The high demand for original works by the famous painter has created a thriving market for imitations and forgeries.
The curators of an Israeli museum have discovered three previously unknown drawings by the famous 20th century artist, Amedeo Modigliani, which were hidden beneath the surface of one of his paintings.
The unfinished works of Modigliani, an Italian-born artist who worked in Paris before his death in 1920, came to light after X-raying the surface of the painting, which is titled “Nude with Hat” in Hecht Museum of the University of Haifa, as part of a study of his work for an exhibition in Philadelphia.
THE Inna Berkowitzart historian at the Hecht Museum, stated that it is “an amazing discovery. Through X-rays, we are actually able to make this inanimate object speak“, she said.
Modigliani is considered one of the greatest modernist artists of the 20th century. He lived a short, turbulent, bohemian life in France, where his nude paintings proved controversial. His work is characterized by slender, elongated necks and faces, a distinctive style influenced by the African and Cycladic Greek art that had begun to arrive in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
One of his paintings fetched more than $170 million when it was sold at auction in 2015, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold. Another sold in 2018 for $157 million at auction. The high demand for authentic works by Modigliani has created a thriving market for imitations and forgeries.
The last time Italy held a major Modigliani exhibition, a 2017 exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, museum officials closed the exhibition early after experts claimed many of the works on display were fakes, according to the Guardian newspaper. ».
In 2018, X-ray technology revealed a previously unknown portrait of Modigliani under one of his paintings at London’s Tate Gallery. His work “Nude with a hat” of 1908 was already an unusual painting. Both sides of the canvas have portraits that are painted in opposite directions. Visitors entering the halls of the Hecht Museum encounter an upside-down nude portrait. An effigy of Maud Abrantès, a friend of the artist, on the reverse is upside down.
“Nude with Hat” dates to the beginning of Modigliani’s career, shortly after he moved to Paris from Italy, when he was struggling to find buyers for his art. The painting was purchased by the founder of the museum in 1983.
The canvas is now known to contain five of his paintings, probably painted one on top of the other out of necessity to save money for new canvases. X-ray photography and other non-invasive technologies have also found hidden works by other artists such as Degas and Rembrandt.
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