Paris
The secret police files on Pablo Picasso went on exhibit this week at the Paris police museum. French police spied on the pioneering painter during the 1930s and ’40s, suspecting him of being an anarchist. The documents show that Picasso, who was born in Spain but lived most of his life in France, applied for French citizenship in 1940—likely out of fear that he could be extradited to Franco’s Spain if the Nazis invaded France. His application was rejected because of what the documents called his “extremist ideas and drift toward communism.” Picasso eventually became a leading member of the French Communist Party.
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