Picasso kept in Maine house closet for 50 years is sold

AMESBURY, Mass. (AP) — A mixed-media painting attributed to Pablo Picasso has been sold after spending 50 years in a closet in a house in Maine.

John McInnis Auctioneers, based in Massachusetts, confirmed that the painting entitled “Le Tricorne” sold on Saturday, the Boston Globe reported. The 16 x 16 inch (40 x 40 centimeter) painting is signed and dated in the year 1919. It is believed to be a study for the stage curtain Picasso painted for a ballet of the same name that debuted that year in London, according to the New-York Historical Society. That curtain has been on display at the historical society in New York City since 2015.

The website liveauctioneers.com reported the sale price of the painting was $150,000, plus a 24% buyer’s premium.

Neither the buyer nor the seller was named, but the seller gave a statement on the website saying the painting was found in a closet of a home his father inherited from a female relative who studied art in Europe in the 1920s. “This painting was discovered in a house owned by my great aunt which was passed down to her from her uncle in the late 1930s,” the statement reads. “There were several paintings kept in a closet for 50 years (including this example) which were left by her at the time of the passing of the house to my father and now to me.”