ART

Tracking Picasso: The FBI and the State Department kept a lengthy secret file on Pablo Picasso, even though the Spanish-born artist lived most of his life in France and never visited the United States, the New York Times reported Sunday. A file on the prolific painter-sculptor was kept for about 25 years and continues to be maintained at FBI headquarters in Washington, despite Picasso’s death 17 years ago at age 91. The file labels Picasso as “Security Matter--C” (for Communist) and as a possible “subversive,” a threat to the security and welfare of the United States. The newspaper said that an analysis of the 187-page Picasso file showed no evidence to support the allegations, although the artist did join the French Communist Party in 1944.