French court convicts couple for theft

A French couple was convicted of stealing 271 works of art by Pablo Picasso and given two-year suspended sentences by a court on Friday, according to dpa.
Pierre Le Guennec, who worked as an electrician at Picasso's villa near Cannes in the south of France, has said the works - including a few small oil paintings, drawings and lithographs - were given to him one evening around 1970.
Picasso's heirs disputed that account, and charges were filed against Le Guennec and his wife in 2011 for concealing goods acquired through theft.
The art was stored in a garage for 37 years.
Prosecutors had asked the court in the French Riviera town of Grasse for five-year suspended sentences, the Nice-Matin newspaper reported.
The works will be handed over to the heirs, who expressed satisfaction with the sentences.
The trove became known when Le Guennec travelled to Paris in 2010 to obtain authentication certificates from the Picasso Administration, French media reported.
Le Guennec and his wife, both in their 70s and retired, never tried to sell the works, which are wide-ranging in style and were produced by Picasso from 1900 to 1932.
Source: SPA