Fake Modigliani, here we go again.

The second hearing of a trial that began in 2017 took place recently, accusing 6 people of passing off fake Modigliani paintings as real ones.

The accusation of forgery, fraud and counterfeiting involves the president and some collaborators of Skira , an art book publishing house that also organizes exhibitions and manages many event and museum bookshops, and the owner of the works.

The paintings were seized and the Genoa exhibition, therefore, closed early.

It's not the first time for Modi

Modigliani's name is not new to sensational events of this type. In 1984 three students from Livorno created Modigliani-style sculptures as a prank.

With the sole exception of the critic Federico Zeri and the scholar Carlo Pepi, the entire artistic elite from Pietro Cascella to the famous historian Giulio Carlo Argan gambled and lost face, stating that without a shadow of a doubt the sculptures were authentic.

They were denied on live TV by the same boys who wrote the joke.

Half a billion euros

In this case the story is not a joke, but has enormous economic implications. The hypothesis is that by exhibiting these works in a major exhibition, the authenticity of the paintings is endorsed so as to obtain valuations of millions and millions of euros.

The captain of the RIS Livia Lombardi , an expert in the sector, states that in the paintings there is "titanium white" in a chemical composition that was not present in Modigliani's time.

Titanium white, a type of very opaque white, was patented in 1898 when Modigliani was in business, but after the war different chemical elements were added to the mixture which would leave no doubt: these works are fake because they were painted after 1945.

For the defense of the accused and for the art historian Maria Letizia Paoletti, however, the works are authentic.

We'll see how the process ends.

Certainly the well-known phrase "...but I can do this too" in the case of Modigliani's works has a basis of proven truth.

Andrea Giuseppe Fadini

Go to the Pitteikon prints dedicated to Modigliani