Italy’s Art Crime Squad Seizes 21 Suspected Fakes Attributed to Salvador Dalí from Show in Parma.

Specialist Italian police seized 21 suspected forgeries attributed to Salvador Dalí from a major monographic show titled “Dalí, Between Art and Myth” in the northern city of Parma. The works were among 80 drawings, tapestries and engravings displayed in the exhibition Dalí, which opened at Palazzo Tarasconi on 27 September. A Rome court ordered the seizure after Italy’s art squad, the Carabinieri TPC, and Dalí experts in Spain concluded that the works may be fakes. If the works are found to be fakes, exhibition organisers may face criminal charges.

The exhibition of 80 drawings, engravings, and tapestries opened at Palazzo Tarasconi on September 27. A court in Rome ordered the seizure after the Carabinieri TPC, Italy’s art crime squad, and experts in Spain agreed that the artworks might not be genuine.

Organised by the Palermo-headquartered Navigare company, Dalí, Between Art and Myth previously ran at Rome’s Historical Museum of the Italian Army Infantry—which is managed by the country’s ministry of defence—from 25 January to 27 July.

The show, entitled Dalí, Between Art and Myth, had only been open for a few days at Palazzo Tarasconi before police confiscated the allegedly forged works, including drawings, tapestries and engravings.

Doubts over their authenticity emerged in January when officers from the Rome unit of the Carabinieri art squad carried out a routine check of the exhibition when it was hosted at the Museo Storico della Fanteria.

In a report issued in March, the Dali Foundation said it was “perplexed” about the works’ provenance. When the foundation’s experts visited the show soon after, they became highly suspicious of the works. “From the moment the content of this exhibition…became known, the Dalí Foundation expressed its doubts to the Carabinieri regarding three drawings and a series of prints,” the foundation said in a statement to TAN.

However, the Italian art crime squad waited until the works were shown in Parma before raiding the show, according to Opilio. The seized works comprise18 lithographs and three drawings and were reportedly part of a collection loaned by two Italians.

If the works are indeed proven to be inauthentic, those who set up the exhibition will have to justify why they exhibited inauthentic works and, may be liable for certain crimes of art forgery.