Konstantin Akinsha, a leading manager and art chronicler of Russian and Ukrainian art, claims he thinks The 14 art pieces in the Palazzo Nodis gallery in Cividale del Friuli, a town in north Italy, are thought to be the job of Russian and Ukrainian modernists, yet they are not genuine.
in a current meeting art information Akinsha, that has actually formerly reported on imitations and imitations in the Russian art market for this magazine, claimed the jobs’ provided acknowledgments and provenances “increase significant questions.” In meetings and his Substack messages, Ajinsha kept in mind that the collection’s on the internet brochure checklists Jean Chauvelin as the resource for numerous jobs. Chauvelin, that passed away in January, was a French art supplier that declared to be a specialist on Russian art and was associated with a number of rumors including paints mistakenly credited to Russian musicians. Various other numbers pointed out in the resource consist of Boris Gribanov, a founded guilty Russian art counterfeiter.
Elisabetta Gottardo, social supervisor of the city of Cividale del Friuli, which handles Palazzo Nodis, informed press reporters art information The city’s approval of the operate in the DeMatis collection was “based upon paperwork that consisted of professional recognition of each job, historic records, product and shade evaluation, and visuals technological viewpoints.” Nevertheless, she kept in mind that Ajintha’s “point of view is absolutely reliable and will certainly be totally taken into consideration in our more examination of these jobs.”.

Left: Study in still life by Olga Rozanova (1915-17). Right: Andrei Saratov’s 1999 study in still life.
In the Substack message, Akinsha took specific problem with a study in still life repainted in between 1915-17 by Russian musician Olga Rozanova, which he declared bears “little to no similarity to any one of her real jobs.” He even more kept in mind that the structure and design of the job were “practically the same” to a 1999 paint by modern Russian musician Andrei Saratov. Akinsha creates that Saratov is not likely to be the musician behind the supposed Rozanova, yet “the modern Russian painter’s neo-modernist design was purposely manipulated by counterfeiters that saw it as a practical theme for built jobs that might be worked off as Russian Cubofuturism to please Western assumptions.”

He sent out images of Saratov’s job dangling in the kitchen area art information
Saratov informed art information In the WhatsApp message, he did not repaint the operate in the De Matisse collection. “No, certainly I really did not attract it,” he created. “This is a low-grade duplicate [of my work]”. He after that sent out an image of the 1999 study in still life that Ajinsha priced quote, claiming that the job “still awaits my kitchen area.”
” On the one hand, I more than happy concerning this advancement, due to the fact that just greats are vulnerable to imitations, yet on the various other hand, the gallery might have acquired my initial job,” he joked.
art information Maria Timina, manager of Russian and European art at the Mead Gallery of Art at Amherst University, was additionally asked to review the supposed Rozanova. Timina likewise discovered the job “bothersome.”
” Taken overall, the paint is implausible and mirrors just a surface understanding of Rozanova’s creative outcome from around 1912-13,” she claimed
Timina took place to state that De Matisse’s paint “totally misses out on the significance of Rozanova’s design” and makes “an uncomfortable effort” with a number of study in still lives that Rozanova created in 1912 and 1913. However in truth, it just shares the style and “an apparently cube-futuristic method to paint.”
Timina claimed that Rozanova’s “forms do not fluctuate for no factor, like the paints in the De Matisse collection.” She included that each item in the paint “is detailed with harsh, hefty dark lines, which develops a sensation of strength, unlike Rozanova’s method.” She additionally kept in mind that Rozanova seldom authorized her paints and never ever created her complete last name, as shows up in De Matisse’s job. She typically authorized her initials just “OP”
Akinsha took a better check out an additional operate in the De Matisse collection on Substack, a paint credited to the Russian painter Marie Vassilieff entitled picture of a male (c. 1918). “It births little similarity to her job of the duration,” he created.
” Stylistic evaluation is mostly unimportant in this instance: the paint is even more of a pastiche, straight ‘motivated by’ Picture of Sandro Fazzini “The writer is Sigismund Olesievich, a musician from Odessa,” he created. He released both paints alongside, and the resemblance stood out.
Oresiyevich’s job is co-owned by Ukrainian art enthusiast Andrei Adamovsky. when asked art information When inquired about his ideas on the feasible duplicating of the paint, he reacted: “What can I state besides it’s a real criminal offense.”

left: Picture of Sandro Fazzini (1918) Sigismund Olesevich. Personal collection. Correct: picture of a male (1918) Credited To Marie Vasiliev. De Matisse Collection.
An additional operate in the gallery is an untitled paint by Russian musician Natalia Goncharova from 1913, which is explained in the on the internet brochure as a primary research study for Goncharova’s comparable paint “Electric Light” (1913 ), currently in the collection of the Facility Pompidou in Paris.
James Butterwick, a London-based supplier in Russian and Ukrainian innovation that was additionally cynical of the job, informed ARTnews that Goncharova was not recognized for duplicating her job.
” A Russian art chronicler called Irina Vakar, that curated an exhibit of Goncharova at the Tate, when claimed: ‘Goncharova practically never ever duplicates an item,'” he claimed. “So, why in God’s name would certainly she duplicate a light bulb? She’s an extremely initial musician with an impressive breadth and deepness of imagination. Why would certainly she all of a sudden begin duplicating?”
Cividale del Friuli is simply over 10 miles from the city of Udine at the foot of the Italian Alps. The city had no significant collections or establishments devoted to modern-day art up until business owner De Martiis, that passed away in 2024, contributed his collection to the city. Palazzo de Nordis was rented to Cividale del Friuli by the Italian federal government in 2014. The repair of this 15th-century structure was finished in 2020 and it was ushered in as a gallery real estate the De Martiis collection.
” I intend to contribute my collection to the Cividale del Friuli due to the fact that I have actually functioned below for 40 years and it is below, in a feeling, that I collected the sources to develop my collection,” De Matisse was priced quote as claiming on the royal residence site. “I have actually never ever had an actual art expert, yet I typically most likely to galleries and galleries and attempt to comprehend for myself what I see … All my options are simply based upon my preference and the enjoyment I really feel in checking out the job.”
Ajinsha, that just recently curated a significant exhibit of Ukrainian innovation at the Royal Academy in London, informed us art information: “Regretfully, De Matisse’s preferences were not maintained by expertise or enough to browse the treacherous waters of the Russian modernist market polluted by phonies.”



