PARIS – Ms Paloma Ruiz-Picasso, the youngest of Pablo Picasso’s four children, has been appointed administrator of the estate managing rights linked to the artist and his work, replacing her brother Claude, their lawyer has told AFP.

A businesswoman, fashionista, and perfume, accessories and jewellery designer, Ms Picasso, 74, is the daughter of the Spanish painter and French artist Francoise Gilot, who died in June.

The lawyer, Mr Jean-Jacques Neuer, said last week that Ms Picasso’s arrival at the head of the world’s most important artistic succession was “very important for the art world”.

The Picasso estate is owned by the artist’s children Claude and Paloma, and grandchildren Marina Picasso, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso and Olivier, Diana and Richard Widmaier-Picasso.

The organisation holds a monopoly on the copyright and reproduction rights of Picasso’s works, as well as trademark rights.

It issues authentication certificates and fights forgeries, regularly taking legal action.

Mr Claude Ruiz-Picasso, 76, who had been the director since 1989, wanted to step aside in favour of his sister, the lawyer said.

Fifty years after his death in April 1973, the artist who painted Guernica and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon continues to inspire.

Museums around the world, notably in France and Spain, have some 50 exhibitions planned in 2023 devoted to his legacy. AFP