ROME – Consumer advocates in Italy are demanding refunds after an expert ruled that almost all the paintings featured in a Genoa art exhibition devoted to Amedeo Modigliani were fakes.
The Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday that the expert, appointed by a Genoa court during a prosecutor’s probe, concluded that at least 20 of 21 paintings displayed during the 2017 Ducal Palace exhibit were clearly forged.
Consumer advocate Furio Truzzi on Wednesday urged ticket-buyers to seek refunds based on fraud.
The palace shuttered the show in July, three days before its scheduled closing, after prosecutors began investigating doubts art experts had expressed about the authenticity of the paintings.
Modigliani died in poverty in 1920, but the elongated necks and faces of his portraits have made him one of the most recognized artists of the early 20th century.
