Home » From Modigliani’s heads to that Michelangelo forger: here are the most famous hoaxes of art

From Modigliani’s heads to that Michelangelo forger: here are the most famous hoaxes of art

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From Modigliani’s heads to that Michelangelo forger: here are the most famous hoaxes of art

Summer 1984, three sculptures are found in a canal in Livorno. The experts and art critics Giulio Carlo Argan and Cesare Brandi agree in attributing the sculptures to Amedeo Modigliani.

The greatest hoax of art, the joke of Modigliani’s false heads, is the story of three young Tuscans who with much courage (and much more recklessness), decided to challenge the art critics. And precisely in the year of the centenary of the death of the Livorno sculptor and painter. An incredible joke of cosmic resonance.

Even the art world, therefore, is not immune to pranks, and it is worth remembering it today, April 1st, with authors who indulged in jokes and even quite ironic games, despite the fact that they later went down in history for being artists among the most important and influential of all time (apart from Modiglani’s student admirers)

One of the oldest “bischerate” dates back to the Renaissance and was created by a certain Michelangelo who, at a young age, created a “sleeping Cupid” passing it off as an archaeological find. This work goes hand in hand with Giorgione’s Self-Portrait which is actually the work of Antonio Canova.

Michelangelo, the forger
One of the most famous scams in the history of art was concocted by none other than Michelangelo Buonarroti. In his early twenties, the Renaissance genius created a sleeping Cupid which, through various expedients, gave the impression of being a work dating back to antiquity. To make it appear older, Michelangelo buried the work, an operation that gave the sculpture an “archaeological” patina and aura. The Cupid was thus placed on the Roman antiquities market, and also had a buyer: the Cardinal of San Giorgio Raffaele Riario. Realizing the scam, the cardinal asked for reimbursement from the merchant with whom he had closed the deal, however not asking Michelangelo for any reimbursement due to the illusion that he had managed to create with his mastery. Riario even commissioned a work from the sculptor, the statue of a Bacchus, which however did not please the cardinal and was then acquired by Jacopo Gallo.

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Giorgione’s self-portrait (made by Canova)
Around the end of the eighteenth century Canova created a painting that went down in history as the Self-Portrait of Giorgione. During a reception at his home, which was attended by artists and art historians, Rezzonico took out the painting, presenting it as a self-portrait by Giorgione which had remained unpublished up to that moment. The skill with which Canova created the work and the presence of period frames deceived those present, and the deception continued until a few years ago when the piece arrived at the Tefaf fair. There we realized that it was a Canova: not bad in any case.

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