Violon. Céret by Pablo Picasso: The case of a lost painting. A methodological approach

In this paper, the methodological approach used for the study of a painting from Pablo Picasso's cubist period is examined in order to verify its authenticity. In a perspective of a multidisciplinary research and activity, the outcomes obtained made it possible to identify a work of art by the Spanish painter which had always been considered lost. The painting was produced by the artist in 1912 during his second stay in Céret (southern France), and several issues about why all traces of this work of art were lost until it was discovered in Italy in 2013 remain still unresolved. The events related to its collection and the causes that led to the painting's somewhat troubled history from a preservation point of view are unknown, and for this reason its presence in the catalog raisonné by Christian Zervos (edition of 1942) with the title Violon. Céret assumes on importance. The study was based on an integrated protocol that uses both in situ non-invasive and micro-invasive techniques, have demonstrated the compatibility of the constituent materials of the painting with its period of creation–in the year 1912 - confirming the results of expert opinions based on stylistic data and study of documentary sources.