Estetica dell'imbroglio: terrecotte figurate e falsari di Centuripe

A small group of Hellenistic style figurines in the Libertini Collection of the Catania University Archaeological Museum is the focus of an ongoing authenticity study. These comprise both genuine and fake figurines, as well as others that appear suspicious. Ancient Greek figurines of the Hellenistic period used as prototypes and mold-made replicas of these same figurines have been identified in other museum collections and in vintage photographs that belonged to Mr. Antonino Biondi, a forger who operated at Centuripe, Sicily, in the first half of the last century. The comparison among the figurines kept in various museums, the subjects of the mentioned photographs and the actual terracotta replicas of these, still made openly at Centuripe, allow us to understand the usual way the forger worked according to the principles of a real "deception aesthetic" exclusively aimed at profit.