The Aix-en-Provence investigation follows a complaint by Picasso’s heirs alleging fraud and counterfeiting involving silver plates and gold medallions. The inquiry remains preliminary, and the alleged perpetrators have not been identified.
The court in Aix-en-Provence has opened a criminal investigation following a complaint by Pablo Picasso’s family, a legal source told The Art Newspaper. The investigation is preliminary, and the complaint does not name the alleged perpetrators.
On 10 March, Picasso’s daughter Paloma Ruiz-Picasso filed the complaint on behalf of his nine heirs, alleging fraud, counterfeiting, forgery and concealment of those offenses. The family’s lawyer, Jean-Jacques Neuer, filed the complaint; he and family members declined to comment.
The complaint alleges that molds of Picasso’s works were reused to produce unauthorized silver and gold pieces, including duplicates, some sharing the same number across three pieces, and unnumbered examples. Separately, in April, the family published a warning titled “Hugo silverware” in Gazette Drouot, urging art-market professionals and buyers to be vigilant about what it described as numerous illegitimate plates and medallions worth millions of euros.
A source close to the investigation said the Picasso Administration, which represents the family, has identified at least 17 complete or nearly complete suspicious collections comprising hundreds of pieces.
The collaboration began in 1955, when Picasso commissioned Aix-en-Provence goldsmith François Hugo to make fine-metal plates and dishes based on designs similar to his ceramics, using the traditional repoussé technique. His workshop, Ateliers Hugo, later adapted the designs into medallions and earrings. François’s son Pierre took over the company in 1975.
Sources close to the case said Pierre’s son Nicolas succeeded his ailing father in 2019. Nicolas says he helped promote the workshop’s heritage from that year but did not take over the company or become his father’s partner.
The ruling comes two months before the election, removing a leading candidate from the contest.
In May 2023, Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art told the Picasso Administration it had doubts about plates it bought at Sotheby’s in London, a source close to the investigation said. The auction house had sold a set of 24 silver plates and an unnumbered proof for £1.4 million (about $1.9 million) in October 2021; its October 13 catalogue described the plates as bearing Picasso’s signature, and the set came with an authenticity certificate issued by Pierre Hugo. Sotheby’s declined to comment.
The legal files identify the seller as British dealer Mark Maurice of the now-dissolved Masterpiece gallery. A source close to the investigation said Maurice allegedly produced documents showing he commissioned a set of plates and a set of medallions from Ateliers Hugo between 2017 and 2020. Maurice said he could not answer questions because of strict nondisclosure agreements. According to the same source, in November 2023 a Spanish collector approached Bonhams to sell 24 silver plates estimated at £900,000, but the auction house refused because of the Picasso Administration’s doubts about their authenticity. In the legal files, the administration alleges that the same collector sold another set of 24 silver plates and a set of 24 gold medallions through private Bonhams sales in London in 2022. Neither Bonhams nor the collector commented. Nicolas Hugo says he knows nothing about the collector’s sets or who offered the Sotheby’s collection.
In summer 2023, Musée Magnelli in Vallauris exhibited another set of 24 silver plates and gold medallions attributed to Picasso. The Picasso Administration objected that they lacked required numbers or marks, the legal files say. Nicolas Hugo acknowledges they were unmarked but says they were exhibition-only copies, identified as not for sale, which he had melted afterward. The museum did not respond to a request for comment.
On 26 September 2023, the Picasso Administration told Bonhams that Picasso-attributed pieces in a planned Ateliers Hugo sale were unauthorized editions. Bonhams delayed the entire sale two days before it was due. Nicolas Hugo says he initiated the sale of pieces made by his father and grandfather but agreed to withdraw it and worked with the administration to identify possible duplicates after dealers alerted him.
A source close to the investigation said the Picasso-attributed lots were sequestered when British lender Suros Capital sought to recover them as security for a €256,000 (about $290,000) loan. Bonhams declined to comment. Suros confirmed the loan and said other assets also secured it; as those assets are sold, the company expects to recover the loan in full.
Nicolas Hugo says duplicates from his father’s period have appeared on the market, but he does not know who made them. He says reproduction rights ended with his father and grandfather, denies ever minting Picasso’s creations and says the authenticity certificates he signed only confirmed his father’s signature.
He says investigators have not interviewed him and he does not know the complaint’s contents. He argues that the investigation can only concern acts from the time of his deceased father and grandfather and that the time limit for prosecution has expired.
Pierre Hugo died in October 2023, and his five children rejected his inheritance. Sources close to the case said the estate carried a €2.5 million tax debt. Nicolas Hugo’s siblings declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation. Sources close to the case said three of his children told police they were unaware of Nicolas’s conduct of the workshop. After their father’s death, they took 21 plate molds from the workshop and handed them to the Picasso Administration because they believed reproduction rights had expired and wanted them respected. Three plate molds were missing, and they did not find the medallion molds, the sources said. The siblings also told investigators they did not want to be implicated in the operations and had made that clear to the administration, according to the sources.
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