December 30, 2009

Paloma's Little Guitar


Whoops! Picasso’s “Little Guitar”, a toy sculpture made for his daughter Paloma, was found in the shoebox of an Italian businessman.

Italian Police state that Picasso had given the toy to his friend Vittorio Parisi. I guess Paloma didn’t like it. Two years ago, Parisi, at the ripe old age of 92, handed over the little guitar to an Italian businessman and amateur artist who had promised to build a glass showcase for it to be exhibited at the civic museum on Lake Maggiore.

But from that day the Paloma’s little guitar had not been seen.

After Parisi's death in January of 2009, his widow asked police to try to find the famous guitar. She alerted them that the "Little Guitar" was still in the hands of the businessman. Police say the unnamed businessman never returned the work, keeping it in a shoebox (undoubtedly, a very fine shoebox) in his home.

Maybe he just never got around to it. If the unnamed procrastinator is anything like my family and our picture framing queue, I bet he was just putting it off for another day.

I don’t think the little guitar is particularly good but it kind of makes me want to treat those wooden boats and “starfighters” made from glue and glitter that my boy and I created with a little more respect.

AP Photo/Angelo Carconi.

3 comments:

California Girl said...

what a great background story! you always find them.

Happy New Year!

Kat Mortensen said...

I know what you mean about those projects that line up and may never get done. I've got a drawer of photographs that I'm sure will never see the inside of an album and we finally gave up on framing some of those prints we collected in our early married days. The Caspar David Friedrich had to go!

Alistair said...

Thing is, you see, that I couldn't really comment on this due to lack of photographic evidence re 'little boats' and 'starfighters'.

I mean, they may be fantastic but then again, the guitar looks pretty good to me to......

hope you are well - like the updated profile pic!

kind regards.....Al.