ROME // A flea market dealer finds a painting near a rubbish bin in a Rome underground station and it turns out to be a modern masterpiece by Modigliani. Too good to be true? Absolutely not, says the Amedeo Modigliani Institute.” I assure you, this isn’t a fake,” insists the institute’s president, Luciano Renzi. “We are dealing with a discovery.”
Modigliani scholar Kenneth Wayne begs to differ. “If a work just appears in 1990 or 2016 without any history whatsoever, no exhibitions, no programmes, that’s a major cause of concern. It’s a red flag.”
Add the fact that the finder has not come forward publicly and that the Amedeo Modigliani Institute has been tarnished by a scandal involving a past president who was accused of knowingly authenticating fakes, and that Modigliani is one of the most forged artists around and there would seem to be ample need for caution.
Nevertheless, the institute — which doubles as a public relations firm and is in sore need of good publicity following the forgery scandal — is putting the painting on show next week at an arts festival in Spoleto.
The painting, a signed portrait of Odette, was apparently found in June 2006 by a flea market dealer who spotted it propped up against a rubbish bin at the la Rustica metro stop on the outskirts of Rome. Rats had gnawed some holes in it. This information comes courtesy of Gennaro Arbia, a lawyer representing the market trader. He sent a photograph of the painting to the Paris office of Christian Parisot, co-founder of the Amedeo Modigliani Institute, hoping to get it certified as genuine. Parisot had founded the institute with Renzi after Modigliani’s only daughter bequeathed him the artist’s documentary archive.
In response to Arbia’s inquiry, Parisot’s office said there were no elements to suggesting the painting was authentic and declined to analyse it further.
However, Parisot’s reputation was damaged by his 2012 arrest on charges of knowingly authenticating forgeries. The flea market trader persisted and ten years later after the discovery lab analyses were sent to the Modigliani Insititute in Rome and another lab in Spoleto for more detailed analysis. The results purportedly show the painting dates back to the first two decades of the 20th century, when Modigliani was alive and show no trace of titanium white, a pigment invented in 1924 and a sure-fire sign of forgery as the artist died in 1920.
The wood frame, canvas, colours and surface dirt are also consistent with his era, according to academic Alberto D’Atanasio, of the art academy in Brescia. “We don’t know anything about this painting, nevertheless nothing, nothing makes me think it is fake,” he said. Mr D’Atanasio is not a Modigliani expert, however.
Amedeo Modigliani died in 1920 in Paris at the age of 35 of tubercular meningitis after a short but intense career that produced 337 known nudes and sculptures, many featuring the distinctive lithe necks of his muses. The timing of “Odette’s” appearance is certainly suspect:
In November, Modigliani’s Nu Couche (Reclining Nude) fetched $170 million (Dh624m) at a Christie’s auction in New York, the second highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction. Modigliani is about to become the artist of the moment with a host of exhibitions planned in museums around the world in the run-up to 2020, the centenary of his death. Odette lacks provenance. The art world abounds with Modigliani fakes, most famously the 1984 “discovery of three sculpted heads There is no paper trail of past owners or other documentation and the art world abounds with Modigliani fakes, most famously the 1984 “discovery” by three men of three sculpted heads which Modigliani had supposedly tossed into the canal in Livorno, his hometown. In fact, the threesome had carved the heads themselves using power drills.
Even the lab used by the Modigliani Institute refuses to comment on Odette’s authenticity. Luana Casagia, a restorer at the Cooperative Beni Culturali in Spoleto said, “The paint suggests an ageing — years have passed — but to bring it back to 100 years, we can’t do anything like that.” Kenneth Wayne, who is head of the Modigkiani Project in New York but has not viewed the painting, says the absence of titanium oxide is not a fail-safe test. Instead, a forger could simply have used old paint.
Mr Arbia admits the flea market trader wants to sell the painting but finding a buyer willing to part with big money for an artwork with no provenance will not be easy. And if Odette turns out to be yet another forgery? He pauses before answering. “The dream is over.”
* Associated Press
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Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
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Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium (Malacca, Malayisa)
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia scheduled for October 10
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Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
