Why the long faces? Because this Modigliani exhibition was full of ‘garbage’ fakes

Art lovers are being urged to seek refunds after an expert appointed by an Italian court concluded that at least 20 out of 21 ‘Modigliani’ paintings in a recent show were forgeries

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A woman touches up the fame of the painting “Portrait of Chaim Soutine”, attributed in the exhibit to Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, on March 15, 2017, at a show in the Ducal Palace in Genoa, Italy. But a court-appointed expert has concluded that nearly all of the paintings in the show were fakes. Photo: AP

Published: 1:06pm, 11 Jan 2018Updated: 1:06pm, 11 Jan 2018

Consumer advocates in Italy demanded refunds for ticket holders Wednesday after an expert concluded that almost all the paintings in a Genoa exhibition devoted to Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani were fakes.

The expert, appointed by a Genoa court as part of a prosecutor’s probe, determined that at least 20 of the 21 paintings displayed during the 2017 Ducal Palace exhibit were clearly forged, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The palace shuttered the show in July, three days before the scheduled end of its four-month run, after prosecutors began investigating the doubts art experts had expressed over the authenticity of the paintings being attributed to Modigliani.

In this photo taken on June 5, 2017, Rudy Chiappini, art critic and curator of a Modigliani exhibition poses at the Ducal Palace in Genoa, Italy. Consumer advocates in Italy are demanding refunds after an expert ruled that almost all the paintings featured in the show were fakes. Photo: AP

The palace, which had outsourced the show to private organisers, is itself seeking damages for the embarrassment caused by the episode.

Consumer advocate Furio Truzzi urged exhibition-goers Wednesday to seek refunds based on fraud. His organisation set up a hotline for people who bought tickets or travelled to Genoa to see the show.

Noted Italian art collector Carlo Pepi, who was among the critics who questioned the provenance of the works displayed in Genoa, described the paintings as “garbage” in an interview on Italian state TV’s RaiNews24.

Modigliani, the early 20th century artist whose elegant style as a painter and sculptor was distinguished by elongated necks and faces, died in poverty in Paris in 1920.