Dental care may not be the first thing that comes to mind when families think about healthcare (that being a trip to the doctor’s office) but dental care is one of the range of professional services offered to its clients by Trinity Community Health Centers of Louisiana.

This professional service with highly sophisticated technical capabilities is available at Trinity’s clinics in Winnfield, Marksville, Colfax, Ruston and Ringgold. Let’s step into their original dental office in Winnfield where the sign “Winn Community Dental Center” hangs on a building across the street from where Trinity’s three-story office complex is now rising impressively.

Here you’re greeted by Dr. Joe Rustom whose warm smile must put at ease those who might experience angst over being at the dentist’s. Dr. Rustom grew up in Greenwood, MS, met his wife in Houston, graduated from the University of Tennessee and settled into Winnfield in 2014 where his first practice was with Trinity.

“We see all ages,” emphasized the doctor. The office staff includes two hygienists who handle all the tooth cleaning responsibilities. A second dentist, Dr. Marc Lippas, has joined the Winn office on a fulltime basis. His wife, Dr. Katie Lippas, serves as dentist is the Marksville office.

Dr. Rustom explained that Trinity can handle the full range of general dentistry needs at its clinics, including cleaning, fillings, extractions, dentures, bridges, crowns and even some root canals. Not in the picture are braces and implants. “We work with a network of specialists in Ruston, Alexandria, Shreveport and Natchitoches who can take care of those patients who we can’t.”

Unique to the Winnfield office is their ability to create in-house same-day crowns. “Dentistry has changed a lot over the decade since I began,” he explained. In the past, the patient would bite into a mold to create a casting for a crown’s design. Dr. Rustom displayed a hand-held scanner that transfers the full image of a problem area onto an interactive computer where the crown is digitally designed then “we adjust for small details for an ideal fit.” In a workroom, more high-tech equipment uses that image to create an actual crown which is then heat-treated, ready for placement.

Dental care is also available through Winn’s school-based program. With parental approval at the start of the year, students may be bused to the clinic for exams, tooth-cleaning and X-rays. If additional dentistry is needed, a letter is sent home to parents whose responsibility it is to bring
the child back in for their appointment.

As a man who likes to hunt and fish (especially offshore), he concluded, “We’ve enjoyed our time here.” Wife Leah teaches 5th grade at Winnfield Middle School. They have two children, Abe, 9, and Marilyn, 7.

Work on Blue Lake Road began on Oct. 8. Affected areas will be marked. Be cautious and allow extra drive time for possible delays.

The 2024 APHN Fall Tour of Homes is set for the second weekend of October, offering a unique glimpse into historic residences in Natchitoches. The event will take place on Friday, October 11, and Saturday, October 12, featuring two separate tours.

The Candlelight Tour on Friday, October 11, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, includes four homes located within a two-block radius, making it an easy walk for visitors. Guests can enjoy a wine and cheese reception at the Jefferson Street Townhouse to conclude the evening. Maps and directions will be provided to guide attendees through the picturesque tour.

On Saturday, October 12, the Town Tour will be held from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, featuring another set of four homes. This tour requires driving between venues, with maps and directions provided. Each tour costs $25.00, and tickets can be purchased at www.Givebutter.com/APHNTourOfHomes.

Candlelight Tour Venues:

• Laureate House (225 Poete Street): Built in 1840, this European-style townhouse features a wide central hall, separate room entrances, and a beautiful garden.
• Grenaux-Bishop House (200 Pine Street): Completed in 1914, this charming Queen Anne cottage retains its original features and has an extension added in the 1920s.
• The Nakatosh House (210 Jefferson Street): Built in 1923, this stucco-and-cypress home boasts four bedrooms, four baths, and a sunroom.
• Jefferson Street Townhouse (230 Jefferson Street): A Colonial Revival bungalow with a grand front veranda and high ceilings, this venue will host the wine and cheese reception following the tour.

Town Tour Venues:

• Lemee House (310 Rue Jefferson): A c.1830 home with Mediterranean-style architecture, it will also feature arts & crafts vendors in the garden.
• H.A. Cook Guesthouse (128 St. Denis Street): A converted 1920s commercial building now serves as a three-bedroom guesthouse filled with period antiques.
• Hill Haven (1525 Rue Washington Street): This home, over 100 years old, showcases regional artwork, including pieces by Clementine Hunter.
• Keegan House (225 Williams Avenue): A Colonial Revival home built in 1850, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Additional Weekend Activities:

• Melrose on the Cane (3533 LA-119, Melrose, LA): Tours will be offered at this National Historic Landmark on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Show your Fall Tour ticket for a $5 discount.
• St. Augustine Church Fair (2262 LA-484, Natchitoches, LA): Celebrate Creole culture with food, music, and games on October 12 and 13, starting at 10:00 AM each day.

Melissa Robinson serves as the Chairman for the 2024 Fall Tour of Homes. For more information, call 318-458-2485.

By Doug De Graffenried

Over a decade ago, I flew to Kansas City for a preacher’s meeting. I had to rent a car.

I had reserved the car months before the trip. I was expecting a mid-sized car. It is funny that rental agencies have categories one step above the actual size of a car. A mini-Cooper is described in their literature at a “mid-sized” car. By their logic, a go-cart would be an “economy car.” I had reserved a “mid-sized” car. I was not expecting much.

When I arrived at the counter, my rental counter expert was “Karen.” Karen was from Baton Rouge, and we at once began speaking Louisiana to each other. She could even spell, “Natchitoches” and knew the proper pronunciation. It is always good to find home folks when you are on the road. Karen pulled up my reservation and started giggling. I asked her what was so funny.  She said that the car I was assigned was a Mercury Grand Marquis. Now if you drive one of those, that is your choice, and I mean no disrespect to your proper conservative car. I made an audible sigh at the rental counter. She said, “Yeah, you don’t look like that kind of guy.”

I guess since she was from Baton Rouge and we were speaking Louisiana to each other, she decided to do something nice.  She said, “Let me fix this reservation.”  A couple of keystrokes on her computer and she said, “You reservation is in space 31. Have a nice day.” She made sure I had a map to my destination and the name of the best BBQ in Kansas City. I was certainly going to take that recommendation!

I walked out of the rental terminal to the parking lot. I found space 31. Karen had change to Mercury Grand Marquis to a Ford Mustang! The Mustang was a convertible! There is nothing like pulling up to a preacher’s meeting in a black Mustang convertible. I enjoyed all three days of my workshop and driving that Mustang convertible.

When you are traveling, and you meet someone who understands” lagniappe” isn’t it a blessing?

I think of heaven in those terms. Our faith in Christ gives us an abundant joy-filled life here on earth and when we finally wear out these old bodies, God has lagniappe planned. Heaven is one serious “upgrade.” I think Jesus takes pride in showing each of us that place He has gone to prepare for us.

Think of the greatest experience you have had in life, and you have not even touched the joy that is ours in Heaven. It is way better than a convertible Mustang at a preacher’s meeting!

Doug de Graffenried is Pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Ruston.

You can contact Doug at dougsponderings@gmail.com

All branches of the Rapides Parish Library system will close for the day on Monday, Oct. 14. This closure is for a staff development day, enabling library staff to engage in professional development to enhance the quality of service they provide to their community. RPL appreciates the public’s understanding in their ongoing pursuit of providing excellent services and programs to their communities. 

Arrests are accusations not convictions.

October 7

Weapons

Jose Martinez, 28, Forest Hill — attempted murder 2nd degree, $100,000 bail:

Other

Virgil Lazar, 36, Pineville — illegal possession stolen things, $5,000 bail

Derodrick Spurlock, 46, Franklinton — sec offender failure to register/renew, $2,500 bail.

This date: 25 arrests, 1 including one or more contempt counts and 7 with one or more prior arrests.

 By JIM BUTLER

The Pineville City Council’s agenda for this evening includes a proposal to enter closed session to discuss Topic A.

That of course is former city employee Brittany Poston’s EEOC complaint and allegations stemming from admitted sexual liaisons with Mayor Rich Dupree and former Chief of Staff Doug Gann.

Those admissions eventually led to Dupree’s decision to resign, an action now scheduled for October 20.

Under the state’s Open Meetings Act at least a 2/3 vote of those voting is required for executive session. The council has 5 members.

They first officially learned of the complaint in executive session in early summer, a session not attended by Dupree. He is not likely to attend tonight’s, assuming the motion passes.

The city officially responded to Poston’s petition in August, reportedly after she rejected a settlement offer.

That confidential response was provided to media outlets by an undisclosed source, setting off a reaction that grew exponentially as weeks passed.

The closed discussion proposal is the last item on the posted agenda.

Before that, council members will hear condemnation and annexation items.

They will also consider introducing an ordinance creating a Community Cat Program.

Working through the animal shelter, such a program attempts to manage a community’s feral (free roaming) cat population.

It involves trapping, neutering, vaccinating and returning cats to the wild.

The City of Alexandria has announced several bus service updates and detours that have already begun. The Jackson Street, MacArthur Drive/Broadway, Willow Glen, Alexandria Mill/Pineville, and England Airpark routes will be detouring due to demolition activity in the downtown area. These detours began yesterday, October 7, 2020, and will continue through Sunday, November 30, 2024. 

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that Charlie Flynn this past weekend became the first golfer from Alexandria to play in a PGA Tour event in almost 50 years.

He was a phenom as a 7-year-old first-grader. In his first competitive event that year, a 9-hole tournament at Copper Mill in Baton Rouge, he shot a 2-over-par score of 38 for a first-place tie. He went on to excel in junior golf, high school and college. Two years ago, he was runner-up in the Louisiana State Amateur tournament.

As a senior at Louisiana-Lafayette, he helped ULL win the Sun Belt Conference golf championship in the spring of 2023, and he turned professional soon after, playing on the All Pro Tour (APT), a minor-league level tour that makes Alexandria one of its annual stops at the OakWing Golf Course. He has had three top-25 APT finishes.

On Thursday, Sept. 26, he went to Deerfield Country Club in Canton, Miss., to try to qualify for the Monday qualifying tournament for this past weekend’s PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms event in Jackson, Miss. He shot 2-under-par and tied for 14th – the top 15 qualified — to barely make it to Monday’s big qualifier on the same Deerfield course.

That’s where things got dramatic for Charlie, whose parents, John and Kristy Flynn, were on hand to cheer him on. In this tournament, the top four qualify for the PGA Tour event. Sitting at 3-under-par after the turn, he began the back nine by rolling in a 40-foot putt for an eagle. He finished 6-under-par, tying him for fourth, which forced a sudden death playoff to determine the last qualifier.

Charlie, 24, and Dawson Armstrong, a 29-year-old Georgia native who has had three top-5 finishes on golf’s Triple-A level Korn Ferry Tour, dueled for the PGA Tour invitation.

“Before teeing off, I was nervous,” said Charlie. “I knew the gravity of the situation. But I kept breathing, taking big breaths to calm down.”

Flynn had a precarious start at the par-5 10th, driving into the left rough, then landed his second shot about 20 yards shy of the green in the rough. Armstrong, meanwhile, hit a perfect drive and then sailed a 235-yard approach shot to within 5 feet for a chance at an eagle.

“I thought, ‘This could be over quick,’” said Charlie, who chipped out of the rough to within 7 feet and knocked in the birdie putt.  Armstrong’s eagle putt slid by the right edge for a tap-in birdie, and the two went to a second playoff hole, No. 9, a par-4.

On that hole, it came down to a 3-foot putt that Charlie needed to make to advance to his first PGA Tour event. “I felt my knees wobbling and my adrenaline surging,” he said. “I got over the putter and stroked it, and it went in. I dropped my putter and put my hands over my face.

“There was just so much gratitude,” he went on, “so much raw emotion. I thought back on the whole journey and the sacrifices, not only that I made but that others made for me.”

He first went over to Armstrong and gave him a hug, and he “let out a few tears of joy and sympathy for Dawson.” And Dawson congratulated Charlie.

What Charlie Flynn, the one-time kid prodigy, did with that 3-foot putt is become the first man from Alexandria since Earl Humphries to earn the right to play in a PGA Tour tournament. Humphries, probably the top amateur golfer in Cenla in the ’90s, qualified for five PGA Tour events in 1976 but never made a weekend cut.  Back problems – two slipped discs – cut short his professional golf career.

To go to the Country Club of Jackson’s Sanderson Farms event as a player, and practice on the range a few yards away from his childhood idol Rickie Fowler and get to meet some of the pros like Aaron Baddeley, Keith Mitchell and Justin Hadley, was “super cool,” Charlie said.

He didn’t make the cut for the weekend, shooting 5-over for the first two rounds, but the two guys he played with – Frenchman Paul Barjon and 2021 Pepperdine graduate Joe Highsmith – both did.

He did get to reunite, too, at the event with 10-year PGA Tour veteran and two-time tour winner Brice Garnett, whom he first met as a youth when Garnett played a few years on the Adams Pro Tour at OakWing. Garnett stayed with the Flynns at their house each of the three years he played in Alexandria.

“We became good friends, and he has been a cool mentor,” said Charlie. “After I qualified, he was one of the first to reach out and congratulate me. He showed me the ropes out there. He let me play with him in a practice round, and I talked with him and picked his brain. And he kept it relaxed.”

He was given a bag of the finest golf balls, and someone set him up with a caddie for the first time. Even though it’s back to the mini-tour grind, when you are your own caddie, Charlie, having tasted what it’s like to play at the top level, wants more of the high life.

Next up: Q-school, short for qualifying school. The first of a three-stage qualifying series is next week at the Rockwall Golf and Athletic Club near Dallas. The goal is to advance through all three stages to earn full PGA Tour membership for a year. The consolation prize could be a ticket to play on the Class AAA Korn Ferry Tour for the upcoming year.

Charlie made it to the second stage last year.

“I know it’s something I can do,” he said. “I know can play. It makes me want to work harder and yet take it one day at a time.”

Alexandria Senior High wasn’t challenged by once-powerful Many in the Trojans’ homecoming game last Friday and that 69-7 victory didn’t influence their place in the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s weekly Top 10 high school football poll.

But their next game will.

The Trojans host West Monroe Friday night to begin District 2-5A competition. The Rebels from Ouachita Parish are getting votes in the 5A poll.

ASH’s district also includes No. 1 Ruston and No. 5 Neville. ASH hosts Ruston Oct. 25 and Neville in the regular-season finale Nov. 8.

The Trojans remained at No. 6 in Class 5A this week and are the only Rapides Parish team ranked, or even receiving votes. However, a local Class 4A team, Tioga, is responsible for a shift in the Class 3A rankings. The Indians rolled over Jena 65-26 last Thursday and the Giants fell out of the Top 10 in their class.

Class 5A

School (1^st place votes), record, total voting points, previous ranking

1. Ruston (12)                         5-0, 144, 1

2. Karr                                     4-0, 132, 2

3. Acadiana                             4-1, 120, 3

4. Catholic-Baton Rouge        3-1, 97, 4

5. Neville                               5-0, 95, 5

6. Alexandria                         5-0, 78, 6

7. Zachary                              3-1, 75, 8

8. Archbishop Rummel          4-1, 41, 7

9. John Curtis                         2-2, 27, 10

10. Central                              5-0, 25, NR

(tie) Airline                             5-0, 25, NR

Others receiving votes: St. Augustine 15, Mandeville 14, Brother Martin 13, Terrebonne 9, West Monroe 5, Hahnville 5, Parkway 4, Dutchtown 3, Covington 2.

Class 4A

School (1^st place votes), record, total voting points, previous ranking

1. Teurlings Catholic (12)       5-0, 144, 1

 2. North DeSoto                      3-2, 121, 2

3. E.D. White                          4-1, 118, 3

4. Lutcher                                4-0, 103, 5

5. St. Thomas More                2-3, 96, 6

6. Archbishop Shaw                3-2, 72, 9

7. Cecilia                                 3-2, 60, 7

8. Opelousas                            1-4, 56, 4

9. Franklin Parish                    4-1, 44, 7

10. Lakeshore                          5-0, 41, NR

Others receiving votes: Westgate 20, Leesville 19, West Ouachita 18, Plaquemine 7, Franklinton 3, Vandebilt Catholic 2, McDonogh (35) 1, Minden 1.

Class 3A

School (1^st place votes), record, total voting points, previous ranking

1. University (12)                    4-1, 144, 1

2. St. James                             3-1, 131, 2

3. Bunkie                                 5-0, 119, 4

4. Jennings                               4-1, 96, 7

5. Northwest                             3-2, 69, 9

6. John F. Kennedy                  1-4, 67, 3

7. Amite                                    3-2, 54, NR

8. Jewel Sumner                        4-1, 51, 8

9. Bastrop                                  4-1, 45, 5

10. Sterlington                           2-3, 38, 10

Others receiving votes: Madison Prep 33, Jena 29, Erath 15, De La Salle 13, Pine 5, Iota 4, Lake Charles College Prep 4, Kaplan 1, Westlake 1.

Class 2A

School (1^st place votes), record, total voting points, previous ranking

1. Newman (8)                        3-0, 134, 1

2. Calvary Baptist (1)             3-2, 128, 2

3. Oak Grove (1)                     4-1, 118, 3

4. Dunham (2)                         5-0, 117, 4

5. Ouachita Christian               5-0, 94, 5

6. Catholic-New Iberia            4-1, 84, 6

7. Mangham                             4-1, 52, 10

(tie) Lafayette Chrisitan           1-4, 52, 7

9. Episcopal-Baton Rouge        4-1, 50, 8

10. Ferriday                               5-0, 47, NR

Others receiving votes: Pope John Paul 24, Union Parish 12, Notre Dame 20, Kinder 2, DeQuincy 1.

Class 1A

School (1^st place votes), record, total voting points, previous ranking

1. Vermilion Catholic (11)      5-0, 143, 2

2. Haynesville                          5-0, 126, 3

3. Southern Lab (1)                  3-1, 124, 1

4. Ascension Catholic              2-1, 51, 8

5. Riverside                              2-2, 74, 4

6. St. Martin’s                           4-1, 62, 5

7. Catholic-Pointe Coupee        4-0, 60, 10

8. Covenant Christian                5-0, 54, NR

9. Kentwood                               3-2, 51, 6

10. Opelousas Catholic               4-1, 41, 7

Others receiving votes: Ascension Episcopal 33, St. Edmund 30, Jeanerette 19, Logansport 12, St. Frederick 10, Hamilton Christian 1, North Iberville 1.

The Alexandria Museum of Art invites the public to celebrate their signature arts event, the Farm to Forest Plein Air Festival. This multi-day festival will bring artists to Central Louisiana to paint “en plein air” – outdoors! Artists from around the country will be arriving in Alexandria to capture the beauty of its everyday surroundings. 

The festival will be held from Thursday, October 10, 2024, 10am to Sunday, October 13, 2024, at 4pm, at the Alexandria Museum of Art. The final events of the festival – the Palette Party Awards and Final Sale – will be held on Sunday, October 13, 2024, at 4pm. 

More information on the festival can be obtained at farmtoforestpleinair.com or by calling Catherine McCrory Pears at 318-443-3458.

Arrests are accusations not convictions.

October 3

Christopher Johnson, 50, Ville Platte — OWI 1st, speeding, 12:05 am, $1,100 bail.

October 4

Troy Nasello, 47, Alexandria — OWI 1st, improper lane usage, 4:42 am, $1,100 bail;

Casey White,18, Florien — OWI 2nd, open container, seat belt violation, careless operation, 8:20 pm, $1,800 bail.

October 5

Jerry Baker Jr., 53, Alexandria — OWI 1st, open container, improper lane usage, texting while driving, 2:06 am, $1,300 bail;

Jacob Burnett, 29, Soddy, TN — OWI 1st, open container, speeding, expired MVI, contributing to delinquency, possession/purchase

alcohol by minor, illegal possession stolen things, 7:31 pm, $2,800 bail;

Christopher Constantine, 28, Pineville — OWI 1st, improper driving on left, 3:28 am, $1,100 bail. 

October 6

Edward Hicks, 21, Effie — OWI 1st, speeding, 2:52 am, $1,100 bail;

Tylor Sylvester, 32, Alexandria — OWI 1st, wrong way on one-way, open container, resisting, 9 pm, $1,800 bail. 

Arrests are accusations not convictions. 

October 6

Kenshala Bowers, 20, Alexandria — battery on police officer, disturbing peace, $1,259 bail:

Randy Perry, 42, Alexandria — aggravated battery, contempt, $2,500 bail.  

This date: 8 arrests, 6 including one or more contempt counts and 3 with previous arrest. 

September 21, 1961 – October 5, 2024

A Memorial Service, celebrating the life of Daniel G. “Danny” Hebert, Jr., will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, October 19, 2024 in the Chapel of Hixson Brothers Funeral Home, Pineville, with Pastor Robby Poole officiating.

Visitation will be held Saturday, October 19, 2024 at Hixson Brothers Funeral Home, Pineville, from 9:00 a.m. until time of service.

Danny, age 63, entered eternal rest on, October 5, 2024 at CHRISTUS St. Francis Cabrini Hospital, in Alexandria.

Born on September 21st, 1961, he spent his life serving others. Danny never met a stranger, and loved to share his faith in Jesus Christ with all he encountered. Danny had a head strong, no quit attitude, which was a necessary characteristic for all he endured in his life. Danny always carried his burdens, though life was not easy, and always found a way to help others carry theirs. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” 2 Timothy 4:7

He was preceded in death by his mother, Billie C. Hebert.

Those left to cherish his memory are the mother of his children, Debbie Beaubouef Hebert; his children, Samantha Dupuy (Terry), Katie Williams (Kyle), Lorali Hebert, and Bradford Hebert.

His pride and joy were his 6 grandchildren, Leah Ducote (Gavin), Laken Dupuy (Ean), Hayden and Makynzi Bonnette, and Kade and Kylie Williams; 3 great-grandchildren, Kalani, Stella, and Tag, along with a host of other family members and friends.

The family would like to thank the Doctors and Staff of Cenla Heart Specialist of Cabrini for their dedication to Danny throughout his career, also to his loyal employee, Kenny, for his service for over 20 years.

In 1962, 24-year-old junk dealer Luigi Lo Rosso was clearing out the cellar of a villa on the southern Italian island of Capri.  As with anyone who is tasked with this sort of cleaning, Luigi had three basic categories of items; things to keep, things to throw away, and, most difficult of all, things he was unsure of.  Luigi usually took only a few seconds to decide where to place each item.  Then, Luigi found a rolled-up canvas.  He quickly unrolled the painting and glanced at a distorted image of a woman.  Luigi noticed a signature in the top left corner but did not recognize the artist’s name.  As quickly as he had unrolled it, he rolled it back up.  He placed it in the keep pile and kept sifting through the items in the cellar.  Once finished with the task, Luigi returned to his home in Pompeii with the items he had deemed good enough to keep.  He sold some of the items, usually “for next to nothing,” but not the distorted paining.  He bought a cheap frame to hold the painting and mounted it to the wall.  Luigi’s wife was less than impressed.    

Two years later, Luigi and his wife had a son they named Andrea.  As the boy grew up, he was always aware of the painting because his parents argued about it regularly.  There were times when the family considered getting rid of the hideous painting.  They considered throwing the painting away.  “My mother didn’t want to keep it,” Andrea explained.  “She kept saying it was horrible.”  For some reason, the painting remained there on the wall of the Lo Rosso home.  One day, Andrea’s aunt gave Andrea an encyclopedia of art history.  Andrea immediately thought about the horrible painting on their wall.  He flipped through the book and found a similar painting of a distorted lady.  It appeared that the painting shown in the encyclopedia was of the same lady in the painting that had hung on their wall for decades.  The paintings were not identical but had noticeable differences.  The title of the painting in the book was “The Buste de Femme.”  Andrea learned that the painting was a distorted image of the artist’s mistress, a French photographer and painter named Dora Maar.  Andrea looked at the top left corner and realized that the signatures were almost identical.  Andrea kept telling his father that the paintings were similar, and the signatures were similar, but Luigi remained unconvinced. 

As the years turned into decades, Andrea remained curious about the painting.  In 1999, the painting Andrea saw in the book, “the Buste de Femme,” was stolen from a luxury yacht belonging to Saudi billionaire Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh.  Andrea thought about the painting that still hung on his family’s wall.  Twenty years passed.  Then, in March 2019, after a four-year search, Arthur Brand, known as the “Indiana Jones of the art world,” found and returned the stolen painting.  Again, Andrea thought of the painting that his father had found all those years ago. 

Andrea took the reins and sought the advice of the experts at the Arcadia Foundation, a company which specializes in attributions, restorations, and valuations of art works.  Cinzia Altieri, a handwriting expert working at the Arcadia Foundation, confirmed the signature on the painting. After an intense investigation, Luca Marcante, president of the Arcadia Foundation, concluded that the painting that Luigi found amongst the junk in that cellar in 1962, which hung on Luigi’s wall in a cheap frame for more than six decades, is an original, authentic painting by Pablo Picasso.  Its value has yet to be determined.

Sources:

1.     Angela Giuffrida, “Painting found by junk dealer in cellar is original Picasso, experts claim,” The Guardian, October 1, 2024, accessed October 2, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/oct/01/painting-found-by-junk-dealer-in-cellar-is-original-picasso-experts-claim.

2.     “Stolen Picasso portrait of Dora Maar found after 20 years,” BBC, March 26, 2019, Accessed October 2, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47704194.