the man his art On the experts Fakes & Forgeries On the market
from Born to Venice Drawings Past experts Myth and reality on his fakes The market
Arrival to Paris Sculpture Catalogues done in the past Famous forgers trust in the market?
Becoming an artist Painting Actual /Living experts known and undoubted fakes Auctions & Modigliani
on the path All the attributed works Catalogues of actual experts how to detect a fake Galleries & Museums
The artist Exhibitions during his lifetime How should an expertise must be done what to do with forgeries and forgers Famous collectors fromt the past to actual times
The myth Exhibitions until today News on the experts Art Historians, a trustable source? News on the market
Selected bibliography on him News on his art References and Bibliography on the experts references on fakes & forgeries references & links on the market


I am not going to enter in drawings or sculpture I will just mention them by side, this area is almost fully devoted to paintings.

It is even more easy to see his work in perspective if we take the word of Frank Perls, one of the main experts and dealers in Modigliani over the past century:

' Modigliani did not develop his own style until 1915-16. ' He came into his own in 1916' 'Those last four years; that's really all that Modigliani is.'

see external link>

There is a simple way to detect a fake that has nothing to do with mystery, perception, knowledge, third eyes or whatever the experts recall...

It is called SCIECE, or to be more precise:

Pigments, X-ray, and Infrared Images
  1. A pigment analysis can trace a work to the original oil painting tube.

  2. X-ray can reveal how the work was done and the presence of metals.

  3. Infrared unveils the original drawing and how the work was constructed.
A little explanation why:
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................


Pigments in painting are similar to a DNA test

It's not impossible to obtain the same pigments as Modigliani used.

But first you have to know which ones and then try to get your hands on them.

(secretly kept by museums when they have them & only available if you get a painting from the same date & location and start reusing the paint with a new agglutinate that couldn't be traced by a lab...)

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................


X-ray reveal a unique way of working

It's not impossible to copy his way, but you have to know it for sure previously, and then it appears a new component: the presence of titanium white instead of white made with lead.

(actually you can find it, but the fakers from the period from 1920 to 1998 did not even imagine they could be discovered by this simple thing)

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Infrared Images reveal image secrets

It's not impossible to copy his way, if you know it for sure...

He used to do a very clear composition with the same tics and methods in every painting.

He was a classical artist so his composition reveal clearly the truth and as in the lead/X-ray or pigments.

Fakers didn't even known it will be someday possible to see it.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

So then a Lab can do much more than 100 connoisseurs...

1- Myths on his fakes......................... click here>>
2- Famous ones................................. click here>>
3- How to do an expertise.................. click here >>

Home | Contact | Who | Why