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 A 71-year-old retired electrician is at the centre of a legal battle after coming forward with more than 200 hitherto unknown paintings by Pablo Picasso, a French newspaper reported Monday.

Experts who have examined the collection have estimated it could be worth some 60 million euros (80 million dollars), Liberation reported.

Pierre Le Guennec wrote to Claude Picasso, the artist's son and the administrator of his estate, in a bid to get the canvases authenticated, and the two finally met in September.

Le Guennec said he had worked installing alarm sytems at a number of Picasso's residences, including a villa in Cannes in the south of France, during the last three years of Picasso's life -- he died in 1973.

He said he had had been given the works as presents, either by Picasso's wife or from the artist himself. The collection included 271 works, Liberation reported.