Pablo Picasso's police file

Pablo Picasso’s police file was opened by the General Security Board in 1944, in reference to his affiliation with the French Communist Party. The document cites his participation in the delivery of a letter to General De Gaulle, “in union with other well-known red elements to garner the support of Spaniards against Franco and the Falange” and his election as a member of the World Peace Council in 1951, described as an “organisation directed and inspired by Sovietism”. It also includes a newspaper cutting with a photograph of Picasso from US magazine Life’s 30 January 1950 edition, and with a caption that reads “Pablo Picasso, whose art is denounced by the Soviet critics”.