Picasso heirs trigger criminal inquiry into Ateliers Hugo silverware

A criminal investigation into alleged fraud over Picasso silver plates and gold medallions is under way at the court of Aix-en-Provence, opened after a complaint filed on 10 March by Paloma Ruiz-Picasso on behalf of the artist's nine heirs. The complaint alleges "fraud, counterfeiting, forgery and concealment of these felonies". It names no perpetrators, and their identity remains unknown, according to a legal source. Marcus Bennett reports.

The allegations centre on objects valued at millions of euros that carry the name of Ateliers Hugo, the Aix-en-Provence goldsmith founded in 1933 by François Hugo (1899-1981), great-grandson of Victor Hugo. The following month after filing, the Picasso family placed a formal warning in the Gazette Drouot, titled "Hugo silverware", urging "all art market professionals and buyers to exercise the utmost vigilance" after what it described as "a large number" of illegitimate silver plates and gold medallions appeared on the market.

How deep does the problem run?

According to the complaint, filed by the family's lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer, "it has been discovered that the moulds of Picasso's works were reused for unauthorised productions of silver and gold pieces, followed by duplicates, some of them bearing three times the same number, and unnumbered specimens".

A source close to the investigation says the Picasso Administration, which represents the family, has identified at least 17 complete or almost complete suspicious collections, amounting to hundreds of pieces. The studio's history explains the stakes. In 1955 Pablo Picasso, who had made ceramics in Vallauris since 1947, commissioned François Hugo to produce plates and dishes from similar designs in fine metals using repoussé. The workshop later reduced them into medallions and earrings, and also made jewellery designed by Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, André Derain, Jean Arp, Jean Dubuffet, Roberto Matta, Jean Lurçat and Dorothea Tanning. Pierre Hugo (1947-2023) took over in 1975; his son Nicolas, born 1989, followed.

What did Mona discover?

The first red flag came from the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), the private Tasmanian museum. In May 2023, according to the source close to the investigation, the museum told the Picasso Administration of its doubts over plates bought at Sotheby's in London. An auction catalogue of 13 October 2021 describes a "complete set of 24 silver plates" bearing the artist's signature, plus an "unnumbered proof of Visage aux mains", "accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Pierre Hugo". The lot sold for £1.4m. Sotheby's declined to comment.

According to the legal files, the seller was the British dealer Mark Maurice of the now dissolved gallery Masterpiece. The source says the dealer allegedly produced documents showing he had commissioned a set of plates and a set of medallions from the Ateliers Hugo between 2017 and 2020. Maurice said he was "unable to respond" to inquiries "due to strict non-disclosure agreements in place".

In summer 2023 the Musée Magnelli in Vallauris exhibited another set of 24 silver plates and gold medallions attributed to Picasso. The Picasso Administration found they bore no number, mark or punch, as legally required. Nicolas Hugo acknowledges this, but says the works were "author's copies, made for the exhibition, duly indicating in the catalogue that they were not for sale", and that he "recovered them and had them melted after the show". The museum did not respond to a request for comment.

What happened at Bonhams?

In June 2023 Bonhams France asked the Picasso Administration for reproduction rights for a catalogue of 95 lots from the Ateliers Hugo collection, including works by Ernst, Derain and Cocteau, valued between €400 and €50,000 each. The most valuable were 59 pieces "made by" or "after" Picasso. On 26 September 2023 the Administration told Bonhams these were "unauthorised" editions; the auction house delayed the whole sale two days before it was due.

Nicolas Hugo acknowledges he "did initiate, in the wake of good results obtained at Bonhams UK, this sale of pieces" produced, he says, by his "father and grandfather". He adds: "When we were informed by dealers of the presence of possible duplicates, I agreed to withdraw the sale and collaborated with the Picasso Administration to identify them."

Bonhams declined to comment, but the Picasso-attributed lots were sequestered when the British financial company Suros Capital tried to recover them as collateral for a €256,000 loan. A Suros spokesperson confirmed the operation, saying the loan was "secured against not only the Picasso pieces, but a range of assets which are progressively realised, so the company expects to recover the loan in full".

In November 2023, a Spanish collector offered Bonhams 24 silver plates estimated at £900,000; the house refused. The Picasso Administration claims the same collector had already sold another set of 24 plates and one of 24 gold medallions in private sales through Bonhams London in 2022. Neither the auction house nor the collector commented.

What does the inquiry change for Ateliers Hugo?

Nicolas Hugo, who says he has not been interviewed, claims no knowledge of the proceedings. "The criminal investigation can only deal with facts related to the time of my father and grandfather, therefore falling under the statute of limitations and concerning persons now deceased," he says. "The rights to reproduce the items disappeared with them, so I have never minted any of Picasso's creations."

The self-described "self-taught art dealer" says he signed some certificates of authenticity "but only to confirm my father's own signature", and never took over the company. He worked in Paris galleries from around 20, moved to London, and now acts as an agent and curator. He says there "have been some duplicates on the market, dating from my father's period, but I have no idea who had made them".

The investigation remains at its preliminary phase, and the company is in limbo. Pierre Hugo died in October 2023 and his five children turned down his inheritance, which sources close to the case say carried a €2.5m tax debt. Three siblings told police they were "not at all" aware of how Nicolas ran the workshop after 2019; after Bonhams Paris declined the sale, they went to the workshop, took 21 plate moulds and handed them to the Picasso Administration. Three plate moulds were missing, along with all medallion moulds. The siblings said they wanted to be sure that the extinction of reproduction rights "would be respected" — a determination that will now be tested by the Aix-en-Provence prosecutors.