Attribution of paternity to a famous artist can dramatically increase its value, from tens of thousands of euros to millions. If it’s done in any “smart” way, a crime is committed. The Genoa prosecutor has been speculating in recent days that something like this could have happened and is investigating 4 people for illegal export and self-washing. The painting in question is “The Risen Christ Appearing to the Mother” by the Flemish painter Rubens, a work that was on display at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa until a few days ago, before it was confiscated by the Carabinieri des Nucleus to protect the cultural heritage. As GenovaToday reports, it is now known that the superintendent of Pisa is also involved in the investigators’ investigations. It was the Pisan institution, we read in the reconstructions, that issued the certificate for the export of the painting.
The series of passages gradually followed by the military begins with the first owners, the heirs of a noble family from Genoa. They had approached an art dealer to sell the painting, who, knowing the true attribution, had then sold it to two of the suspects for €350,000 in 2012. The two merchants had the work restored in 2014, released a second female figure and brought the painting out of Italy, falsely declaring to the Pisa Superintendent’s Export Office that it was a anonymous Flemish author and worth 25,000 euros. After a series of transfers to foreign companies, carried out by an accountant and his son, the painting was loaned out for the Genoa exhibition, according to investigators, “also to certify Rubens’ paternity and increase its value”.
As already mentioned, the Pisa Superintendency Office had issued the certificate for the export of the painting. According to the investigators, coordinated by the prosecutor Eugenia Menichetti and the deputy Paolo D’Ovidio, the reasons why the two identified art dealers had contacted the Pisan office had to be determined. In 2019, the same export office was closed by the Ministry of Heritage due to irregularities in releasing other certifications from other works.