Big homecoming for Picasso

The people of Malaga on Spain’s southern coast, and the rest of us, are about to benefit from one of the art world’s great bequests.

The Museo Picasso Malaga is set to open Oct. 27, providing for the first time a hometown base for a permanent collection of works by this city’s famous son.

Pablo Picasso -- painter, sculptor, print maker, ceramics artist, lover of bullfighting and, more famously, of any number of women -- left Malaga as a boy and returned only infrequently until his death at age 91 in 1973. But he retained close ties with the city, and the light and colors of southern Spain are evident in his work.

The artist often lamented that there was no collection in his birthplace. He once ordered two trucks to his French home, hoping to load them with artworks bound for his home region of Andalusia. Red tape snarled the move, and Picasso had to make do with museums devoted to his work in Barcelona and Paris and Antibes, France.

Until now, Malaga has had only a small museum in the house where the artist was born, but an initiative from his family has changed that. Christine Ruiz-Picasso, the painter’s daughter-in-law, and her son, Bernard, have provided more than 200 works for a new museum in the middle of the city, two minutes’ walk from the house.

“This is an amazing collection because of its intimacy,” says Sofia Diez, spokeswoman for the museum foundation. “Apart from temporary exhibitions, no one outside Picasso’s family and friends has seen these works.”

The art is from every major period of Picasso’s life. Among the highlights are “Portrait of Paulo With White Cap” (1923), “Man, Woman and Child” (1972), “Bust of a Woman With Arms Crossed Behind Her Head” (1939) and the striking “Bather” (1971).

More than half the paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and ceramics are gifts; the rest are on permanent, renewable loan.

Christine Ruiz-Picasso thought the collection should be housed in a typical Andalusian palace, and the regional government obliged.

Under the direction of New York architect Richard Gluckman, working with Spaniards Isabel Camara and Martin Delgado, the 16th century Palacio de los Condes de Buenavista has been remodeled to hold the main collection, temporary exhibit space and a restaurant overlooking gardens.

The 89,000-square-foot museum even incorporates Roman and Moorish ruins in the basement.

None of this has come cheaply, but the outlay of $67 million is far less than the cost of the collection, were it ever to reach the market. Sotheby’s recently put a $207-million price tag on the works. That figure would probably be left behind at auction, given that a single work by the artist fetched $54 million at auction last year.

The museum will be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, and until 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; closed Mondays. Adult admission: $5 to $7 for temporary exhibitions, $9.40 for a combined ticket. www.museopicassomalaga.org.