The National Museum of Slovenia is canceling the exhibition due to alleged forgeries Slovenia
The exhibition in Slovenia, which is supposed to present works by Picasso, Van Gogh and Matisse, was abruptly canceled this week due to fears that some works were forged, which triggered a police investigation on Friday.
The National Museum of Slovenia has planned to officially open an exhibition entitled “Travels” on Wednesday this week, with 160 paintings owned by the little-known Boljkovac family.
But hours before the planned opening, museum director Pavel Car said the exhibition was canceled after several art experts warned that after viewing the exhibition’s catalog, they thought the works were most likely fakes.
“These are obvious fakes … you don’t have to be an art history expert to notice this,” Slovenian art expert Brane Kovič told N1.
The play promised works by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, apparently owned by the Boljkovac family.
Kovič said that it was unlikely that there would be so many masterpieces in a private collection in Slovenia.
The Boljkovac family has not commented yet.
On Friday, the Ljubljana police announced that they had launched an investigation into the event “in cooperation with the competent institutions”.
The emperor insisted he had personally seen the certificates of authenticity of the paintings, but nonetheless resigned on Thursday, admitting he was “naive” about the works.
The museum’s website removed all references to the canceled exhibition on Friday.