Debunking

La Spezia, extraordinary discovery? No, glaring blunder: the papers on Dante "found"-they are strange!

An extraordinary discovery at theState Archives of La Spezia? So in the past few hours, Sunday, December 8, several newspapers have headlined referring to the alleged discovery of documents concerning Dante Alighieri in the La Spezia archives: it wou...
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This is why the newly discovered Last Judgment can in no way be by Michelangelo

There is no way that the painting that resurfaced yesterday in Geneva, a reduced version of Michelangelo's Last Judgment , can be attributed to him, the author of the large fresco on the back wall of the Sistine Chapel. The work, executed in oil on c...
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Influencers and jibes: how to slaughter the biography of John Anselm

Is it possible to upset, in a few lines, the biography of an artist who has just passed away? If it is often newspapers that write inaccuracies on their pages, influencers also run the same risk: this is the case of Art Nomade Milan, aka Elisabetta R...
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No, no work by Raphael has been discovered: it is a replica from Perugino

For the past few hours, in the main generalist newspapers and even in some specialized ones, news has been relaunched of the alleged "discovery " of a work "by Raphael": a Magdalene, in whose face people wanted to recognize the wife of Perugino (Raph...
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Because it is completely useless to try to identify the landscape of the Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa landscape seekers are back on the attack. There is no painting in the world that, over the years, has changed locations more, as they say. Thus come on an almost annual basis those who believe they have identified, more or less definitively...
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Clarification on the de Brécy tondo that could be by Raphael according to artificial intelligence

A singular piece of news concerning the Tondo de Brécy, an ancient copy of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, has bounced around in Italian and international newspapers in recent days: two British universities, Nottingham University and Bradford Unive...
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Does ICOM support environmentalists' actions in museums? No: here's the thing

DoesICOM, the main body representing museums internationally, really comment positively or support in full the actions of environmentalists who have targeted works of art in museums, with actions in which some members of environmental associations ha...
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The Mona Lisa of Montecitorio just... discovered? It's an arcane work and it's not by Leonardo

Many newspapers today spread the news of an alleged "discovery": a copy of the Mona Lisa unearthed in the storerooms of Montecitorio in Rome (thus headlined Repubblica: "Rome discovers it has La Gioconda, it was hidden in a storeroom in Montecitorio:...
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No, no one has discovered the remains of the Pillars of Hercules in Spain

Have the "remains of the Pillars of Hercules" really been discovered in Spain, as many newspapers, e.g. Repubblica, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Il Secolo d'Italia and others, have headlined in recent hours? Obviously not: all the result of a great confusion...
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But if Leonardo had no children, how does he have "direct descendants"?

Word has spread (again, by the way: this is not a fresh discovery) that Leonardo da Vinci has "14 direct descendants," as some newspapers headline, or "14 descendants in the direct male line," as others point out, still living. What escapes most,...
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Leonardo TV series: did the figure of Catherine of Cremona really exist?

The TV series Leonardo, dedicated to the adventures (it has to be said, because the story is fictional) of Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci, 1452 - Amboise, 1519), played by Irish actor Aidan Turner, has received a reception between lights and shadow...
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Did Caravaggio fight as a soldier in Hungary before going to Rome? Here's what we know

There is a gap of at least four years in the life of Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi; Milan, 1571 - Porto Ercole, 1610): we do not know where he was and what he did between the last months of 1592 (the year to which the last known evidence of his...
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Extraordinary discoveries or ridiculous discoveries? What no one tells you about Pompeii

The discovery in the excavations of Pompeii, in the locality of Civita Giuliana, of the bodies of two ancient Pompeians swept away by the fury of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. has been defined, as usual, as an "extraordinary discovery": this is...
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But is this really Leonardo da Vinci? No: it is a much later imitation drawing

The attribution to Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci, 1452 - Amboise, 1519) of a drawing (in a private collection in Lecco) formulated by an associate of the Unesco Center in Florence (a non-profit organization that carries out cultural and social promotion a...
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