Picasso Comes to Montenegro's Royal Capital

An exhibition of more than 50 works of the Spanish art genius Pablo Picasso opened on Thursday at the National Museum in the country's old royal capital, Cetinje.

The event has been hailed as one of the most important on the Montenegrin art scene in a long time.

The works from different phases of the artist's life, including drawings, graphics, ceramics and posters, belong to the Osten Gallery in Skopje, Macedonia.

The art is being exhibited in the newly opened national gallery, constructed last year in the building that once housed the old Yugoslav state trading company.

"The exhibition is designed with the idea of presenting the most interesting works, so that the visitors can feel the strength and impressiveness of the expression of the artist through the diversity of his work," the curator of the show, Mirjana Dabovic Pejovic, said.

The drawings and graphics were created in "various known and unknown experimental techniques", and most date from the mid-20th century, she added.

Picasso is considered one of the 20th century's most important and influential artistic figures but his work has not been shown in Montenegro before.

Born in Spain in 1881, he built up a massive collection of works during his long life and career.

By the time he died in France in 1973, over 22,000 pieces of his work had been found, including paintings, sculptures, and a series of graphic design works.

One of his most famous works, "Guernica", completed in 1937, was painted in the aftermath of the German and Italian joint bombing of a village in Spain's Basque country.

The museum has announced that because of the great interest shown in Montenegro in the Picasso exhibition, it will be open for the next...