earlier in the day.
A view from the main road of the flight school Bertazzo worked at, Flying Parrot Córdoba. (Google Maps)
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Álvarez also told TN that Bertazzo had visited a psychiatric institute, something that was only known by his family prior to his death.
Prosecutors in Córdoba will lead the investigation into Bertazzo’s death. The plane he jumped from is now in police custody.
Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn denies damaging US President Donald Trump’s Washington, DC reflecting pool renovation.
Published On 9 Jul 2026
A former US Olympian has pleaded not guilty to vandalising the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in a case that has drawn national attention amid accusations that the administration of US President Donald Trump is trying to shift blame for a troubled renovation.
David “Davey” Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoe racer, entered his plea in federal court on Thursday after prosecutors accused him of “maliciously” damaging the “American flag blue” lining installed at the bottom of the reflecting pool at Trump’s request ahead of celebrations taking place at Washington’s National Mall for the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence on July 4.
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Federal prosecutors allege Hearn pulled at the liner on June 19, causing more than $1,000 in damage. He has been charged with destruction of government property, an offence that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Hearn denied the allegations. He admitted he stopped at the pool during a bike ride, reached inside and touched a section of lining that was already peeling away, but that he did not remove or damage it. He told The Associated Press he let go when a park employee told him to stop.
Hearn’s lawyers argue the prosecution is an attempt by the Trump administration to deflect attention from what they describe as a botched renovation project.
“This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures,” they said in a statement. “The justice system exists to determine facts, not to provide political cover.”
The 620-metre (2,030-foot) reflecting pool reopened in June after Trump ordered the new liner to be installed across the bottom. He said he was compelled to go ahead with the $14.7m renovation after a friend visiting from Germany called the pool dark and disgusting.
But within days, algae began to spread across the surface, the water turned chartreuse green, and sections of the liner began peeling away.
Experts have explained that the dark new coat of paint at the bottom of the pool would elevate the temperature and allow algae to grow, and that algae blooms in water are common at this time of year, especially in shallow, stagnant water like that of the pool.
Trump blamed the issues on vandals, claiming without evidence that “corrosive and destructive chemicals” were poured into the pool and that vandals “took some form of knife or blade” and put a long “gash into the beautiful facade”, although no one has been charged over those alleged acts.
The US president warned that anyone who allegedly damaged the pool could face long prison terms. “Please remember that there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things — Which will be fully enforced!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Last week, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced the indictment against Hearn, accusing him of intentionally damaging the liner.
The US Department of the Interior has said that at least six people were arrested on suspicion of vandalising the pool in the weeks after it reopened. National Guard troops and US Park Police were deployed to protect the site, which was fenced off during July 4 celebrations.
Thursday’s hearing drew a packed courtroom, with dozens of supporters waiting outside after Hearn entered his plea.
The reflecting pool’s problems have continued, with Trump acknowledging it will need to be drained again so the damaged liner can be repaired.
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