Salvador Dali - Albaretto Family Investigation

The Albarettos, Again Investigated for Suspected Dali Fakes

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LA RAZON
Sunday, 12 November 2004

The Albarettos, again investigated for suspected fakes
The German police question the authenticity of Dalí originals owned by this family
Victor Fernández

Barcelona — Italy is not only, in the Dali universe, the country which boasts an anthology which will never be seen in Spain. In one of the country's best known cities, Torino, lives a family which has become the most controversial collectors that Salvador Dali has ever had. They are the Albarettos, the so-called "Italian family" of Salvador Dali, who put on a much talked about exhibition in the Römishches Museum in Augsburg, Germany, between September and November 2000. At that time Robert Descharnes succeeded in having the exhibition closed down and the German police began a serious investigation into the claimed authenticity of the works owned by Mara Albaretto and her daughter, Cristiana, direct heirs of Giuseppe Albaretto, an Italian doctor who became the dentist of Pope Paul VI.

Nevertheless, the investigations into the Italians do not end here, now that their business, under the name of Dali, has expanded to include strange sales of prints on luxury cruise ships in international waters.

Everything began in 1996. When the Albarettos first showed their collection publicly for the first time in 1996 at the Bricherasio Palace in Torino, many of the works began to be questioned, something which the German exhibition merely confirmed. Many were the voices that denounced what was being shown: for example, the collector Reynolds Morse, who spoke of the Albaretto collection as "appalling". Ralf Michler, co-author with Lutz W. Loepsinger of Salvador Dali:The Catalogue Raisonne of Etchings & Mixed-Media Prints, 1924-1980 acknowledged in his visit to the Augsburg exhibition that there were a number of false pieces, which he stated in front of German courts. On their part, the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation denied having issued any certificate of authenticity on those pieces.

The Public Prosecutor in Freiburg, Germany, opened a legal prosecution against Cristiana Albaretto and a gallery owner, Stefan Delbaere. At this location there had been a small exhibition of lithographs and etchings. As a result of this incident, the German police had asked the Italian authorities many times for permission to investigate the Albarettos' home in Torino. Eventually, when after many problems, the authorities were able to enter the family's home, they verified that everything related to the false graphic works pointed to a publisher: Les Heures Claires. This company, created by the deceased Giuseppe Albaretto, was the one that which published Dali's illustrated works such as The Odyssey, the 1001 Nights and the Divine Comedy, among many others. But, was Les Heures Claires still functioning?

For months a foreign TV channel has been trying to follow the traces of these pieces. The result, which will soon be seen, follows these activities to another country: the United States. It is here that the Albarettos count on a good ally and friend who presents himself as a purported baron. His name is Philippe du Noyer, a New York collector, owner of some "originals" which were owned by the Albarettos. According to facts which this newspaper has been able to ascertain, it was Noyer who was to be in charge of offering pieces of the collection to a gallery owner, Albert Scaglione, who specialized in organizing exhibitions and sales of pieces by the likes of Picasso, Rembrandt, Duerrer and Miró. Scaglione, for his part, deals mainly in prints, such as the illustrations of the Divine Comedy which are sold on various luxury cruise ships once they are in international waters. They are pieces which show many differences to, for example, the original colors painted by Salvador Dalí. They are all accompanied by a purported certificate of authenticity from an Italian specialist, Giorgio Pillon, and another American, Bernard Ewell. Pillon, awarded by the Replublic of Italy in 1994, states in his certificates of authenticity, as this newspaper was able to read on one of them, that he attests to the "absolute authenticity of the peice" as a result of, among other reasons, "many years of friendship which ties me to the family Albaretto."

On his part, Ewell, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who introduces himself on his own web site as a guest of honor of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, claims that he has collaborated with the FBI and has examined 300 pieces from the Albaretto collection. In this regard, Mara Albaretto has acknowledged that "Mr. Ewell has our complete trust."

Perhaps this year we will finally find out what agreement has been reached between the Gala-Salvador Foundation and the Albarettos. On the 28th of April 2001, LA RAZON published extracts from a letter which the manager of the Foundation, Juan Manuel Sevillano, had sent the Albarettos. In this he said that "in the event that a piece is classified as false, this must be withdrawn and destroyed before a Notary with a representative of Mrs. Albaretto and a representative of the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation. This process must take place in the two months following the announcement of the authentication and the issuing of a certificate by the Foundation."

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