MUSEUM CLAIMS WORKS BY PICASSO

The Museum of Contemporary Art has unveiled an exhibition of Picasso’s “most loved” works--many of them masterpieces never before put on display--and claimed the master’s widow bequeathed them to Spain hours before she killed herself.

Pablo Picasso’s widow, Jacqueline, who committed suicide Oct. 15 at her home in southern France, selected 61 works worth $24 million for the show, “Picasso in Madrid,” the museum said. The exhibition includes seven sculptures and five drawings and spans 70 years of Picasso’s work.

“These were the works that Picasso most loved, and for sentimental reasons they were never sold,” museum director Aurelio Torrente told reporters at the opening of the show.

Torrente said Jacqueline telephoned him the day she shot herself to death and said she did not want the collection to go to France. She said she wanted to bequeath it to Spain, Torrente said.