According to Vittorio Sgarbi, there is a breakthrough on the Modigliani declared fakes. But no one knows anything about it

An article signed by Vittorio Sgarbi appeared yesterday in the columns of Il Giornale in which news was reported of a sensational breakthrough in the case of the Modigliani paintings, exhibited at last year’s exhibition held at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, which were declared forgeries following a judicial expertise. The piece reads the following: “Houston federal judge Greg Abbott, upon receiving notitia criminis of the supposed Modigliani forgeries in Genoa from collector and art dealer Joseph Gutmann (confidential news), recused the expert opinions of judged experts without specific expertise such as Maria Stella Margozzi and Isabella Quattrocchi. [...] The judge, noting the meaninglessness of the reference to frames, appointed some real art experts including Nicolas Andrei Serota, former director of Tate Gallery, Glan D. Lowry, Michael Govan and Giovanni Papi, who unanimously considered all the paintings displayed in the exhibition at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa to be authentic and autograph. Discussion with curator Rudy Chiappini and Simone Todorov brought other evidence regarding the provenance of Modigliani’s paintings and, in one case, notification of cultural interest by the Italian state in lists dating back to 1920. That is why the American judge issued a measure to call the Italian judiciary back to principles of fairness, rehabilitating the paintings on which, in Italy, no real expert has ruled. The American measure nullifies, on an international level, the investigation of the Genoa prosecutor’s office.”

Several obscure points turn out, however, in Sgarbi’s article. Meanwhile, there is no Houston judge with the name mentioned by the well-known Ferrara critic: Greg Abbott is, in fact, the governor of Texas. In addition, all the names of the experts who would be called upon to speak are spelled with spelling errors (with the exception of Michael Govan’s): Nicholas Andrew Serota and Glenn D. Lowry, as well as a phantom “John Papi” who could possibly be Gianni Papi (who is a seventeenth-century person anyway). As for the content of the article and the news reported by Sgarbi, according to a report this morning by Repubblica, the Genoa prosecutor’s office stated that “no action has come from the U.S.”

Our editorial staff also contacted some of the individuals mentioned in the article. MoMA New York, directed by Glenn D. Lowry, responded to us stating clearly that they are not aware of any involvement of Director Lowry in the affair. Same response from theArts Council of England, the body chaired by Nicholas Serota: he, too, according to our press office, was not involved. The press office of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, which hosted the exhibition, told us it had no information on the matter. We are waiting to hear back from LACMA in Los Angeles (the museum directed by Michael Govan) and the press office of Skira (the entity that organized the exhibition). Finally, Il Secolo XIX reports that not even the legal pool assisting the owners of the Modigliani suspected of being fakes is aware of this American measure, which at the moment seems to be known only to Sgarbi.

According to Vittorio Sgarbi, there is a breakthrough on the Modigliani declared fakes. But no one knows anything about it

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