A bird in the hand: the boy who threw away a Picasso

Actor Brian Blessed’s story of rejecting a drawing by Picasso is fascinating but odd: how could anyone not recognise a dove by the greatest artist since Raphael?

The booming actor Brian Blessed has a flair for a story. Asked by a newspaper if he ever made a financial mistake, he revealed that when he was 12 he met Pablo Picasso. The greatest artist of the 20th century was in Sheffield for a peace congress and the boy Blessed cheekily asked if he really was Picasso – then challenged him to prove it by drawing something.

Picasso drew a dove, and the future film star said “That’s not a dove”, and threw it to the ground. It was picked up and preserved by someone else and today – claims Blessed – it is worth £50m.

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