Tucson Museum of Art docent Carlye Dundon will discuss some of the more mysterious and sometimes duplicitous aspects of the fine-art world in a talk next Thursday at the Arizona Senior Academy.
Her presentation is titled "Whodunnit: How Art Detectives Find Forgeries and Missing and Hidden Art."
Dundon especially relishes the ironies associated with many art forgeries and thefts. The "bad guys" start out sure they'll get away with their deception, but instead find themselves with outcomes 180 degrees from what they'd intended.
For example, Dutch forger Han van Meegeren's creation of fake Vermeers to survive the Nazi occupation of Holland backfired in a way that might have cost him his life.
Dundon will also talk about the hidden masterpieces that may exist in galleries in the United States and other parts of the world.
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She'll introduce the audience to Maurizio Seracini, an Italian diagnostician who has used medical technology to find "The Battle of Anghiari." Called "The Lost Leonardo," the huge mural by da Vinci is believed to finally have been found in March on a hidden wall in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.
One of the most extensive cases of art thefts that Dundon will discuss is that of the Nazis in the 1930s and '40s. Private art collections, most notably from Jewish families, were confiscated and seemingly lost forever.
One dramatic example is the case of Maria V. Altmann. She fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to force the Austrian government to relinquish five Gustav Klimt works, including the celebrated "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I," that were stolen from her family.
To learn the outcome of Altmann's prolonged battle, attend Dundon's Sept. 20 talk, which begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Arizona Senior Academy Building at Academy Village, 13715 E. Langtry Lane.
Academy Village is an active-adult community located off Old Spanish Trail six miles southeast of Saguaro National Park East and just south of the Rocking K Ranch.
If you go
• What: "Whodunnit: How Art Detectives Find Forgeries and Missing and Hidden Art" lecture by Carlye Dundon
• When: 11:30 a.m. Sept. 20
• Where: Arizona Senior Academy Building at Academy Village, 13715 E. Langtry Lane
• Admission: Free; donations accepted
• Reservations: Recommended; email info@arizonasenioracademy.org or call 647-0980
