The art world’s masters are now morons after a major Dalí exhibit gets busted for showcasing 21 fakes

Italian police just raided a renowned art and culture center in Parma, Italy, and seized 21 pieces from a Salvador Dalí exhibit because they were fakes. That’s right, a major exhibition called “Salvador Dalí, Between Art and Myth” at the historic Palazzo Tarasconi got absolutely busted after the police executed a seizure of tapestries, drawings, and engravings that turned out to be forgeries.

I honestly can’t believe a major cultural hub of fine art, like the Palazzo Tarasconi (built in the 16th century), got completely fooled. The whole thing went down after the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation tipped off the Italian authorities that some of the surrealist artist’s masterpieces being showcased were actually forged. You’d think an exhibition centered around a figure as famous as Dalí would be airtight on authenticity, but apparently not. Art tends to get stolen and vandalized, but forgeries are way too common.

According to Fox, the Italian carabinieri art squad followed through with a judge’s warrant and took 21 pieces that were clearly not the real deal. This is awful for anyone who bought tickets to see what they thought were legitimate works of art, and it just goes to show how much of a problem art forgery is. Experts predict that “over 50% of art circulating on the market” may be forged or misattributed.

Art is fake, we’re all living lies

To be fair, Dalí is among the most forged artists in the world, right alongside Picasso and Amadeo Modigliani. He was an incredibly influential and creative artist; his style was shaped by his Catholic mother and atheist father, which may have made him a bigger target for fakes and burglaries. It sounds like the art world needs to seriously crack down hard on this kind of piracy.

What’s really shocking is that a place known for hosting a “variety of exhibitions” and being a respected “cultural hub” could be showcasing nearly two dozen fake pieces without realizing it. This just makes the whole art authentication process look incredibly fragile.

The investigation is still ongoing, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens next, but you have to wonder about the people who put this exhibition together. Did they know? Were they simply incompetent? It makes you question every piece of art you see in an exhibit.

Dalí’s “indescribable talent and extraordinary creativity has become a universal language of fearlessness, inspiration and relentless self-expression,” according to the Dalí Museum. It’s a real shame that his legacy is being tainted by fraudsters and that a reputable gallery was tricked into showing a bunch of bogus work. Moving forward, hopefully, this sends a strong message that you need to keep receipts and chat logs when you’re acquiring pieces for an exhibit, because clearly, the masters in the art world need to be more careful.