Puzzling Picasso gift for Reading

CYNICS often ask who – or what – is depicted in a work by Pablo Picasso.

But now instead of considering the content of a picture, many are wondering about the identity of an anonymous donor who gave a Picasso to a local museum.

The artwork is the 1962 linocut Still Life with a Watermelon. But Reading council and the museum are under strict instructions not to reveal the donor’s name.

Mayor Rachel Eden yesterday denied comedy star Ricky Gervais, who was born in the town, was behind the gift.

She said: ‘It’s from a former pupil of Whitley Park primary school in Reading who has never forgotten his roots.’

A spokesman for Reading Museum said the original Picasso was ‘donated by a Reading-born person who wished to give back to the town’. It added: ‘The artwork was made by Picasso when he was 80, experimenting with linocut techniques in the south of France with Hidalgo Arnera.’ The Spanish artist’s paintings have fetched up to £150million.