France and Spain want to organise a major cross-border programme of events in 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso. The French Culture Ministry has announced that Picasso is to be celebrated as a universal artist who, as a defender of human rights and freedom of expression, embodied the founding principles of the European Union. His work “Guernica” had become the greatest international anti-war symbol of modern history, say the officials in France, home to one of the world’s most significant Picasso museums. Barcelona (where Picasso lived for a time), Málaga (where h…