A Picasso in a suitcase? (ctd.)
July 2 2015
Picture: Scotsman/Fife Free Press
The story about the apparent discovery of a 'Picasso' in an attic in Scotland has gone around the world. As Maggie Miller, who first broke the story in Fife Free Press, reports:
Within hours of the Fife Free Press’ story, Dominic was interviewed by BBC and ITV news.
The following day, his astonishing discovery was featured in print across the UK and on the internet it went viral reaching Europe, Canada and the United States, followed by South America, Pakistan, China and Japan the next day.
Dominic has been approached by various TV production companies hoping to document his journey as he goes about proving the painting’s authenticity.
The story so far is that the picture - which is strikingly similar to a Picasso in the art institute of Chicago (below, right) - was a gift to the mother of Dominic Currie (above, who found the picture in his late mum's suitcase) by his father, a Soviet soldier called Nicolai Vladimirovich, of whose existence Mr Currie only learned about late in life. Mr Currie's mother (whom, growing up, he believed was his sister) apparently had a romance with this soldier in Poland in 1955, when she was on holiday.
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The Russian name given, however, is only a christian name and a patronymic - that is, 'Nicolai, son of Vladimir' - and seems to be missing the surname we would usually expect to see. This made looking into the story of how the soldier might have got hold of the Picasso a little difficult.
Nevertheless, I did a reverse Google image search of the photograph of Nicolai Vladimirovich seemingly provided to news outlets by Mr Currie himself (above), but with the frame cropped out. This search revealed that the original photograph is listed on a website called hdstockphoto.com, where it looks as below. It must be, with the same scratches and other details, the same photograph or original image. The hdstockphoto website, in turn, points to the source of that photo - what it calls the 'original website' - being Ebay.
Update - the medals shown, on the right, are Hero of the Soviet Union, and the Order of Lenin; two of the highest military honours of the Soviet Union. In other words, this Nicolai Vladimirovich should be easily identifiable. If he exists.
Update II - a Lynda Currie, who is listed on Mr Currie's Facebook page as selling some of his art on Ebay, has in the last six months bought more than one item from Ebay retailers specialising in Soviet memorabilia. I'm not saying there's anything in this. I'm just sayin'.
Update III - a video interview with Mr Currie is here.
Update IV - all the photos used in the press coverage are captioned '(C) Dominic Currie/SWNS'. SWNS is a press agency, which has a website called www.sellusyourstory.com. These are the figures they quote for various stories:
Here is a loose example of what you can typically expect for a real life story (sold as an exclusive). Please remember that these prices can be higher or lower depending on availability of similar stories, quality of photos, the publication’s current budgets, and even the time of year (or other supply and demand factors):
£50 – Providing comment about a topic or issue, or appearing as a small case study.
£100 – Volunteering as a case study / part of a multiple feature.
£200 – Interesting or unusual story.
£500 – Interesting or unusual story that is rare or related to current news agenda.
£1,000 to £3,000 – Extreme or sensitive story.
£3,000 to £10,000 – Extreme or sensitive story, rare story or unusual story involving a celebrity or public figure.
If you had a painting you thought might be a £100m Picasso, would you sell your story for this kind of money?
Update V - don't they teach the basic stuff in journalism school anymore?
Update VI - looking around Mr Currie's art online, he's actually quite talented.
Update VII - I haven't yet found the original listing for the photograph of 'Nicolai' on Ebay, but I have found what appears to be the frame in which it has been put (below). The Ebay listing for it was last updated on 1st April (inadvertently pertinent, perhaps), and it was bought by what appears to be the Lynda Currie Ebay account from someone called 'Bedfordbroker'. I say appears to be, because buyer details are anonymised on Ebay - but we do know that the Lynda Currie account bought something from the Bedfordbroker account at around this time, and her feedback rating star is both red and has the number 1383 beside it - and both these details appear on the buyer listing for the frame.
Update VIII - they also appear to have bought an 'Old Vintage Student Youth Festival Souvenir Book Russia USSR Soviet Union', for £2, and a Soviet 'Ticket for Wine Tasting' for $6.97.
Update IX - Oh, and a 'large blank canvas'.
Update X - Mr. Currie has confessed. It was a hoax all along. More here.
