"Modigliani" and "Kiesling" brought to clean water
ARTinvestment.RU   11 января 2018

Experts have reached a unanimous verdict on 20 works from the exhibition of Amedeo Modigliani scandal closed in Genoa in the summer of 2017: they are "crude forgeries" — under either the Modigliani or under Kisling

What we wanted to prove. the First who raised the alarm after opening in March 2017 in the Genoa Palazzo Ducale exhibition of Amedeo Modigliani, was a leading expert on the artist Carlo Pepi (Pepi Carlo). Even the photographs, he determined that at least 13 out of 60 of the exhibited works are fakes. But three works in the exhibition it is generally not attributed to Modigliani, and the Moses Kisling. First, the organizers did not believe Carlo Pepi, even threatened him with legal action for his statements caused moral and material damage. But the Italian Prosecutor's office, on the contrary, to the opinion of a respected critic listened and began checking. The exhibition was closed prematurely. A number of questionable activities eventually grew to 21.

the examination of the involved experts on Modigliani, Quattrocchi Isabella (Isabella Quattrocchi) and Mark Restellini (Marc Restellini), and the compiler of the catalogue-резоне Moses Kisling Marc Ottavi (Marc'ottavi).

After months of research, experts have reached a unanimous verdict: only one picture Modigliani — is real, but 20 works — counterfeits, including fake 15 "Modigliani" and 5 "Kiesling". Yes-да, "Kiesling" also turned out to be fake. At least a rough idea of the scale of the fraud allows a list seized by police work. This 8 painting works "under Modigliani": "Red Caryatid/the Couple" (1913), "Portrait of Marakanda" (1915), "Portrait of Chaim Soutine" (1917), "Reclining Nude (Celine Howard)" (1918), "Women's head" (1917), "Redheaded woman" (1915), "portrait of a woman (La Femme aux Macarons)" (1917), "Portrait of Mary" (1918). And 7 works "Modigliani" on paper: the "Head" (1910-1911), "Portrait of Jean Cocteau" (1916), "Kneeling Caryatid" (1913), "Seated Nude" (1913-1914), "the Caryatid" (1914), "Portrait of Moses Kisling" (1916) and "Seated woman" (1916).

it is Known that some of these works (in particular, the "Reclining Nude (Celine Howard)" and "Portrait of Chaim Soutine") have been exhibited in other exhibitions of Modigliani in Italy, France, and Germany. Hit them with this extensive exhibition history and then for auction, probably would have been bought for tens of millions of dollars what-нибудь unsuspecting Chinese fan of Modigliani. Because prices and demand for the artist now the space: the most expensive to date, the work by Modigliani — is "Reclining Nude" sold at auction Christie's for $170,4 million.

At the request of Isabella, Quattrocci, not only the style but also the composition of paint pigments studied in works confirm "falsification". Frame in which the works were exhibited, was made in Eastern Europe and the USA and have no relationship to the historical period in which he lived, Modigliani.

mark Restellini reported that work are the outright forgeries and that he has provided all the necessary evidence to the Italian police. The French expert believes that the world walks at least 1,000 false "Modigliani".Make them began soon after the artist's death, in 1920-х, but a serious academic study of all of works attributed to him starts right now.

Carlo Pepi, who is now 80, believes that the identified group of forgeries were written in 1980-х. "I spent years fighting the fakes of Modigliani. The situation is full of the grotesque: sometimes it seems that he wrote more after his death than during his life. This is just the tip of the iceberg", — says Pepi.

of involvement in the Scam in Genoa suspected three, including the curator of the exhibition Rudy Chappini (Rudy Chiappini) and the Hungarian art-дилера Josef Guttmann (Guttmann Joseph), from the collection of which supposedly occur, 11 of the 20 fakes. The works themselves are in the police, which is trying to establish their possible author.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: ansa.it, telegraph.co.uk, artinvestment.ru