Monday, 6 June 2011

Breaking Story on Gianfranco Becchina

The June 2011 number of the Art Newspaper is now available. It contains a significant piece ("The masterpiece sold for $1,500 and a suckling pig") by Italian investigative journalist Fabio Isman. The article discusses the detail in the Becchina archive especially the documentary evidence. It will make uncomfortable reading not least for one UK museum. One of the collectors discussed in detail by Isman is George Ortiz whose collection was displayed at London's Royal Academy.

North American museums also get some attention, not least the Toledo Museum of Art. The Louvre receives its section entitled "uncaring about provenance". Other New York galleries feature in the discussion as well as the role of Eli Borowski.

The Becchina Archive is known to have been used to identify material in a number of North American collections. Isman's report is likely to initiate another round of claims.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

David,

How sad is this: Two German "archaeologists" just published this:

Ulf Jäger and Sascha Kansteiner,
Ancient Metalworks from the Black Sea to China in the Borowski Collection: http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/books/detail/-/art/Ulf-J%E4ger-Sascha-Kansteiner-Ancient-Metalworks-from-the-Black-Sea-to-China-in-the-Borowski-Collection/buchnum/147814983

I just ordered the book. It is tragic that the authors seem not to have understood anything.

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