History of Forgeries
Embedded Files
Throughout history, the art world has grappled with the tension between authenticity and deception. In ancient Rome, demand for Greek art led to skillful imitations, while Renaissance artists like Michelangelo, as accounted by Vasari, blurred lines by creating convincing fakes. By the 20th century, forgers such as Han van Meegeren exploited collectors’ greed, producing works “in the manner of” famous artists. Detecting forgeries has become increasingly sophisticated, relying on connoisseurship, provenance research, and forensic testing.
Authentication can either cement an artist’s legacy or expose a costly deception. An artist’s signature can help to prove the authenticity of a work of art; hence forgers often try to create convincing fake signatures to deceive the viewer. Throughout history there have been many examples of forged signatures of the ‘greats’ (Titian, Manet, Degas, and Van Gogh to name a few), but the practice itself actually dates much further back, with examples dating back as early as the 1400s. Within our exhibition there are several fakes seized by the Carabinieri TPC that try to directly imitate not only the style of specific artists but also their signature in order to ‘authenticate’ the work itself. This list includes the fraudulent artworks attributed to Renato Natali, Leon Giuseppe Buono, Vincenzo Canino, Pablo Picasso, and Alighiero Boetti among others.
- A. Boetti, Una parola al vento, due parole al vento, tre parole al vento, 100 parole al vento (A word to the wind, two words to the wind, three words to the wind, 100 words to the wind)
Date: 21st century; Forgery of Alighiero Boetti (Italian, Turin 1940–1994 Rome)
Medium: Embroidery
Dimensions: 96 x 26,6 cm (37.7 x 10.4 in.)
Credit Line: Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (TPC)
This textile forgery is a replica of the distinct work of Alighiero Boetti, a prominent artist in Italian postmodernism. Boetti’s embroidered letter grids—vivid, meticulous, and conceptually rich—explore the intersection of order and chance, authorship and delegation, and the poetic fragmentation of language. The original version of this work, created in 1989, is held in the Fondazione Alighiero Boetti, and his art has been widely exhibited in various national and international venues. Boetti’s practice of outsourcing embroidery to artisan workshops—following detailed instructions—blurs the lines between creator and maker, raising questions about authenticity and authorship that forgers can cunningly exploit. The nature of his process invites imitation, making his art particularly vulnerable to convincing copies that can deceive even trained eyes. Subtle inconsistencies in stitching, color palette, and typographic rhythm ultimately betray the illegitimacy of the work itself. Boetti’s status as a widely collected and canonized postmodern artist makes his work a prime target for forgery—not only for potential financial gain, but also because it symbolically taps into the prestige and layered complexity of 20th-century Italian conceptualism.
- R. Natali, Urban Landscape
Date: 21st century; Forgery of Renato Natali (Italian, Livorno 1883–1979 Livorno)
Medium: Tempera on panel
Dimensions: 31.4 x 44.8 cm (12.3 x 17.6 in.)
Credit Line: Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (TPC)
Renato Natali was a Neapolitan painter whose work mainly consisted of oil paintings on wooden panels or canvas, with influences from the Macchiaioli artists, a group of painters active in Tuscany during the second half of the 19th-century and known for works closely resembling French impressionists. This counterfeit painting directly imitates the style of Natali, likely inspired by his works depicting his hometown Livorno and Rome. Specifically, the forgery resembles some of the artist’s paintings portraying evening urban landscapes immortalizing the contemporary city life populated by human figures in motion and horse-drawn carriages. The forger’s signature placed in the right lower corner of the painting shows discrepancies in comparison to Natali's official signature.
- G. Bocchetti, Mountain Landscape
Date: 21st century; Forgery of Gaetano Bocchetti (Italian, Naples 1888–1990 Naples)
Medium: Tempera on canvas
Dimensions: 24 x 29 cm (9.4 x 11.4 in.)
Credit Line: Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (TPC)
Gaetano Bocchetti was one of the most prominent Neapolitan painters of the 20th century, known for his meticulous attention to details, vibrant color palette, and compositional depth. His works frequently emphasize contrast between subject and background, producing a heightened sense of realism. This forgery, based on Bocchetti’s original painting Paesaggio Rurale (“Rural Landscape”) created in 1970s, lacks the chromatic vibrancy and architectural detail of the authentic piece. The absence of his characteristic bright blue skies, replaced here by a flat, gray backdrop, further reveals the inauthenticity of this painting.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse