The Art Newspaper reported that Marc Restellini released his long-awaited catalogue raisonné of Amedeo Modigliani’s oil paintings on April 14 2026 through the Institut Restellini with distribution by Yale University Press. The six-volume set adds 100 newly authenticated works to the Italian artist’s recognised output with half of those paintings already held in museum collections. It removes 15 pieces that earlier catalogues had included due to a lack of definitive evidence tying them solely to Modigliani or because researchers could not locate them for technical examination. The publication which runs to more than 1,750 pages with 1,200 colour illustrations establishes fresh provenance details for each entry and compiles the largest body of scientific data yet assembled on the artist.
Restellini first undertook the project in 1997 at the invitation of the Wildenstein Institute and continued it independently after the two parties parted ways in 2015. A series of legal disputes over access to research materials followed including a lawsuit that reached settlement out of court according to accounts in Rehs Galleries coverage of the release. The art historian faced death threats and bribery attempts during his work as owners and dealers sought favourable attributions for pieces under review The Times reported. His team drew on exceptional archives from major early collectors such as Léopold Zborowski Jonas Netter Paul Guillaume and Roger Dutilleul alongside hundreds of scientific analyses.
The new reference work expands the accepted corpus to 421 paintings plus three addenda compared with the 337 that Ambrogio Ceroni had recognised in catalogues produced between 1958 and 1970. Restellini stated in the text that Ceroni’s listing had become truly obsolete over time because the number of recognised Modiglianis had remained frozen despite fresh discoveries. A 2025 study published in Statistical Methods & Applications applied multiple systems estimation to five existing catalogues and placed the likely total of genuine but unattributed Modigliani paintings at between 20 and 120. Volumes one and two of Restellini’s set outline his methodology and present a detailed chronology while the subsequent books reproduce each painting at full page with complete exhibition and ownership histories.
Modigliani who died in 1920 at age 35 produced a relatively small body of work that has attracted intense market interest and widespread forgery. Two of his reclining nudes have fetched $170.4 million and $157.2 million at auction in recent years placing him alongside Picasso Klimt and Monet in financial terms The Times noted. Up to 70 percent of works once attributed to him may be inauthentic according to some expert estimates while a 2017 exhibition in Genoa closed after police determined that 20 of 21 displayed paintings were fakes. Restellini’s research employed spectrometry carbon-14 dating infrared reflectography and X-radiography to distinguish genuine pieces from forgeries by identifying distinctive features of the artist’s pictorial language.
Pace Gallery announced a collaboration with the Institut Restellini that includes a symposium titled From Myth to Method: Reimagining the Catalogue Raisonné scheduled for April 30 2026 in New York. The gallery will also host an exhibition next year of Modigliani paintings accepted in Restellini’s catalogue but absent from Ceroni’s reference according to the partnership statement. Restellini plans to extend his catalogues raisonnés to the artist’s sculptures cariatides and drawings in future volumes. The limited edition of 1,250 copies carries a price of approximately $2,500 or £2,000 and required a seven-person team three months per volume to proofread.
The catalogue arrives as the art market continues to grapple with authentication challenges for early 20th-century masters whose distinctive styles have proven easy to imitate. Public sales records and private transactions have sometimes relied on older catalogues that Restellini’s assessment now supersedes in many cases. His work underscores the evolving role of technical analysis in establishing authorship beyond traditional connoisseurship. Future updates to the digital components of the project may incorporate additional findings as more paintings undergo modern examination.
