The Tamesis
After more than 40 years in the making, the Restrini Institute’s catalog raisonné of Amedeo Modigliani will finally be released next month. Pace will host a book launch at its London gallery on April 21, followed by a one-day workshop on April 30 at Pace’s space at 540 West 25th Street in New York.
To say that the publication of this book is a labor of love for Modigliani scholar and institute founder Marc Restellini would be an understatement. Comprising six volumes and more than 2,000 pages, and featuring 100 newly confirmed works, half of which are now in the collections of major museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the catalog appears poised to redefine the field of authentication, or at least Restrini hopes so.
Related articles
“I hope our approach becomes the standard,” Restrini told art news. “I hope that with this catalog, people will be able to see what is achievable. I hope that after this catalog, people will say, ‘This is really the right way to do it.'”
Restellini’s team combined various scientific analyzes (including spectrometry, carbon-14, infrared and X-ray imaging) with stylistic assessment and extensive literature research to ensure as much authenticity as possible. An explanation of the methodology takes up the entire table of contents.
“Someone can imitate a style or try to imitate a certain type of paint to imitate their work, but no matter how good they are, they will never know the exact chemical composition of every paint used by the real Modigliani,” Restrini said. “Thanks to the scientific analysis we carried out, we now have a large amount of scientific data for about 50% of the catalog corpus. This means that we have information covering every period of the artist’s life – every year, almost every month. Today, when we analyze a work, we can determine not only whether the pigments match the artist’s life cycle, but also whether they match Modigliani’s palette. If we find an unusual pigment, that immediately becomes very problematic.”
According to Restellini, when he started the project in 1985, the use of such methods in a catalog raisonné was unheard of. Now, he said, the pendulum has swung the other way.
“About ten years ago, everyone found scientific analysis very useful. But a lot of people thought it was omnipotent and thought it was the first requirement for identification. That’s not the case. A very skilled forger could use an old canvas with old paint and ultimately scientific analysis would say the material is very old,” he said. “I hope this catalog demonstrates that when you combine scientific analysis, stylistic analysis and documentary evidence – and all three agree – you can significantly reduce the risk of forgery.”
Restellini is not impressed by the new hot trend in identity verification: artificial intelligence. He said he has tested three such systems, all of which verified the authenticity of works he knew were fakes. He added that AI is useful for analyzing and organizing documents, but not for actual authentication.
Restrini’s catalog raisonné – the sixth Modigliani has produced – may also help loosen the artist’s market. Modigliani’s work has long been plagued by numerous forgeries and forgeries, as the artist was known to sell or give away paintings and drawings without records. Additionally, Restrini said the problem is compounded by the lack of family or estate to help preserve the artist’s legacy.
In 2015, Modigliani’s auction record was set at Christie’s in New York. Nusha Sold for $170.4 million to billionaire investor Liu Yiqian, one of China’s leading art collectors. A similar work sold for $157 million at Sotheby’s in New York in 2018. But only seven Modigliani works have been auctioned since then, the latest one fetching more than $10 million. Paulette Jourdain (1917), sold for $34.8 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2023.
“It is important for Modigliani’s legacy that some of the paintings that were rejected or effectively boycotted were recognized as Modigliani’s works when supported by evidence,” he said. “We have no right to say that a painting is not authentic just because it does not appear in one book or another. If we have all the information about a painting and the evidence leads us to conclude that it is authentic, then it should be considered authentic.”
He continued, “We found some incredible masterpieces. But we also identified some not-so-beautiful paintings. Sometimes, with an ugly painting, people deny it is authentic because of how it looks. But, like every artist, Modigliani’s work has its good and its bad.”
The Modigliani symposium in Pest will feature a series of panels on the catalog raisonné, including experts from a variety of fields, including Ekaterina Bembel, president of La Société Internationale des Catalogs Raisonnés; Satoko Tanimoto, senior research scientist at the Center for Scientific Analysis of Fine Arts in New York; Tiffany Bell, editor of Agnes Martin Catalog Raisonné; and David Grosz, editorial director and chief digital officer of Cahiers des Arts. Wait.
