Le Monde has a story unravelling some of the mystery behind Genoa’s Ducal Palace exhibition of works by Modigliani and Moises Kisling that was closed three days early by the Caribinieri responding to the dogged objections of Carlo Pepi.
It turns out the show was cheap for Genoa to put on. That should have raised questions of who stood to benefit because it turns out one of the fake works (being shown alongside borrowed works that are authentic) was on offer from a dealer for $28m but the price has since been raised to $32m.
Three people are now being investigated in Italy: curator Rudy Chiappini, Massimo Vitta Zelman, president of Mondo Mostre Skira, organizer of the exhibition, and art dealer Joseph Guttmann, owner of several works.
Justification that Marc Restellini has difficulty taking seriously. From judicial sources, it is assumed that the exhibition cost the museum only 150,000 euros. According to the French expert, “an exhibition Modigliani, it costs a fortune: given the value of the paintings, only insurance, it necessarily mobilizes millions. This price is not possible, they should have suspected that there was a problem, that it was someone else who paid “.
