A tiny village in northwest Spain has been left to crumble since it was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous artworks of the 20th century. The painting is huge and violent, and when it was first displayed in 1937 it was considered absolutely groundbreaking.

The painting, which has aroused storms of both favorable and unfavorable comment, depicts the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica in 1937 by the air force of insurgent General France.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) must have been driven by a sense of urgency to paint "Guernica," the theme of which was the indiscriminate bombing of the titular town by German forces in 1937.

Having spent much of the past decade researching my book "Picasso the Foreigner," I was reminded by this turmoil and devastation of the artist’s monumental masterpiece, "Guernica." In the spring ...