New Musée Jacqueline et Pablo Picasso to Open 2021

Picasso’s stepdaughter is planning to open a museum dedicated to the artist and his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, in a former convent in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence. The project is driven by Catherine Hutin-Blay, Jacqueline's daughter. Hutin-Blay inherited her mother’s collection of Picasso works and owns the Château de Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence, where the couple are buried. The Musée Jacqueline et Pablo Picasso will house around 1,000 paintings—more than the respective collections of the Picasso museums in Paris, Antibes, Barcelona and Malaga.

According to a document provided to The Art Newspaper by the town council of Aix-en-Provence, councillors voted on 13 December to sell the Couvent des Prêcheurs and an adjoining church ambulatory to the Madame Z company, which is owned by Hutin-Blay, for €11.5m. The mayor, Maryse Joissains, told local press that “it was the right time to enter into negotiations with the Madame Z company owned by Catherine Hutin-Blay”. Joissains declined to comment further; Hutin-Blay could not be reached for comment.

Hutin-Blay owns more than 2,000 works, including more than 1,000 paintings, making hers one of the world’s largest Picasso collections, according to the council. The “exceptional” collection is particularly rich in works dating from 1952 to 1973, the period of her mother’s relationship with the artist. It includes 1,000 drawings as well as ceramics, sculptures and photographs that “trace the shared life of Jacqueline and Pablo Picasso”, the report says. Read the full story by Gareth Harris at The Art Newspaper.