Fake Tiepolo painting seized by Gdf Venice – Veneto
It circulated on the market as “The Apollo with the shield”
(ANSA) – VENICE, JAN 10 – The Guardia di Finanza of Venice has seized “The Apollo with the shield”, a work believed to be counterfeit signed by Giambattista Tiepolo. It is a 50×60 cm “fresco dusting” used as a preparatory work for the creation of a fresco, a pictorial technique for which the artist is considered a master.
Already last summer, the economic-financial police unit of the lagoon Finance had carried out a series of searches, on the orders of the Treviso Public Prosecutor’s Office, linked to the sale of a painting attributed to Giambattista Tiepolo deemed false and therefore subjected a kidnapping. Subsequent police investigations and in-depth technical investigations conducted by the financiers have enabled elements to gather confirmation of the counterfeiting of the “Apollo with the shield”. The painting had been circulating on the art market for over three years, passed several times from hand to hand by antique dealers, gallery owners, restorers, private collections until it was brought to light on the official market through an auction house.
After having carried out the preliminary checks, placing the work on view by art historians studying Tiepolo and the copies of the certifications by the heirs of those who had signed them, it was possible to strengthen the suspicions that it was a forgery both for the framework and for the related certifications of authenticity. At the end of the in-depth analysis, the carbon analyzes dated the work after 1950. (HANDLE).
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