An apparently anonymous painting purchased by an Italian collector at a flea market in France 15 years ago has been attributed to modernist painter Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), known for his portraits of figures with elongated faces and necks.
The news was published by the Italian newspaper Il Resto del Carlino this Friday (31).
According to the newspaper, the painting is unsigned, but on the back it has the seal of a store that supplied products to artists in Montmartre, the bohemian neighborhood of Paris where Modigliani lived at the beginning of the 20th century.
This detail alerted the painting's owner, the Italian collector and businessman Paolo Guzzini, who resides in Recanati, in the center of the peninsula. Guzzini had bought the work at a flea market in Le Mans, France, and decided to contact the Amedeo Modigliani Foundation Archive in Rome, which confirmed the painting's authorship.
The painting, according to the entity, portrays Mario Cavalieri, a friend the painter met in Venice and who hosted him in his youth.
Thus, the painting may be one of the first works made by Modigliani after arriving in Paris.
Modigliani began his career painting portraits of friends and acquaintances and died in January 1920, aged just 35, from tubercular meningitis. The painting is now part of Guzzini's private collection. (HANDLE)
