The joke of the heads of Modigliani During the summer of 1984, the centenary of the birth of the artist Amedeo Modigliani (July 12, 1884), the Museum of Modern Art in Livorno Progressive decided to set up an exhibition in tribute to its most famous citizen. The exhibition aims to highlight the short and poorly documented career as a sculptor Modigliani.
The project was entrusted to the care of curator of the museum, Vera Durbar, with the help of his brother Dario, superintendent at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome. To enrich the exhibition, initially a bit 'thin and snubbed by the critics (of the 26 sculptures modiglianesche, there were only four arrived in Livorno), the two decide to explore the use of excavators for Fosso Medici, where in 1909, they say, Modigliani had thrown away, disheartened by the opinion of his fellow citizens and about to leave permanently Paris, some of his sculptures.
The town of Livorno (junta PCI) does not hesitate to fund the research, hoping to feed the puny touring the beautiful Tuscan city. And so, before a meager crowd of onlookers, the bucket of the digger began patrolling the ditch. They spend a few days, but the sculptures there is no trace of Modigliani.
When the whole operation seems to have taken the form of a huge waste of public money, that's the eighth day something amazing and miraculous haul of the city of Livorno, the bucket has found an object. This is a head of granite carved with hard strokes and stretched. They spend a few hours and the bulldozer pulls out of the ditch the other two blocks of stone, which turn out to be as many sculptures, also representing the heads.
Durbar For Vera and his brother there is no doubt: the works belonging to Amedeo Modigliani. From that moment on, the city of Livorno is literally overrun with tourists and media from around the world, with great happiness by the city administration that in that 'company played the face. From America to Japan, curious journalists and art critics are crowded in front of the Museum of Villa Maria, eager to see the extraordinary findings. The great masters of Italian critics, by Argan Ragghianti in passing and Brandi Carli, applauded the company.
Durbar Vera's brother, Dario, published in record time a book entitled "Two Stones trove of Amedeo Modigliani," with photos and comments of eminent experts. From the words of the same Durbar can well understand the infectious enthusiasm that reigns in that period: "A few words to describe an incident and the emotions that would have required the space of an entire book. I have felt close to Modigliani, as if the stone had the power to make physical contact and cancel seventy-five years that separated him from the bitter gesture glory of our discovery. "
The triumphant day is scheduled for Sunday, September 2, in the exhibition, for the presentation of the book that definitely should be devoted to the global significance of the discovery. But as old saying, "not everything that glitters is not necessarily gold." In fact, while at the Museum of Modern Art Progressive Livorno are preparing the celebrations and the final details before the inauguration, Ansa news falls on the firm as a bolt from the blue, three students from Livorno, Peter Luridiana, Pierfrancesco Ferrucci and Michele Guarducci, in an interview with the weekly Panorama, the authors claim to have caught the second head of the ditch. This is a game, say the three young, successful obtained a joke not a poetic and philological correct chisel, but with a simple and prosaic Black & Decker electric drill.
To confirm what we just said, at its output the weekly public some pictures of three students in a garden at the same time in which they carry out the work. To dispel any remaining doubts, counterfeiters are also invited on television during prime time, live to repeat their experiment in front of over ten million viewers tuned.
This does not however detract from the strength of those ( Durbar brothers as well as most critics) who still believe that the works are the fruit of the chisel of the late artist and found that the three students is only one way to get publicity. To substantiate their argument, there are still two other heads discovered that in any way and by their own admission the three boys had been able to carve. The trench behind which is protected at all costs the supporters of the authenticity of the works, collapsed after about ten days, when learns that the idea of flouting the height of the art world was not just jumped in head Luridiana, Ferrucci and Guarducci.
It turns out, in fact, that the other two sculptures are the work of such a Froglia Angelo, twenty-nine, a docker, discreet artist and former member of the terrorist organization of extreme left-wing Revolutionary Action. Unlike the three students who had the company made a joke, almost innocently, Froglia has deeper motivations and complex. "I did not care to make a joke - told reporters the clever forger - the joke of the three students was a crazy variable that has hampered me a lot. My intent was to highlight how a collective process of persuasion through Rai, newspapers, chatting between people, it could affect people's beliefs. I am also an artist, I'm moving in the channels of art, I wanted to stimulate debate on ways of art and I succeeded in full. Mine was a conceptual, if you will in a sense was also a work of art, such as Christo bundling the monuments, but I had no desire to be controversial to the administration, or against the city, or against the art critics as a single .. I just wanted to know how in the world of the effect of the mass media and so-called experts can lead to very big crabs take . In fact, the so-called experts were reduced to silence, unable to react and covered with ridicule.
Worldwide, after betting the eyes of the cameras and the interest on the Tuscan town where he was the miracle of finding a long-awaited and desired, therefore, knew of the hoax of Livorno. The whole story Jupiter, and not just at the famous brand of Black & Decker electric drills, which sets its advertising campaign on the extraordinary potential of its product. As for the rest, the story ended with tears of Vera Durbar and the amused smile of the Italian public. http://www.instoria.it/home/teste_modigliani.htm
