PARIS – A Paris auctioneer has put off a scheduled sale of a selection of Picasso drawings after a separate cache of previously unknown works by the artist turned up in an electrician’s garage.

The sale at Drouot auction house was to have included several dozen sketches and minor Picasso works given to his former driver Maurice Bresnu. Bresnu was close to the artist and inspired some of his work late in life.

Drouot postponed the auction set for today, Dec. 9, because some of the auction proceeds stood to go to Pierre Le Guennec — a former electrician who is a relative of Bresnu and his wife, both of whom have died.

Le Guennec shocked the art world with his recent claim that he had squirreled away 271 Picasso creations in his garage for decades. Le Guennec and his wife say they were gifts from the artist. Police are investigating.

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