'The tip of the iceberg': Three Picasso artworks discovered in three months

Former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, in her apartment in Manila with a gallery of paintings including a Picasso on the upper right, on 27 June 2007. © Romeo Gacad, AFP

A sketch worth hundreds of thousands, a children’s book and a ‘missing’ masterpiece... In the past three months, three unique artworks by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso have been found, in strange and unexpected circumstances. Is this a coincidence or not? 

When the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, won a landslide victory in May, 2022, he went to visit the home of his mother Imelda, former first lady and wife of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.