Will There Be a Real Modigliani In The Art Market?

The US scholar Kenneth Wayne is planning a “variation to the traditional catalogue raisonné” on the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Ambrogio Ceroni’s catalogue raisonné, first published in 1958, is considered the benchmark but is often said to contain gaps as his listing of 337 pieces only includes works that he had seen.

Wayne is organising a show of Modigliani’s works at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia scheduled for 2020, the 100th anniversary of the artist’s death. In addition, a major survey opens at Tate Modern (23 November-2 April 2018), as well as an exhibition of early drawings at the Jewish Museum in New York (15 September-4 February 2018). Meanwhile, an international team of scholars and curators aim to clarify Modigliani’s techniques through scientific analysis. Jeanne Bathilde-Lacourt, the curator of Modern art at the Lille Métropole Museum, is assisting the research related to Modigliani’s works in French state museum collections.