VENICE—The Venice Cultural Heritage Protection Unit has exposed a counterfeit drawing attributed to the renowned Italian Modernist Amedeo Modigliani. The drawing was set to be sold for €300,000 ($320,000).
The artwork Untitled (1913) raised suspicions when submitted to the local export office in Venice in 2022 for a Certificate of Free Circulation, a document necessary for legal export. Despite its high valuation, the company behind the application provided scant details about the piece’s provenance, even when pressed for more information.
Italy’s Ministry of Culture reported that art historians from the Export Commission, alongside experts from the Galleria dell’Accademia in Rome and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, quickly identified significant inconsistencies. They noted that the drawing closely resembled a piece from Modigliani’s “caryatids” series (1912-1914), which has been housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1943. However, the style and technical execution of the submitted drawing were noticeably inferior, prompting further scrutiny.
The drawing was handed over to the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (Carabinieri TPC), a specialized unit combating art and antiquities-related crimes. Under the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Venice, an investigation was launched, leading to the seizure of the artwork. The piece was traced back to an art gallery in Abruzzo, attempting to sell it on behalf of a local individual.
The Laboratory of Forgeries at Roma Tre University conducted an analysis and officially declared the drawing a forgery in January 2023. This revelation prompted the Carabinieri to launch an investigation into potential criminal activities linked to the circulation of counterfeit art. The outcome of this investigation is still pending, adding to the intrigue of the case.
In February 2024, the Court of Venice ordered the permanent confiscation of the drawing, transferring it to the Laboratory of Forgeries in Rome. The Carabinieri TPC in Venice and the Laboratory of Forgeries have not commented on the case.
The Modigliani market has a notorious reputation for being riddled with forgeries. Despite its known omissions, major auction houses exercise extreme caution, typically only accepting works listed in Ambrogio Ceroni’s 1958 catalogue raisonné. Another catalogue raisonné by Christian Parisot has been widely discredited due to questionable entries.
This case follows a 2019 announcement by the Carabinieri regarding an investigation into the alleged display of fake Modigliani works at a museum in Genoa in 2017. This case highlights the ongoing challenges in authenticating the artist’s works.