Michelangelo and the Politics of Mediocrity

A few minutes after blogging about fakes, frauds, and forgeries, this story hot off the press. According to The Independent, Italians are squabbling over a presumed Michelangelo sculpture that may just be…a fake!

At the beginning of the year, the Italian government paid around €3.25m for a 16-inch-high wooden sculpture, Cristo Ritrovato, purchased by an Italian antiques dealer some 20 years ago on the hunch that it might be a youthful work by Michelangelo. The work is now the star attraction in a Naples exhibition devoted to early work by the artist – indeed, it is the exhibition’s poster boy, featuring on publicity for the show as a rediscovered work of genius. And that fact has irritated several academics and specialists who argue that it isn’t a Michelangelo at all, but actually a bit of political spin, intended to improve the government’s image with conservative voters.