EXTRACT:

The Modigliani Institut (Archives legales Amedeo Modigliani), located in Paris-Rome......... Claims that the recently auctioned work at Bonhams, London is a fake.

EXTRACT:

The news that the billionaire New York art dealers David Nahmad and his son Helly were being sued for the return of a 1918 work by Modigliani allegedly looted by the Nazis made it to the British and American tabloid press in November.

Now, in a legal twist, lawyers acting on behalf of the Nahmad family say that the case is unfounded because the Manhattan-based Helly Nahmad Gallery does not own the work.

In court papers, the Nahmads’ legal team says instead that an organisation called the International Art Center (IAC) possesses the piece and that “Helly Nahmad Gallery never owned the painting [which] is not in New York State… the plaintiff has sued the wrong defendant.” But lawyers for Philippe Maestracci, who is claiming Modigliani’s Seated Man with a Cane, contend that the “International Art Center is an offshore entity used by the Nahmad defendants as an instrumentality to hold their interests in works, around 90% of which are held in an art storage facility at the free port of Geneva.

” They add that the art centre’s holdings are estimated at between $3bn and $4bn.

Jeune fille aux cheveux noirs

circa 1918-1919

Oil on canvas

65 x 49.4 cm

Bonhams / London 7-Feb-2012 Sale 19954 -Lot 10 -
Estimate: US$ 1,100,000 - 1,600,000
This work will be included in the forthcoming Modigliani Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint being prepared by Monsieur Marc Restellini under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.

Sold for 1,311,871. USD inclusive Buyer's Premium Real auction price (no buyer's premium): 1,112,749 USD

This means it didn't not even got estimated high price (only one bid), a similar work (in size) in Ceroni gets minimum 5 millions.

bABUINO CASA D'ASTE, ROMA, FEBRUARY 21-22-23

Ritratto di Albertina Olfer, 1904
Olio su tavoletta, cm. 19 x 24
Firmato e situato Venezia, al retro

Il dipinto riporta al retro una etichetta con la seguente iscrizione:
'Eseguito a Venezia nel 1904, autenticato dal pittore Gino Romiti in quell'epoca compagno di lavoro di Modigliani, pubblicato su giornali e riviste fra cui l'autorevole 'XIX Sieclè' di Gualtiero di San Lazzaro'

PROVENIENZA
Collezione Carlo Cardazzo, Milano
Galleria del Naviglio, Milano (timbro al retro)
Collezione privata, Roma

PUBBLICAZIONI: Nello Ponente e Palma Bucarelli a cura di, Modigliani. Ed. Editalia 1959, pag. 37, fig. 3

ESPOSIZIONI: Amedeo Modigliani, Kunsthalle Berna, 1955, n. 0779 (etichetta al retro), Amedeo Modigliani. Palazzo Reale, Milano, dicembre 1958, cat. mostra, a cura di F. Russoli, fig. n. 2 (etichetta al retro), A, Modigliani, Soprintendenza alla Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Milano 1959

CONDIZIONI DEL DIPINTO: Lieve scheggiatura della tavoletta all'angolo in alto a sinistra. Accumuli di grasso sulla superficie pittorica. Il dipinto è in buono stato di conservazione.

Autentica su foto Archives Legales A. Modigliani, Paris - Rome

L'opera è notificata dalla Soprintendenza alla Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Roma

ESTIMATED: € 150000-200000 (UNKNOWN RESULT)

 

EXTRACT:

The allegations come from a Russian collector that considered buying the picture in 2006 for $3m, but first made scientific testing at the Swiss Institute for Art Research.

“the evaluation from the swiss institute indicated that some of the pigments used in this painting were synthetic, produced after 1940” (modi died in 1920...)
Says he is “revolted” to see the work hanging in the Pushkin as a genuine Modigliani.
Christian Parisot, the president of the Modigliani Institute in Rome, denies all of the allegations...

EXTRACT:


A Modigliani or Modigliani look-alike that also graced the walls of her home is not appearing in a Christie's sale because it has not been authenticated.

Marc Porter, chairman of Christie's Americas, will not go so far as to call the painting a fake.

The field of Modigliani attributions is hotly contested, he says, while a new catalogue raisonné is in the work.

But selling Taylor's painting is clearly a risk that Christie's wasn't willing to take.

EXTRACT:

Officials traced an unexpected link between Hadzic and the more savory world of fine art.
The mystery behind the Modigliani work -- and how it came to feature in the arrest of one of the world’s most wanted men -- is now the primary focus of a team of Serbian investigators and a number of international art experts....
According to a Reuters report from September 2007, “Portrait of a Man” had been unknown to the art world before it surfaced in the Balkan country.
The report said the painting was owned by an unnamed Serbian collector and quotes Christian Parisot, the president of the Modigliani Institute, as saying that after a 17-year verification process, the painting had been deemed authentic.
The portrait could have been stolen but not reported to the Art Loss Register,
it could have been in the possession of its undetermined,
but rightful owner all along, or it could be a fake.
Even after Goran Hadzic’s modern art mystery is solved, there may be more in store.