October 10, 2023 • 24 mins
Sculptor Alceo Dossena was an impactful figure in the art world of the early 20th century because he created forged masterpieces capable of fooling even the most expert of experts. Critics attributed his pieces to famous classical and Renaissance artists, and his works were sold through dealers and purchased by museums and collectors. But in an unexpected turn of events, the forger sued the dealers who sold his work.
Executive Producers: Maria Trimarchi and Holly Frey
Producer & Editor: Casby Bias
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Alcho Desenna was an impactful figure in the art world
of the early nineteen hundreds because he created forged masterpieces
capable of fooling even the most expert of experts. Critics
attributed his works to artists including Simone Martini and Donatello,
among other famous artists in history, and his sculptures were
(00:35):
sold through dealers and purchased by museums and collectors. But
in an unexpected turn of events, the forger sued his
dealers Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Maria Tramurky.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I'm Holly Frye. From childhood, according to a biography
written by his son, Alceo had a passion for art,
and he learned to paint and sculpt initially as a
self taught artist. He entered the trade school Istituto Professonal
ala Ponzone Cimino at the age of twelve, only to
(01:08):
be expelled a year later. Though the reason is vague
and depends on what version of his life story you
happened to read. A school report states that he had
quote all the characteristics of an enfan Terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's after his expulsion when he began an apprenticeship in
the Milan workshop of Alessandro Monte, where he restored art
and fixed marble and wooden fittings and churches throughout northern Italy.
Alceo never became a master restorer, though, and saw the
work he did as a way to support his wife
and son and to pay for materials to sculpt in
(01:45):
his free time. He didn't start out as a forger.
It's believed he became one when facing dire financial circumstances
during the First World War. Experts believe his first forgery
of an ancient work dates to nineteen sixteen, when he
produced a Madonna and Child. By most accounts, this is
also the time when al Chao met a man named
(02:06):
Alberto Fasoli.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
The two men met in nineteen sixteen, It said, while
al Chao, a soldier, was on leave for Christmas, he
was carrying with him a small bas relief that Madonna
and Child, which he had sculpted in terra cotta and
patinaed in Okay in an army urinol. Yes, let's get
(02:30):
this out of the way. One of Alceo's early methods
of aging a piece was to place it in urine.
He felt that this gave a credible antique look to
his sculptures. That technique became way more advanced over the years,
and experts today still marvel at his method for aging marble. Alchao,
(02:51):
though always declined to reveal his exact formula anyway. There
are a few versions of how al Chao met Fassoli.
Here is just one. The common one. Alcho stopped for
a drink while in Rome, and seeking a little cash,
he offered his artwork to the proprietor. The proprietor called
(03:12):
for Alberto Fassoli, a neighbor who was a wealthy jeweler
and art dealer. Fassoli, it said, thought that Alceo surely
must have stolen the statue from a church, regardless of
what he imagined its providence was. He bought it for
a hundred lira. Eventually, though upon closer inspection, he realized
(03:32):
that the work he'd purchased was not ancient, although he'd
believed it was when he bought it. Instead of having
Alchao arrested, he proposed a partnership he would arrange along
with his colleague Alfredo Pelezzi to set up a studio
for Alceo and the two men would sell his art.
Alceo took the deal and settled into life in Rome
(03:55):
in nineteen eighteen, and there he spent ten years as
a successful forger of classical and Renaissance art.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsor, and when we return, we'll talk about one
of Jasena's most famous forgeries.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how and why
Alceo decided to sue his partners.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Alcho had plenty of work between nineteen eighteen and nineteen
twenty eight, primarily interpretations of marble works from the ancient
world through the Italian Renaissance. If requested, he was also
able to create imitation Etruscan and Greek sculptures. Scholar Frederica
Gosteldello wrote that Alceo was quote an artist capable of
(04:56):
a high profile production, not necessarily anchored in the activity
of forgery, supported by a linguistic variety and a divulgative
intent still to be studied with due attention.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Fasoli and Pelessi together decided what might be marketable and
or profitable through their network of middlemen, some of whom
were crooked and some of whom were just gullible, and
they made suggestions to al Jao about what subjects and
models might sell best. He didn't choose what he made,
but he had a monthly salary. Fasoli and Pelesi marketed
(05:33):
his works as genuine, for which Alchao received commissions. It's
in this time of his life when Alchao became a
truly masterful forger, and it's when he became known in
Italian art circles as the maker of Renaissance fakes.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Helen Clay Frick, daughter of steel magnet Henry Clay Frick,
was a wealthy American collector and the found of the
Frick Collection. In nineteen twenty four, she purchased a piece
called the Annunciation, attributed to one of the greatest medieval artists,
Simone Martini, a Cienese master of the early fourteenth century.
(06:13):
Martini was famous for an Annunciation piece housed in the
Eufitzi Gallery, and Frick wanted a Martini piece in her
family's museum too. The work depicted a pair of life
size marble statues that represented an announcing angel, Gabriel and
an announcing Virgin the Madonna. Not only are they carved
(06:34):
in the style of Martini, they were created to appear
as if they had once been mounted on a Renaissance church.
The attribution seemed correct, at least, it was corroborated by
the initials SM located on the base of the angel
sculpture and the date thirteen sixteen inscribed on the madonna sculpture.
Collector and art historian Frederick Mason Perkins vouched for the attribution.
(06:59):
The piece was described by Frick's European agents as quote
absolutely wonderful and unbelievably rare.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The annunciation had come to Frick's attention through an art
dealer named Elia Volpi, and in addition to Perkins, two scholars,
Charles Lesser and Jacquema de Nicola, had also evaluated the
work as a genuine simone Martini. While we've seen a
few different figures, experts estimate that Helen Frick paid roughly
(07:28):
two million in today's dollars for it. In March of
nineteen twenty four, the fake Martini arrived in New York,
and soon after Frick's new acquisition began to crack. Scholars
historians and collectors began to express doubts about the provenance
and attribution of the piece, and the heat got so
(07:50):
intense that Frick called for additional opinions on the work.
German art historian and museum curator Wilhelm von Bode noted
that it was problematic that there were was an absence
of information about any such sculpture by Simone Martini, but
he also noted in a letter to Volpi that quote
the anatomy the folds the expression everything is Simone's art.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Both Volpi and Perkins brushed off any suspicions as hearsay,
but that wasn't enough to convince Frick, who in nineteen
twenty five had the statues examined by a commission of experts.
In the fall of that year, she got their response.
The Martini in question was determined a forgery. It was
(08:35):
the lack of credibility of the way the date had
been affixed and the quote general effect elicited by the
two statues that were determining factors. By November of nineteen
twenty eight, it was determined the two statues were actually
attributed to an Italian artist named Alceo Dossenna.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Fasoli and Pelessi had a career of defrauding collectors and
had begun to defraud museums such as the Frick Collection.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, for instance, purchased
a funerary monument of a fifteenth century noble woman named
Maria Katarina Savelli, which the pair had passed off as
an original work by Mino da Fizzole. The list of
(09:18):
known institutions and people tricked by their scam also included
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the
museums of Cleveland and Detroit, Berlin's Kaiser Friedrich Museum, and
art dealers George Joseph DeMott and the Derlocker Brothers. In
a nineteen thirty one interview with The New York Times,
(09:39):
Frick trustee J. Horace Harding said of Alchao quote, Desenna
deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest sculptors
the world has known. In my opinion, his sculptures, which
have found their way into American collections are treasures that
are cheap at any price.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Alcho wasn't the type the forger who directly imitated works
of art. Of his work. He has said, quote, I
invented in the manner of the great masters, but I
always invented. Alcho had a simple explanation for the art
and the forgeries he created, stating quote, even as a
boy in the industrial art school at Cremona, I grew
(10:21):
to be perfectly familiar with the various styles of the past.
I could not assimilate them in any other way. As
their deal stated, Alcho crafted forgeries and fasoli well. He
was busy using his connections to sell Alcho's works for
a small fortune, but it turned out he was only
(10:41):
giving a sliver of the profits to his forger. For instance,
one of Alcho's works sold as a Donatello for an
estimated five figures. Another his Athena piece, fetched his partner's
six figures, of which Alcho's profit share was only about
five percent. He estimated that over a period of eight
years his art had been sold as original antiquities to
(11:03):
museums and collectors for well over an equivalent of a
million US dollars, which is more than thirty times when
he was paid.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
And on that bombshell, we're going to take a break
for a word from our sponsor when we're back, we'll
talk about Alchao's decision to sue his partners.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the lawsuit and
the trial. The forger versus the shady art dealers.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The consensus among experts in the art community is that
Alceo probably could have just kept forging away making a
living creating Madonna sculptures in the fourteenth century Tuscan schools
dial but roughly ten years into their deal in nineteen
twenty eight, Alceo filed a complaint before a magistrate and
(12:08):
faced Fazzoli and Plesi in court for damages. His claim
was that he was getting shorted in the profits between
him and his business partners. He had discovered a history
of financial deceit. His most recent piece, for instance, Fazzoli
and Plesi, sold for nearly four million lira, of which
(12:28):
he was personally paid only about twenty thousand. To the court,
he claimed he had no idea what the dealers had
been doing with his works, to whom they'd been sold
and for how much, and that he was not involved
in selling the art. The case was challenged by art
collectors and connoisseurs, mainly because they didn't want to admit
(12:49):
that Alchao's works were fakes and that they had been duped.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
In court, al Cho needed to prove the masterful works
were his forgeries, and that they were sold as genuine
without his knowledge and consent by Fasoli and Palaisi. According
to Alchao's statements, Fasoli allegedly told him that a Renaissance
style church was being built in the United States and
it needed to be appropriately decorated with sculptures similar to
(13:17):
those made in the fifteenth century. True or not, it
was his story. He argued he had done nothing illegal,
as he'd only created art in the styles of the
masters and had not created replications of any specific works.
It was Fasoli, he said, who was the dealer who'd
sold them under false pretenses. It might be hard to
(13:39):
guess which way a court will side, right with a
forger or with the dealer who sold the forgeries. Alcho
was never charged with a crime. We found just one
account of the trial that suggested Fasolei countersuit, but even
in that version, since they were not created with the
intention to deceive, and none of de Senna's work was
(14:01):
the style of any one specific Renaissance sculptor. The court
cleared Alcho of any wrongdoing. Most accounts suggest he was
awarded damages, but that he never actually received any money
from Fasoli. In the press and in public opinion, al
Cho was believed to have been a victim of Fasoli
and Polaisi.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
As a consequence of the trial, some things had changed
in Alchao's work. Two big things. He could now claim
his work as his own and sign it, and he
could also receive commissions, both public commissions and those for
private collectors. Shortly after his positive outcome in the trial,
(14:42):
he was quoted in newspapers saying that his sculptures quote
really deserved to be prized as highly as those of
Donatello Verrocchio, Vaccieta or Dafiezola. An interesting thing about al Chao, Nope,
not his modesty is that he never pret attended his
work was a counterfeit of the masters. Instead, he imagined
(15:06):
that he was there peer.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Between nineteen twenty nine and nineteen thirty one, Alcho saw
his work exhibited under his own name in Paris, Berlin,
and Vienna. His work was shown at the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London, as well removed from the support
of his dealers. Critics were quick to point out that
his work seemed to have deteriorated. Oscar Beee, German archaeologist,
(15:31):
art historian and professor, wrote about Alcho's exhibit at the
Berlin Hall of Art in nineteen thirty stating, quote, the
faker Dosenna is finished, but the artist Dosenna does not appear.
An entire room was briefly devoted to displaying his antiquities
at the Met too, but was also critically unsuccessful.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
On March ninth, nineteen thirty three, national art Galleries organized
to public auction in the ballroom of New York's Plaza Hotel.
An essay penned by the editor of Art News, Alfred Frankfurter,
paid tribute to the quote quality of sincerity in Dosenna,
the almost incredible ability of the man to have worked
(16:15):
without affectation and without malevolence in the spirit of the
dead past and its masters. Frankforter believed that it was
that that made Alchao's work quote as valuable to the
collector and museum for artistic achievement as for scientific documentation.
The thirty nine pieces at the Plaza sold in total
(16:36):
for only nine thousand dollars, with the highest price paid
six hundred and seventy five dollars for a marble relief
of the Madonna and Child in the style of Da Fiezola.
A few years later, in nineteen thirty seven, critic Adolph
Donath was also dismissive of Alceo's art in his book
How Forgers Work, when he wrote, quote Docenna's were leaves
(17:00):
us unmoved.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Alcho once said of himself quote I was born in
our time, but with the spirit, taste and perception of
times gone by. He died on October eleventh, nineteen thirty seven,
from a stroke at the age of fifty five. To
view his work today in person, the two sculptures of Annunciation,
purchased by Helen Frick, are on permanent display in the
(17:25):
Frick Fine Arts Building at the University of Pittsburgh. Some
museums and collectors have since disposed of his works, but
there are many others still in existence, though a lot
of them are hidden.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
The idea that he truly believed he was on the
level of old masters. He clearly was that good as
an artist, but I don't know. There's a thing I
feel like his story and how once he was able
to be himself as an artist and it didn't go
that well. Actually says more about our perceptions of the
importance of time in relation to history and art.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It is interesting that some of the people we have
encountered so far this season are on trial once, twice,
multiple times, and others are just not. It's just fine,
it's fine.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
He didn't he he was it doing it. It's fine.
Would you like a bogus bevy with absolutely? Would?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
What do you have for us today?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I think you're gonna like this one? Okay. So I
was thinking about drinks that are associated with the time
period of his life and when he was forging, and
one of them that came to mind, and one that
several of my friends really love, is a side car. Oh,
(18:42):
a side car, you know, a yummy Conac and Quantroe situation,
And so I thought it would be fun to do
something that looked like that. And also, listen, I'm not
gonna lie. I fixated on the urine.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Hey, if it stands out, it stands out.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm calling this one aging technique. It's dark like a sidecars.
It doesn't look like if someone's urine looks like this,
go see a doctor immediately. You're deeply dehydrated and possibly
have something else going on. But this one is very
much of Maria drink. It is an ounce and a
half of bourbon or whiskey, your choice, drinker's choice on this.
(19:23):
You can even do a rye. It's going to be different.
But I did bourbon, a half ounce of amoretto. This
is together a drink that some people make anyway. But
then I also added a quarter ounce of benedictine.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Hey, that was unexpected, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Benedictine is a spirit that is made by Benedictine monks.
It's one of those. It's been made by this with
the same recipe for like several hundred years, as like
twenty seven different herbal notes in it. It's very complex,
and I kind of was thinking of associating this with
this idea of making a thing seem more complex or older,
(20:04):
or that it had a history in an easy way.
So it's easy to just PLoP quarter rounds of benedictine
into your drink and suddenly it has like a much
fuller body in it tastes like something different, and there
are a million notes in it, all of a sudden
that really play pretty interestingly with your bourbon. Especially, It's
like the sweetness of the amaretto gives it a nice grounding,
(20:24):
and then the Benedictine kind of lets all of those
weird notes play out. So it's gonna be very different
depending on what your bourbon or whiskey of choices. This
is all that's in this drink, So it is a
heavy hitter, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, you're gonna shake all this, You're gonna put it
into a pre chilled like a mini coop. Is great,
and then you are ready to sip. Obviously, this is
the kind of thing you have one of in anything,
maybe too if it's a long night of chatting with friends.
But don't drink a lot of these, because you know
that thing happens when you're drinking a very spirit forward drink,
where like initially you're like, whoa this so strong? I
(21:00):
can't drink very much of this, and then like about
six SIPs in, you're like, I want another of these,
and then you get into trouble. So don't do that.
Be careful, drink responsibly. But that is called aging technique.
If you drink too many, it might age you prematurely.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Might age is the terra cotta.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You never know at might age it would age terra cotta.
I'm pretty sure this is his secret secrets being never shared.
If you would like to make the mocktail version, this
gets rather tricky in a hurry because this is all alcohol.
So here's what we're gonna do. We are gonna do
an ounce and a half of a very strongly brewed
(21:37):
black tea. We're gonna do a half ounce of an
orja or other almond liqueur. And then here is what
I want you to do. You have to make your
own simple, but also you're gonna add here's what I
made mine with and it came out very interesting. But
(21:58):
this is another to your tear situation. I added RB
de Provence, which is a French blend of herbs. Some
people find it to be a bit bitter and it
does have some bite to it. You use it in
cooking all the time, so you can find it at
the grocery store. Add a little bit of that. I
also added just like a kiss of nutmeg and a
(22:20):
little bit of cardamom to give it just a little
more smoothness. And so I let all of that simmer
in my simple for a minute. I say a minute,
it was like five to ten minutes, and then I
turned it off, let it cool, and I strained it out.
This made a very interesting syrup that I now want
to play with in all the cocktails.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I personally love urb revance. So when you brought it
up and you were making you're a syrup out of it,
I'm like, what else could I do? It? That serrum?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Everything I can do. If you're someone like Maria that
loves herb d provence, just three quarters of an ounce
to an ounce of that with club soda or sparkling
water is a really refreshing, a little bit bitter at time,
but can be very refreshing if that is a flavor
you love. Great little drink on its own. That is
(23:08):
the aging technique. It looks like a sidecar, does not
taste like one at.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
All, and luckily it does not taste like when you'll stop.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
To the best of our knowledge, it does not taste
like peat. Please don't drink things you shouldn't drink. Don't
drink too much of things that you maybe even should drink.
Everybody be careful what you drink. Just take care of
you and drink water even though we all don't.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
You know, we all hate it.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
People love it. I know people ever trying to make
myself love it. We're trying. We will be right back
here again next week to tell you another story and
talk about another cocktail, and we can't wait to do
it with you. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio
(24:11):
in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Alcho Desenna was an impactful figure in the art world
of the early nineteen hundreds because he created forged masterpieces
capable of fooling even the most expert of experts. Critics
attributed his works to artists including Simone Martini and Donatello,
among other famous artists in history, and his sculptures were
(00:35):
sold through dealers and purchased by museums and collectors. But
in an unexpected turn of events, the forger sued his
dealers Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Maria Tramurky.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I'm Holly Frye. From childhood, according to a biography
written by his son, Alceo had a passion for art,
and he learned to paint and sculpt initially as a
self taught artist. He entered the trade school Istituto Professonal
ala Ponzone Cimino at the age of twelve, only to
(01:08):
be expelled a year later. Though the reason is vague
and depends on what version of his life story you
happened to read. A school report states that he had
quote all the characteristics of an enfan Terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's after his expulsion when he began an apprenticeship in
the Milan workshop of Alessandro Monte, where he restored art
and fixed marble and wooden fittings and churches throughout northern Italy.
Alceo never became a master restorer, though, and saw the
work he did as a way to support his wife
and son and to pay for materials to sculpt in
(01:45):
his free time. He didn't start out as a forger.
It's believed he became one when facing dire financial circumstances
during the First World War. Experts believe his first forgery
of an ancient work dates to nineteen sixteen, when he
produced a Madonna and Child. By most accounts, this is
also the time when al Chao met a man named
(02:06):
Alberto Fasoli.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
The two men met in nineteen sixteen, It said, while
al Chao, a soldier, was on leave for Christmas, he
was carrying with him a small bas relief that Madonna
and Child, which he had sculpted in terra cotta and
patinaed in Okay in an army urinol. Yes, let's get
(02:30):
this out of the way. One of Alceo's early methods
of aging a piece was to place it in urine.
He felt that this gave a credible antique look to
his sculptures. That technique became way more advanced over the years,
and experts today still marvel at his method for aging marble. Alchao,
(02:51):
though always declined to reveal his exact formula anyway. There
are a few versions of how al Chao met Fassoli.
Here is just one. The common one. Alcho stopped for
a drink while in Rome, and seeking a little cash,
he offered his artwork to the proprietor. The proprietor called
(03:12):
for Alberto Fassoli, a neighbor who was a wealthy jeweler
and art dealer. Fassoli, it said, thought that Alceo surely
must have stolen the statue from a church, regardless of
what he imagined its providence was. He bought it for
a hundred lira. Eventually, though upon closer inspection, he realized
(03:32):
that the work he'd purchased was not ancient, although he'd
believed it was when he bought it. Instead of having
Alchao arrested, he proposed a partnership he would arrange along
with his colleague Alfredo Pelezzi to set up a studio
for Alceo and the two men would sell his art.
Alceo took the deal and settled into life in Rome
(03:55):
in nineteen eighteen, and there he spent ten years as
a successful forger of classical and Renaissance art.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsor, and when we return, we'll talk about one
of Jasena's most famous forgeries.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how and why
Alceo decided to sue his partners.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Alcho had plenty of work between nineteen eighteen and nineteen
twenty eight, primarily interpretations of marble works from the ancient
world through the Italian Renaissance. If requested, he was also
able to create imitation Etruscan and Greek sculptures. Scholar Frederica
Gosteldello wrote that Alceo was quote an artist capable of
(04:56):
a high profile production, not necessarily anchored in the activity
of forgery, supported by a linguistic variety and a divulgative
intent still to be studied with due attention.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Fasoli and Pelessi together decided what might be marketable and
or profitable through their network of middlemen, some of whom
were crooked and some of whom were just gullible, and
they made suggestions to al Jao about what subjects and
models might sell best. He didn't choose what he made,
but he had a monthly salary. Fasoli and Pelesi marketed
(05:33):
his works as genuine, for which Alchao received commissions. It's
in this time of his life when Alchao became a
truly masterful forger, and it's when he became known in
Italian art circles as the maker of Renaissance fakes.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Helen Clay Frick, daughter of steel magnet Henry Clay Frick,
was a wealthy American collector and the found of the
Frick Collection. In nineteen twenty four, she purchased a piece
called the Annunciation, attributed to one of the greatest medieval artists,
Simone Martini, a Cienese master of the early fourteenth century.
(06:13):
Martini was famous for an Annunciation piece housed in the
Eufitzi Gallery, and Frick wanted a Martini piece in her
family's museum too. The work depicted a pair of life
size marble statues that represented an announcing angel, Gabriel and
an announcing Virgin the Madonna. Not only are they carved
(06:34):
in the style of Martini, they were created to appear
as if they had once been mounted on a Renaissance church.
The attribution seemed correct, at least, it was corroborated by
the initials SM located on the base of the angel
sculpture and the date thirteen sixteen inscribed on the madonna sculpture.
Collector and art historian Frederick Mason Perkins vouched for the attribution.
(06:59):
The piece was described by Frick's European agents as quote
absolutely wonderful and unbelievably rare.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The annunciation had come to Frick's attention through an art
dealer named Elia Volpi, and in addition to Perkins, two scholars,
Charles Lesser and Jacquema de Nicola, had also evaluated the
work as a genuine simone Martini. While we've seen a
few different figures, experts estimate that Helen Frick paid roughly
(07:28):
two million in today's dollars for it. In March of
nineteen twenty four, the fake Martini arrived in New York,
and soon after Frick's new acquisition began to crack. Scholars
historians and collectors began to express doubts about the provenance
and attribution of the piece, and the heat got so
(07:50):
intense that Frick called for additional opinions on the work.
German art historian and museum curator Wilhelm von Bode noted
that it was problematic that there were was an absence
of information about any such sculpture by Simone Martini, but
he also noted in a letter to Volpi that quote
the anatomy the folds the expression everything is Simone's art.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Both Volpi and Perkins brushed off any suspicions as hearsay,
but that wasn't enough to convince Frick, who in nineteen
twenty five had the statues examined by a commission of experts.
In the fall of that year, she got their response.
The Martini in question was determined a forgery. It was
(08:35):
the lack of credibility of the way the date had
been affixed and the quote general effect elicited by the
two statues that were determining factors. By November of nineteen
twenty eight, it was determined the two statues were actually
attributed to an Italian artist named Alceo Dossenna.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Fasoli and Pelessi had a career of defrauding collectors and
had begun to defraud museums such as the Frick Collection.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, for instance, purchased
a funerary monument of a fifteenth century noble woman named
Maria Katarina Savelli, which the pair had passed off as
an original work by Mino da Fizzole. The list of
(09:18):
known institutions and people tricked by their scam also included
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the
museums of Cleveland and Detroit, Berlin's Kaiser Friedrich Museum, and
art dealers George Joseph DeMott and the Derlocker Brothers. In
a nineteen thirty one interview with The New York Times,
(09:39):
Frick trustee J. Horace Harding said of Alchao quote, Desenna
deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest sculptors
the world has known. In my opinion, his sculptures, which
have found their way into American collections are treasures that
are cheap at any price.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Alcho wasn't the type the forger who directly imitated works
of art. Of his work. He has said, quote, I
invented in the manner of the great masters, but I
always invented. Alcho had a simple explanation for the art
and the forgeries he created, stating quote, even as a
boy in the industrial art school at Cremona, I grew
(10:21):
to be perfectly familiar with the various styles of the past.
I could not assimilate them in any other way. As
their deal stated, Alcho crafted forgeries and fasoli well. He
was busy using his connections to sell Alcho's works for
a small fortune, but it turned out he was only
(10:41):
giving a sliver of the profits to his forger. For instance,
one of Alcho's works sold as a Donatello for an
estimated five figures. Another his Athena piece, fetched his partner's
six figures, of which Alcho's profit share was only about
five percent. He estimated that over a period of eight
years his art had been sold as original antiquities to
(11:03):
museums and collectors for well over an equivalent of a
million US dollars, which is more than thirty times when
he was paid.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
And on that bombshell, we're going to take a break
for a word from our sponsor when we're back, we'll
talk about Alchao's decision to sue his partners.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the lawsuit and
the trial. The forger versus the shady art dealers.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The consensus among experts in the art community is that
Alceo probably could have just kept forging away making a
living creating Madonna sculptures in the fourteenth century Tuscan schools
dial but roughly ten years into their deal in nineteen
twenty eight, Alceo filed a complaint before a magistrate and
(12:08):
faced Fazzoli and Plesi in court for damages. His claim
was that he was getting shorted in the profits between
him and his business partners. He had discovered a history
of financial deceit. His most recent piece, for instance, Fazzoli
and Plesi, sold for nearly four million lira, of which
(12:28):
he was personally paid only about twenty thousand. To the court,
he claimed he had no idea what the dealers had
been doing with his works, to whom they'd been sold
and for how much, and that he was not involved
in selling the art. The case was challenged by art
collectors and connoisseurs, mainly because they didn't want to admit
(12:49):
that Alchao's works were fakes and that they had been duped.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
In court, al Cho needed to prove the masterful works
were his forgeries, and that they were sold as genuine
without his knowledge and consent by Fasoli and Palaisi. According
to Alchao's statements, Fasoli allegedly told him that a Renaissance
style church was being built in the United States and
it needed to be appropriately decorated with sculptures similar to
(13:17):
those made in the fifteenth century. True or not, it
was his story. He argued he had done nothing illegal,
as he'd only created art in the styles of the
masters and had not created replications of any specific works.
It was Fasoli, he said, who was the dealer who'd
sold them under false pretenses. It might be hard to
(13:39):
guess which way a court will side, right with a
forger or with the dealer who sold the forgeries. Alcho
was never charged with a crime. We found just one
account of the trial that suggested Fasolei countersuit, but even
in that version, since they were not created with the
intention to deceive, and none of de Senna's work was
(14:01):
the style of any one specific Renaissance sculptor. The court
cleared Alcho of any wrongdoing. Most accounts suggest he was
awarded damages, but that he never actually received any money
from Fasoli. In the press and in public opinion, al
Cho was believed to have been a victim of Fasoli
and Polaisi.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
As a consequence of the trial, some things had changed
in Alchao's work. Two big things. He could now claim
his work as his own and sign it, and he
could also receive commissions, both public commissions and those for
private collectors. Shortly after his positive outcome in the trial,
(14:42):
he was quoted in newspapers saying that his sculptures quote
really deserved to be prized as highly as those of
Donatello Verrocchio, Vaccieta or Dafiezola. An interesting thing about al Chao, Nope,
not his modesty is that he never pret attended his
work was a counterfeit of the masters. Instead, he imagined
(15:06):
that he was there peer.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Between nineteen twenty nine and nineteen thirty one, Alcho saw
his work exhibited under his own name in Paris, Berlin,
and Vienna. His work was shown at the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London, as well removed from the support
of his dealers. Critics were quick to point out that
his work seemed to have deteriorated. Oscar Beee, German archaeologist,
(15:31):
art historian and professor, wrote about Alcho's exhibit at the
Berlin Hall of Art in nineteen thirty stating, quote, the
faker Dosenna is finished, but the artist Dosenna does not appear.
An entire room was briefly devoted to displaying his antiquities
at the Met too, but was also critically unsuccessful.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
On March ninth, nineteen thirty three, national art Galleries organized
to public auction in the ballroom of New York's Plaza Hotel.
An essay penned by the editor of Art News, Alfred Frankfurter,
paid tribute to the quote quality of sincerity in Dosenna,
the almost incredible ability of the man to have worked
(16:15):
without affectation and without malevolence in the spirit of the
dead past and its masters. Frankforter believed that it was
that that made Alchao's work quote as valuable to the
collector and museum for artistic achievement as for scientific documentation.
The thirty nine pieces at the Plaza sold in total
(16:36):
for only nine thousand dollars, with the highest price paid
six hundred and seventy five dollars for a marble relief
of the Madonna and Child in the style of Da Fiezola.
A few years later, in nineteen thirty seven, critic Adolph
Donath was also dismissive of Alceo's art in his book
How Forgers Work, when he wrote, quote Docenna's were leaves
(17:00):
us unmoved.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Alcho once said of himself quote I was born in
our time, but with the spirit, taste and perception of
times gone by. He died on October eleventh, nineteen thirty seven,
from a stroke at the age of fifty five. To
view his work today in person, the two sculptures of Annunciation,
purchased by Helen Frick, are on permanent display in the
(17:25):
Frick Fine Arts Building at the University of Pittsburgh. Some
museums and collectors have since disposed of his works, but
there are many others still in existence, though a lot
of them are hidden.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
The idea that he truly believed he was on the
level of old masters. He clearly was that good as
an artist, but I don't know. There's a thing I
feel like his story and how once he was able
to be himself as an artist and it didn't go
that well. Actually says more about our perceptions of the
importance of time in relation to history and art.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It is interesting that some of the people we have
encountered so far this season are on trial once, twice,
multiple times, and others are just not. It's just fine,
it's fine.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
He didn't he he was it doing it. It's fine.
Would you like a bogus bevy with absolutely? Would?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
What do you have for us today?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I think you're gonna like this one? Okay. So I
was thinking about drinks that are associated with the time
period of his life and when he was forging, and
one of them that came to mind, and one that
several of my friends really love, is a side car. Oh,
(18:42):
a side car, you know, a yummy Conac and Quantroe situation,
And so I thought it would be fun to do
something that looked like that. And also, listen, I'm not
gonna lie. I fixated on the urine.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Hey, if it stands out, it stands out.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm calling this one aging technique. It's dark like a sidecars.
It doesn't look like if someone's urine looks like this,
go see a doctor immediately. You're deeply dehydrated and possibly
have something else going on. But this one is very
much of Maria drink. It is an ounce and a
half of bourbon or whiskey, your choice, drinker's choice on this.
(19:23):
You can even do a rye. It's going to be different.
But I did bourbon, a half ounce of amoretto. This
is together a drink that some people make anyway. But
then I also added a quarter ounce of benedictine.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Hey, that was unexpected, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Benedictine is a spirit that is made by Benedictine monks.
It's one of those. It's been made by this with
the same recipe for like several hundred years, as like
twenty seven different herbal notes in it. It's very complex,
and I kind of was thinking of associating this with
this idea of making a thing seem more complex or older,
(20:04):
or that it had a history in an easy way.
So it's easy to just PLoP quarter rounds of benedictine
into your drink and suddenly it has like a much
fuller body in it tastes like something different, and there
are a million notes in it, all of a sudden
that really play pretty interestingly with your bourbon. Especially, It's
like the sweetness of the amaretto gives it a nice grounding,
(20:24):
and then the Benedictine kind of lets all of those
weird notes play out. So it's gonna be very different
depending on what your bourbon or whiskey of choices. This
is all that's in this drink, So it is a
heavy hitter, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, you're gonna shake all this, You're gonna put it
into a pre chilled like a mini coop. Is great,
and then you are ready to sip. Obviously, this is
the kind of thing you have one of in anything,
maybe too if it's a long night of chatting with friends.
But don't drink a lot of these, because you know
that thing happens when you're drinking a very spirit forward drink,
where like initially you're like, whoa this so strong? I
(21:00):
can't drink very much of this, and then like about
six SIPs in, you're like, I want another of these,
and then you get into trouble. So don't do that.
Be careful, drink responsibly. But that is called aging technique.
If you drink too many, it might age you prematurely.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Might age is the terra cotta.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You never know at might age it would age terra cotta.
I'm pretty sure this is his secret secrets being never shared.
If you would like to make the mocktail version, this
gets rather tricky in a hurry because this is all alcohol.
So here's what we're gonna do. We are gonna do
an ounce and a half of a very strongly brewed
(21:37):
black tea. We're gonna do a half ounce of an
orja or other almond liqueur. And then here is what
I want you to do. You have to make your
own simple, but also you're gonna add here's what I
made mine with and it came out very interesting. But
(21:58):
this is another to your tear situation. I added RB
de Provence, which is a French blend of herbs. Some
people find it to be a bit bitter and it
does have some bite to it. You use it in
cooking all the time, so you can find it at
the grocery store. Add a little bit of that. I
also added just like a kiss of nutmeg and a
(22:20):
little bit of cardamom to give it just a little
more smoothness. And so I let all of that simmer
in my simple for a minute. I say a minute,
it was like five to ten minutes, and then I
turned it off, let it cool, and I strained it out.
This made a very interesting syrup that I now want
to play with in all the cocktails.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I personally love urb revance. So when you brought it
up and you were making you're a syrup out of it,
I'm like, what else could I do? It? That serrum?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Everything I can do. If you're someone like Maria that
loves herb d provence, just three quarters of an ounce
to an ounce of that with club soda or sparkling
water is a really refreshing, a little bit bitter at time,
but can be very refreshing if that is a flavor
you love. Great little drink on its own. That is
(23:08):
the aging technique. It looks like a sidecar, does not
taste like one at.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
All, and luckily it does not taste like when you'll stop.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
To the best of our knowledge, it does not taste
like peat. Please don't drink things you shouldn't drink. Don't
drink too much of things that you maybe even should drink.
Everybody be careful what you drink. Just take care of
you and drink water even though we all don't.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
You know, we all hate it.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
People love it. I know people ever trying to make
myself love it. We're trying. We will be right back
here again next week to tell you another story and
talk about another cocktail, and we can't wait to do
it with you. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio
(24:11):
in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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Maria Trimarchi
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