Underneath the oil paint lies a portrait of a naked woman in the shape of a heart.
Picasso had painted over the picture, which wasnt unusual for the artist when money was tight.
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A decade later, two researchers from University College London have reproduced the painting.
The duo first used X-ray and infrared imagery to reveal the underpainting within the surface piece.
This imagery was then processed to separate the exterior and interior pieces.

Next, anartificial neural networkwas trained on works by Picasso.
This enabled the system to reproduce the piece in the Spanish artists style.
The researchers then generated a heatmap of the artwork to give the piece texture.

Finally, the piece was 3D-printed onto canvas in the exact size of the original painting.
It is for other people to find the hidden meanings.
Not everyone shares Bouracheds enthusiasm.

Criticsdoubt that AI can accurately replicatea Picasso and fear that it adds elements the artist would not have used.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.

Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).