Of all the notorious forgers in art history, perhaps the most interesting relationship between forger and victim comes from the tale of Icilio Federico Joni and legendary connoisseur Bernard Berenson. Joni did the impossible, ultimately tricking Berenson with one of his forgeries, a game he would play repeatedly. Although Joni was originally interested in putting his mastery of painting and aging works to use for financial gain, he was eventually satisfied with the mere idea of fooling Berenson.

Joni was a painter from Siena specializing in forging 13th-15th century Sienese School works, first apprenticing as a gilder and restoring antique frames. His specific skillset made it easy to produce reproductions and stylistic copies where interested buyers could not afford originals, and eventually he realised by aging the paintings they could be integrated in fine art and antique markets. With a lack of authentication technology and pure audacity, Joni and his ring of Sienese forgers evaded suspicion well into the 1950s. It was only then that x-ray analysis of the works that clued art historian Kenneth Clark into the dubious truth. A British Collector acquired what was supposed to be a Botticelli, entitled Madonna of the Veil, only to find out it was the work of one of Joni’s pupils, Umberto Giunti. 

Noah Charney’s The Art of Forgery speaks to Joni’s interest in playing jokes and exhibiting his talents at the same time, with Joni publishing a memoir in 1932 detailing each of his great successes in duping notorious collectors, dealers, and experts. Apparently, in the aftermath, local collectors, for fear of destroying their own reputations, tried to pay Joni to refrain from publishing. In Le Memoire di un Pittore di Quadri Antichi, he proudly recounts Berenson’s purchase of one of his Sienese school forgeries, who later tracks down Joni out of curiosity and fascination rather than anger. Berenson felt he had to meet the artist who managed to fool him, and their relationship took off from there. Joni would set up his works in the appropriate locations, waiting for Berenson to be called to examine the masterpiece. Joni would listen in, hoping he had successfully deceived his friend once again. Charney cites his ‘vibrant but rather crass sense of humour’ as a reason for his favored signature P.A.I.C.A.P., also known as ‘per andare in culo al prossimo.’ 

Although forgers are often seen as the greatest danger to the sanctity of art collecting, connoisseurs and dealers like Berenson pose threats in their own way. Berenson has faced suspicion of attributing higher value artists to works he sourced from Italy during his career, entering into a secret partnership with dealer Joseph Duveen in 1906, detailed in Artful Partners. Author and journalist Colin Simpson spent fifteen years investigating their business relations as the first writer who had complete access to the Duveen archives. Simpson suggests the contents of their dealings will prompt art historians to revisit some opinions they held on what are considered some of the world’s greatest masterpieces.

At the Cincinnati Art Museum, a Botticelli panel depicting Judith’s return after slaying Holofernes is on display, after passing through the Duveen Brothers in 1923. According to Duveen archival evidence, the small panel depicting “Judith and Holophernes” was considered by Bernard Berenson to be the work of a pupil in Botticelli’s workshop, not the master himself. The Cincinnati Art Museum maintains the work is by Botticelli, which they likely would have never questioned if such an assertion came from expert connoisseur Berenson himself. 

from the desk of Madison Kelley

Bibliography

Charney, Noah. 2015. The Art of Forgery : The Minds, Motives and Methods of Master Forgers. London: Phaidon Press Ltd.

“Cincinnati Art Museum: Explore the Collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum: Judith with the Head of Holofernes.” n.d. Cincinnati Art Museum. Accessed August 17, 2022. https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=22938448.

Simpson, Colin. 1988. The Artful Partners : The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. London: Unwin Hyman.

‌“The Madonna of the Veil | Close Examination | National Gallery, London.” n.d. Www.nationalgallery.org.uk. Accessed August 17, 2022. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/research-resources/research-papers/close-examination/madonna-of-the-veil.