80 years on, Guernica still resonates

MADRID - Close to 80 years ago, Picasso painted Guernica in a Paris attic, a haunting work of art that has become a universal howl against the ravages of war, from 1937 Spain to 2017 Syria.

The canvas mixes stark images of agonizing humans and animals to depict the horror of the bombing of the small Basque town of Guernica on April 26, 1937 during Spain's civil war.

Luis Ortiz Alfau, a 100-year-old Spaniard, was there that day "to pick up the dead and the injured", he said.