This week the Italian authorities seized 21 suspected forgeries attributed to Salvador Dalí from a major monographic show titled “Dalí, Between Art and Myth” in the northern city of Parma.
The exhibition of 80 drawings, engravings, and tapestries opened at Palazzo Tarasconi on September 27. A court in Rome ordered the seizure after the Carabinieri TPC, Italy’s art crime squad, and experts in Spain agreed that the artworks might not be genuine.
Diego Polio, the commander of the Carabinieri TPC’s Rome branch, told The Guardian that the Italian authorities first suspected the works were forgeries after a routine check in January. “Something seemed amiss,” he said. “We noticed that only lithographs, posters and drawings by Dalí were on display, along with a few statues and other objects, but no paintings or anything of importance. It was difficult to understand why someone would want to organise an exhibition of such low-value works.”
Polio also told Italy’s Radio Bruno: “If the works are indeed proven to be inauthentic, those who set up the exhibition will have to justify why they exhibited inauthentic works and, of course, may be liable for certain crimes of art forgery.”
Stefano Opilio, a public prosecutor involved in the investigation, told The Art Newspaper that the Carabinieri TPC sent an exhibition catalog to the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in the Catalonian town of Figueres in February. The foundation then confirmed that it had not been consulted for the show.
In a report issued in March, the foundation said it was “perplexed” about the works’ provenance. When the foundation’s experts visited the show soon after, they became highly suspicious of the works.
“From the moment the content of this exhibition…became known, the Dalí Foundation expressed its doubts to the Carabinieri regarding three drawings and a series of prints,” the foundation said in a statement to TAN.
However, the Italian art crime squad waited until the works were shown in Parma before raiding the show, according to Opilio. The seized works comprise18 lithographs and three drawings and were reportedly part of a collection loaned by two Italians.
“Dalí, Between Art and Myth” was organized by a Palermo-based firm called Navigare. Rome’s Historical Museum of the Italian Army Infantry previously ran the show from January 25 to July 27. The institution is managed by Italy’s defense ministry.
Italy’s culture ministry is now inspecting the works, which could be permanently confiscated if they are confirmed to be fakes, and the suspects might be prosecuted for forgery or knowingly dealing counterfeits.
“Now it is a matter of understanding whether the works were counterfeited directly by the people who put them into circulation, or whether the people who put them into circulation purchased them from others,” Opilio said.
Palazzo Tarasconi and Navigare did not reply to ARTnews’ request for comment by the time of publication.
