“The Story of Pablo Picasso’s Citroën DS and the Young Journalist Who Interviewed Him”

50 years ago, on April 8, 1973, the Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France. The genius of the century is said to have produced around 50,000 works during his lifetime. The artist not only limited himself to paintings, but also made drawings, graphics, collages, sculptures and ceramics. In one case, a Citroën DS also became the screen. A photograph of this has been preserved.

A young Mexican journalist named Mejido lived in France and tried to get an interview with Pablo Picasso in the winter of 1958. At the time, he lived on the Côte d’Azur, banned by Franco’s dictatorship. Knowing that the artist was very reluctant to answer questions from reporters, Mejido devised a ruse: he turned himself in at the door of La Californie, the painter’s famous villa in Antibes, on behalf of the Centro Republicano Español de México ” before. This organization helped people escape and took in countless Spanish exiles in the country. Pablo Picasso was a self-confessed supporter of the Spanish Republic and therefore agreed to do the interview.

For his trip to the Côte d’Azur, Mejido had borrowed a new blue DS 19, with which he presented himself to some of Picasso’s friends. He was surprised by the enthusiasm of his young visitor, who claimed to have been sent to France to interview him by Spaniards living in exile in Mexico. During the conversation, Picasso said goodbye for a few hours before returning to continue talking about politics and art. “I never stopped dreaming or painting,” the painter then explained to the journalist, inviting him to follow him. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw “Las guirnaldas de la paz” (“The Garlands of Peace”) painted on the side of DS 19. The work represented a family, flowers and a tree. In front of the astonished guest, Picasso signed his work on one of the fenders.

The scene was photographed by one of those present and to this day Mejido keeps numerous photos of the DS, Picasso and the group of friends who were part of the unusual artistic and now historic event.

On his return to Paris, Mejido bought the Citroën and immediately sold it on to a Paris art gallery for six times as much. Since then, the trace of the car has been lost and the journalist suspects that it is still in the hands of a private collector. (awm)