Unknown Work or Hoax?

A painting by Federiko Benkovic was put up for auction at Sotheby’s, but analyses and detailed examination raise suspicion of authenticity.

The work of Croatia’s most famous baroque artist, Federik Benkovic, was put up for auction at the Sotheby’s auction house in New York on Friday. The initial price for the painting was between 80,000 and 120,000 dollars. 

The discovery of the unknown work by Benkovic, besides Ranger, the most important artist of the period, is news of extreme importance for Croatia’s culture because most of his works are in Italy.

The Grubic Gallery found the painting and the intention was to buy the painting for a private collector. But, before the decision of purchase, the gallery officials gave the painting for appraisal to Prof. Dr. Sanja Cvetnic from the Art History department at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. She has been finding strong evidence the painting was not made by Benkovic, Vecernji list writes.

Jasna Mrakovcic of the Grubic Gallery says that the name of the famous auction house did not have to be a guarantee that the house was correct regarding the delicate issue of attribution, adding that they always examined paintings twice.

Sanja Cvetnic, who teaches a baroque class and known well the works of this author, provides an analysis of Benkovic by photograph: “Benkovic did not paint such old people, his beards and hair are more frenzied, weaker, not so mane-like and full. In old people there is no coquetry, such as a bare shoulder, but strips them and shows the dryness of the body or the lost tonus of what used to be strong muscles, nor has he such flamboyant and puffed up drapery. Benkovic’s either hangs alongside the body or is creased into specific leafy creases, pointed at the top. The painting of the arm – the left arm is resting upon a cloud – is too complex for Benkovic”.

“I understand why this painting was attributed to this author. The reason is the impostation of the body and relation towards the surface that the figure of God is “breaking through”, as well as the general dramatic impression achieved partially with the help of light. This was also used by others, so based on that, one cannot attribute this painting”, Cvetnic said. However, the 150 x 100 cm oil painting entitled “God Separates Light from Darkness”  is very good, notwithstanding the fact it is not a Benkovic, she said.

Sanja Cvetnik for years worked as a curator at the Strossmayer Gallery which hosts the artists painting “Abraham Sacrifices Isaac”. Although we contacted Sotheby’s by mail, we did not get a response. Still, the description of the painting at the auction says that opinions about the work had been, from the very beginning, divided among experts on Venetian art of the 18^th century. The attribution to Benkovic was accepted thanks to the “convincing explanation by Dr. Lino Moretti”. Before that, the painting was attributed to Piazzeti who had great influence on Benkovic. The Grubic Gallery decided not to buy the painting because, they say, “with due respect to Sotheby’s, opinions differ too greatly in this case”. A total of US$110,993,240 were collected for on Friday, but the painting under Benkovic’s name was not sold.

Descendant of an aristocratic family 

Federiko Benkovic was born in 1677, but his place of birth has not been determined. Mentioned are Omis, Sibenik, Brac in Croatia and Verona and Venice. He was a member of the aristocratic family “Bankovich alias Baloi” from Brac. He studied painting in Italy. Strong colourism, mystical atmospheres and spiritualised figures are characteristic to his work. Benkovic died in Italy in 1753.