A MYSTERY Reading-born local has generously gifted a Picasso painting to Reading Museum.

Staff at museum, inside the town hall where the work is now on display, said the piece was donated to the Reading Foundation for Art charity.

All they could reveal is that the pricey painting was gifted by someone from Reading who 'wanted to give something back to the town'.

A Reading Museum spokesperson said: "If you’ve been to Reading Museum’s Welcome Gallery this year, you may have noticed our new linocut artwork on display.

"Donated to Reading Foundation for Art by a Reading-born person who wished to give back to the town.

"It was made by none other than Pablo Picasso."

The artwork, named Still Life with a Watermelon, was made by the famous artist in 1962 and was previously exhibited at The Met museum in New York.

Museum staff said the artwork was made by Picasso when he was 80, experimenting with linocut techniques in the south of France with Hidalgo Arnéra.

Reading Chronicle:

Pic: Reading Museum

Mystery surrounds which generous local gave the original Picasso piece to the museum in Reading. One commenter Caroline Perkins said: "Wow, what an amazing donation! Can’t wait to see it."

The museum spokesperson added: "We’re absolutely thrilled to have an original Picasso joining the Reading Museum art collection, through the work of Reading Foundation for Art."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York previously displayed the Watermelon artwork from April 27 to August 1, 2010.

Its entry on the Met’s website lists its provenance as a ‘Mr and Mrs Charles Kramer, 1979’.

Charles Kramer was an American lawyer who had a significant art collection and donated five of his pieces, including Picasso’s linocuts, to the Metropolitan Museum before his death in 1988 at the age of 72.

Picasso paintings can be worth millions of pounds. In 2010, his Nude, Green Leaves and Bust artwork sold at auction for £86milllion.