The fortuitous findings of works of art forgotten in fades or hidden between discarded objects in markets are not a legend. That they tell the second -hand store of Antwerp, Belgium, who has just sold for 12,600 euros a ceramic signed by Pablo Picasso dated in 1953, from a limited edition and that was in a game of objects he had received from a donor.
A not so unusual discovery for Kringwindkel, the non -profit organization that manages one more than a hundred second -hand centers, 13 of them in Antwerp, as well as a auction site of the same name in the flamenco region of Belgium: in January, he also announced that among the objects he receives from donations he had appeared an engraving in etching of the Belgian painter James ours Real of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA).
It is not so clear where the ceramics of Picasso can be seen in the future, a large dish and in “very good condition” made “in white earthenware, with greenish brown decoration in Engobe, enamel and oxidized paraffin”, which represents bullfighting scenes – the center is occupied by a bullfight – so appreciated by the Malaga artist. On the reverse, two French stamps that demonstrate its authenticity: a “Madin Feu Madura” and an “original Picasso entrepreneur” (original Picasso printing), according to a statement from the organization after the finding.
Madoura refers to the French ceramic workshop of the same name in Vallauris, on the French Costa Azul, with which Picasso collaborated between 1947 and 1971. According to specialized auction houses, in those two long decades he produced more than 3,600 pieces in ceramics, of which each and 500 copies were made each, from vases to plates, bowls or jugs.
The ceramics now discovered was made on March 11, 1953, with a production of 200 copies. One of them ended, through one of the “usual donations” that are carried out to these centers, in one of the stores in Antwerp. There, “thanks to the good eye” of one of the employees – the staff of this social cooperative is composed of individuals with problems to find a job that receives a special training -, the value of the piece was “recognized in time”, which proceeded to auction online, on April 6. The final price reached by Picasso’s ceramics was 12,600 euros.
The buyer, an art collector identified only as Johan, has advanced his intention to donate the piece to a beneficial organization for young people with autism, a disorder that has also been diagnosed. Although, according to the official note, it will not do it immediately. First, he said, he will enjoy him at home for a while. Although far from the millionaire sums collected by some of the paintings of the artist from Malaga, the Second -hand sales organization has congratulated himself for the money achieved with the auction of the Picasso ceramics, which will reinvest in “Social Employment, through training courses, tutorials and specialized jobs”.
A preparation of its workers who has already given him fruits: last January, the house announced another rare discovery, also in Antwerp: an authentic engraving of reor, The haunted furniture (The enchanted furniture), which is now exposed in the local museum, completing the famous collection of the Flamenco artist (Ostende, 1860-1949) dedicated by the KMSKA. Also on that occasion it was a worker who thought he recognized in the piece an authentic work, so he warned one of those responsible, who proceeded to call an expert who ended up confirming the employee’s instinct.