When you hear the name Pablo Picasso what is the first word that comes to mind? Do you want to know mine? It’s ‘A’ but my second word is ‘painter’, which I believe are the words everyone from around the globe would mutually agree that’s who Pablo Picasso was. Not that many people will disagree that Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest abstract painters of the 20^th century with countless paintings being sold for millions. In fact, one of his popular paintings, “A Pale Blue Boy” was sold for $15 million on September 11, 2001, which made the front page of the New York Times and New York Post. Pablo Picasso’s work was aging like a fine wine, especially with his estate releasing never before seen paintings almost every decade ever since the death of Picasso. Art enthusiasts, artists, rich people, and the whole internet would go crazy when Picasso’s estate released the never before seen paintings. Hundreds of people would wait in line at whatever auction house the estate, just to get a glimpse of a “discovered” painting wither they decided to have the showings in New York, Italy, France, it didn’t matter the eager fans would wait in line no matter how cold or hot the climate was, it didn’t matter they were determined.

Eventually, Picassos’ estate had to create private showings since local businesses complained about the long lines which would create an obstruction to the entryways to their businesses. In one of the showings around the early 90s, the line for the auction house circled the whole block but all it took was one dyslexic Picasso fan facing the wrong way to create the riot of the decade. The line ended up branching into a Papa John’s. Eventually, people were trying to steal a painting off the Papa John pizzeria wall, thinking it was the latest Picasso piece. Aftermath of what is now known as, “The wrong way incident”, resulted in a murder and a rape. John Papa, the owner of Papa John’s was quoted saying, “No comment” when confronted by news reporters at a Dominoes. Unfortunately for the Picasso estate, the lines to the viewings weren’t the only scandal the Picasso family would soon face.

October 12, 2011, the Picasso estate announced they were going reveal a painting that Pablo Picasso himself vowed on his death bed to specifically show this particular painting in the year 2011. Picasso proclaimed that this is the greatest painting he’s ever done before his passing. Picasso’s son, Juan Picasso, rented out a concert hall for this monumental reveal with plans to have the biggest and most expensive auction of the 21^st century, with bidding starting at one billion dollars. Unfortunately, two days prior to the event a shocking video was released online that would shatter and forever change the art world. The video, shot on a camcorder, by a random bystander shows an old man in a Picasso museum screaming and cursing, “It’s all a lie, it’s my father’s work, it’s my father’s, this is the Skababal Family!”.  The unidentified man screamed the same line over and over while grabbing and taking down the paintings of Picassos. The video was one minute and thirty seconds long with the last twenty seconds having the security of the museum dragging away this unknown man by the arms. At first, the video was being passed around as nothing more than a crazy old lunatic, wannabe artist trying to gain attention but it didn’t take long for the internet to investigate who this man was and who exactly are the “Skababal family”. This would end up being the biggest art scandal the world has ever known.

Phillsmill, Alabama, 1935, farmer, Virgil Stein noticed his sheep were acting strange. One sheep in particular, named “Fred”, wasn’t acting like his usual self. Fred, who used to be the social sheep of the group or as Virgil would say, “The life of the party.”, became nothing more of a shell of his former sheep self. Fred would often stay away from the other sheep and would stare into the distance but soon, Fred started to lash out whenever Virgil would play wrestle with Fred, an activity they used to love doing. Soon, one by one all the sheep were becoming anti-social and rebellious. Virgil said, “When I was shearing one of my sheep, Ted, he gave me this strange look like he wanted me to razor his throat.” Some of Virgil’s other sheep started to become extremely sexual while others would lash out at their fellow sheep. Finally, Virgil had it enough and faxed the local veterinarian to come over to his farm and check on all the sheep. Dr. Barnes, Phillsmill’s most trusted veterinarian, quickly found out that the sheep were all getting #Metoo’d by some sort of entity, Barnes explained it was most likely one of the sheep sexually harassing the others, however it’s hard to tell which one of them was doing the perverted act so it’s best to kill them all and start fresh.

Virgil ended up killing all his sheep with a hammer to start fresh and new in the hopes the sexual predator among them was finally gone, “the wolf wearing sheep clothes,” as they famously say. Virgil’s income relied solely on sheep fur but if the sheep were all anxious the fur would become weak and tainted with sin. After a local community fundraising event, Virgil was able to get a new batch of sheep for an affordable price. One day there was a loud noise in the middle of the night, Virgil would soon find out that the sexual predator was not a sheep but instead a grown man. A man with a strange looking head was what Virgil saw humping his fresh new sheep. Before Virgil can even mutter a word, the man ended up running away. On the following day, Virgil ended up contacting the local news and the Phillsmill local police station.  Police sketch artist, officer Daniel Carson, was tasked to carefully sketch out what Virgil Stein was describing but this was a failure since the sketches were mocked.  The sketch of the man hardly looked like a man at all, missed shaped head, far-out eyes, mouth placed strangely with his skin having a scaly texture.

The newspaper went to the police station and had sketch officer Carson draw out all the testimonials that the newspaper received about this strange looking person. It was found out this wasn’t just one individual, in fact, they were many of them. All of them apparently had strange-looking heads, faces, and bodies. Sketch Officer Carson soon got sick of drawing all these deformed faces but the newspaper knew this story was going to be a hit. One morning, a fax with an address and even a name saying, “Skababal family”, with two words saying, “inbred family” was received on Thursday morning. 

The Skababal was said to be located 10 miles west of Phillsmill Alabama, on a secluded ranch in Chester Alabama. Chester Alabama was a small town and everyone knew each other especially since most of them were related to one another but the infamous Skababal family was known as the most inbred-looking and acting family of all Alabama, let alone Chester Alabama. Dr. James Goldstein, a Physicist professor at MIT adds, “In Alabama having sexual intercourse with one’s family members is considered a cultural way of bonding. Alabamers know it’s crucial to perform safe sex whether it’s using condoms, pulling out, or anal with their family members in order to prevent any unwanted pregnancy. It’s rare for family members in Alabama to continue reproducing with one another. Having one kid or two because of a mistake is fine but to exclusively have sex within your family can be a very dangerous activity.” The Skababal family had a long line of shared family genes which resulted having weird-shaped heads, strange features, alongside unusual behaviors. Most if not all did not speak English properly instead they were known to yell, “Skababal Skababal!”, it was later reported that approximately twenty of them were living on this particular ranch. Sketch artist officer Carson was brought to the scene to sketch the Skababal family so there would be documentation for both the newspaper and the police. Most of the family ended up getting arrested for crimes that were reported years ago but were never resolved which ranged from bestiality to stealing chocolates.

1952, Pablo Picasso was making a name for himself in the San Francisco art scene but Picasso didn’t feel any of his paintings were revolutionary.  After trying to commit suicide by drinking paint, Picasso was admitted to the local hospital and was bed-bound for over a week while being supported by an oxygen mask. There at the hospital, Picasso met former sketch officer Daniel Stein, both of whom were sharing a hospital room. Over the week Stein and Picasso started to form a relationship. Daniel Stein moved away from his wife and kids and the life in Phillsmill Alabama, with the pursuit to become a real artist, instead of some, “rural town police sketch artist”. Both Stein and Picasso weren’t able to talk to each since both of them had an oxygen mask for the duration as well as both men were bed-bound. In order to communicate they would crumble written notes and throw the paper at each other’s bed.  One of Picasso’s friends who would often visit Picasso at the hospital would collect the notes that never made it to the bed.

It wasn’t until 2019 that an unknown source released all the letters. Turns out a lot of the notes were sexual and it became clear Picasso was gay and in love. Stein revealed to Picasso that he had a rare tumor in one of his notes and he wasn’t going to make it, however since writing to Picasso he’s felt more alive than ever before. Later it was found out that Picasso was in fact healthy and he recovered rather quickly but decided to lay on the bed throwing notes at each other since it became an activity Picasso grew to love. One-night Picasso wrote a long love letter to Stein, filled with drawings of them getting married and doing sexual acts. Picasso tossed the letter over to Stein while he was sleeping in hopes when he would wake up in the morning, Picasso would be greeted by a letter on his stomach with the words saying, “I do”.  Instead, Picasso woke up with the sound of a buzzing noises as doctors rushed to perform CPR on Stein. Daniel Stein died that morning. The long note Picasso threw that night went inside Stein’s mouth which ended up getting stuck in Stein’s throat, leading him to choke to death. The note was obtained during Steins autopsy. After the death of Stein, Picasso wrote in his diary the haunting words, “Today is the day Picasso died alongside my true love, I am now adopting the name The Pablo Picasso, I am forever, the straight abstract artist.”

In one of the notes Stein threw that never landed on Picassos bed, was the address of the hotel Stein was staying at along with his belongs that he was eager to show Picasso one day. Picasso’s friend gave him the note the day after Stein passed away. When Picasso went inside Stein’s hotel he was unimpressed with all his art, later Picasso wrote in his journal saying cruel and heartless remarks about how horrible Daniel Stein’s paintings and drawings were. Normal Picasso would’ve been kind and gentle however The Pablo Picasso took over so in turn all his journal entries became dark, he in fact fully embraced his alter ego. After spending a few days inside Steins hotel, Pablo Picasso saw an old box underneath the hotel bed that had old police sketches. It wasn’t until Picasso got to the “Skababal” family sketches and a copy of the unpublished article that made Picasso realized he struck gold. Pablo Picasso just said one word in journal entry that day, “Jackpot.” Picasso ended up stealing the police sketches and unpublished article all for himself all so he can trace the Skababol family and call it his original work. People thought it had depth but at the end of the day it was nothing more than a scam to feed his alter ego, The Pablo Picasso. On his deathbed, Pablo Picasso found God and converted to Judaism and knew in order to go to Jewish heaven, Picasso had to confess his sins and on his death bed he told his son the truth about everything including his former, gay lover, but his son, Juan just replied with a, “Meh.”

After the release of Picasso’s journal as well as the internet researching the Skababal family, when suddenly all the dots were starting to line up. The old man in the viral video was soon interviewed by NBC Nightly, revealing he is the abandoned son of Daniel Stein. The #PicassoNoCasa started to trend as the story of the hoax of Picasso went viral. People wanted Juan Picasso to give back all the money and even go to prison. Even Juan’s multimillion-dollar house ended up being vandalized with the #PicassoNoCasa.  Juan Picasso and Pablo Picasso’s estate were hit with lawsuits and even to this day they are in a legal battle. Daniel Stein’s son, Jonathan Stein, believes he is the rightful heir to all the artwork that Pablo stole from his father. Many people online have been divided on this issue. Some say Picasso is a fraud, others say Daniel Stein is a fraud, while others don’t care with even a few who say maybe Picassos greatest work wasn’t his paintings but instead his story which makes it all one continuous painting.