Hemingway's Picasso

Chapter One: Into the Mine

Steve Kough was a lot of things: an ex-NFL player, model, drug smuggler, art aficionado, Miami’s heart-throb, and a father. His unfiltered and brazen thirst for excitement mixed with a family history of crime was a cocktail for a wild life. On a cocaine drug run to Cuba in 1989, Steve winds up with a Picasso ceramic tile that once belonged to Ernest Hemingway. The piece is apparently meant to go to Pablo Escobar in lieu of cash, but due to political complications in Cuba, Steve gets to keep the piece.



Steve’s son, Stevie now holds the treasured piece that represents all the incarnations of his father. The question is, do we believe the story?



This is a Somethin' Else production in association with Vespucci. 
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Steve Kough lived many lives. He was an NFL journeyman, a male model, and one of the most well-connected smugglers in 1980’s Miami, the “Drug Capital of the World." 

Kough collected many souvenirs from his adventures, but his most treasured bounty – a beautiful ceramic, crafted by Pablo Picasso and gifted to Ernest Hemingway at the author’s Cuban home, the Finca Vigia... or so the story goes. 
Lost during the Cuban Revolution, the artwork resurfaced when Kough took it as a payment for drug run financed by the notorious Pablo Escobar. 

Kough passed away in 2018, passing the piece down to his son, Stevie, a skateboarding hippie growing weed in California. 
Stevie feels he needs to complete his father’s mission – of selling this piece and telling Steve’s cinematic life story.  

So, is the Picasso authentic—or a fraud? Was Steve Kough a big talker or a real deal smuggler? Does any of that matter or is this a story of aspiration, legacy, and difficult love? Tune in on Monday’s starting on October 18th to find out! 

This is a Somethin' Else production in association with Vespucci.