more on the blocked Picasso and his Rose Period

Banker Blocked from Exporting Picasso
Posted: Wednesday, 05-08-2015

CORSICA -- A Picasso painting with an estimated value of more than €25 million has been declared a Spanish national treasure and barred from leaving Spain -- the work has been seized by French authorities from a British registered boat docked in Corsica.

Picasso's 'Head of a Young Woman' (1906), is the property of the banker Jaime Botín, brother of the late banker and philanthropist Emilo Botín, from the Santander group.

The work was refused an export permit after it was declared a cultural treasure by the Spanish National Court in May 2015.

Art collectors of Art Kabinett social media network know that in Europe -- because of strong patrimony laws -- it is illegal to export certain works without a license.

Authorities seized the ship docked off the island of Corsica, after an attempt to export the painting to Switzerland on Thursday "caught the attention of the French authorities," customs agents confirmed.

The painting, is owned by Jaime Botin, a well-known Spanish banker whose family owns the Banco Santander.

Jaime Botín, 79, and brother of the late Emilio Botin, was vice president of banking giant and was not on board the vessel, when customs agents on the French island boarded the vessel the following day and found the painting.

Botín acquired 'Head of a Young Woman' in 1977. The artwork was painted by Picasso when he was 24 years old, and is one of the very few examples of Picasso's Rose Period. The Rose Period is named after Picasso's heavy use of pink tones in his works from this period.

French authorities are now waiting for an official claim from Spanish authorities to retrieve the work of art.

Rose Period

Picasso's Rose Period represents an important epoch in the life and work of the Spanish artist, and had a great impact on the developments of modern art.

It began in 1904 at a time when Picasso settled in Montmartre at the Bateau-Lavoir among bohemian poets and writers. The Rose Period are joyful and lively works which followed Picasso's Blue Period, depicting themes of poverty, loneliness, and despair in somber tones of daunting blues,

Picasso's Rose Period represents more pleasant themes of clowns, harlequins, carnival performers, depicted in cheerful vivid hues of red, orange, pink and earth tones.

Based largely on intuition rather than direct observation, Picasso's Rose Period marks the beginning of the artists' stylistic experiments with primitivism; influenced by pre-Roman Iberian sculpture, Oceanic and African art. This led to Picasso's African Period in 1907, culminating in the Proto-Cubist masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Picasso's highest selling painting, Garçon à la pipe (Boy with a pipe, sold at auction in 2004 for $104 million) was painted during the Rose Period.

Other significant Rose Period works include: Woman in a Chemise (Madeleine) (1904–05), The Actor (1904–1905),[4] Lady with a Fan (1905), Two Youths (1905), Harlequin Family (1905), Harlequin's Family With an Ape (1905), La famille de saltimbanques (1905), Boy with a Dog (1905), Nude Boy (1906), Boy Leading a Horse (1906), and The Girl with a Goat (1906).

Today's homepage Featured Art Video offers reviews works from Picasso's Rose Period. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI3bUSuF9fU&sns=em