Alceo Dossena
Illustration — Madonna and Child, marble sculpture by Alceo Dossena, 1930, San Diego Museum of Art Alceo Dossena (1878–1937) was an Italian sculptor who became well known for his creation of a variety of convincing forgeries of ancient sculptures. His dealers marketed his creations as originals by other sculptors.
Also recorded as Alceo Dosenna
Alceo Dossena
Wmpearl · CC0
- Born
- 1878 · Cremona.
- Died
- 1937 · Rome.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Italy
- Occupation
- sculptor · counterfeiter · art forger
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Alceo Dossena. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q2623158 · wikipedia · Alceo Dossena
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
Dossena was born in 1878 in Cremona, Italy. He was a talented stonemason and sculptor, and was so skilled at duplicating classical and medieval art that his agent, Alfredo Fasoli, sold his works as authentic antiques. Fasoli commissioned copies of Greek, Roman, medieval, and Renaissance sculptures, and of works by such artists as Giovanni Pisano, Simone Martini, and Donatello. Dossena was meagerly paid by Fasoli, who made an immense profit off the copies he sold to museums and collectors. One of the fakes was a sculpted tomb attributed to Mino da Fiesole that was sold to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1928, Dossena discovered that some of his works were displayed in museum collections as original antiquities, and that his dealers were keeping most of the profit for themselves. The artist was only paid the equivalent of $200 per sale. He exposed the ruse and sued his dealers. Dossena defended himself against forgery charges by claiming that he had been unaware that others were selling his work under false claims. A trial cleared him, and he received the equivalent of $66,000 in compensation. His subsequent exhibit in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art was unsuccessful. In 1933, the Italian government auctioned 39 of his works for the modest sum of $9000, while a forgery of his sold at a peak price of $150,000. Alceo Dossena died a poor man in Rome in 1937.
Documentary record
Alceo Dossena, born in 1878 and died in 1937, is documented in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Both events are recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Identity
Identity
Alceo Dossena is recorded as sculptor, counterfeiter and art forger.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1878
Alceo Dossena born at Cremona.
1937
Alceo Dossena died at Rome.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Cremona.
Birth place
Rome.
Death place
Collections
Two of Dossena's sculptures are on permanent display in the Frick Fine Arts Building at the University of Pittsburgh. They were intended to appear as if they had been mounted on a Renaissance church, carved by Simone Martini. The subject matter is the Virgin Mary and angel Gabriel. • Illustration — Alceo Dossena statues at the University of Pittsburgh.
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Alceo Dossena, revision 1365562029 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Romano Ferrari, Sotto false sembianze, l’avventura umana e artistica di un genio, scoperta dello scultore cremonese Alceo Dossena, Il seme bianco, 2020. Marco Horak, Alceo Dossena a Parma (1908-1915), in "Il falso nell'arte. Alceo Dossena e la scultura italiana del Rinascimento" a cura di D. Del Bufalo, M. Horak, V. Sgarbi, Roma, 2021, ISBN 9788891323316
- 2.Alessia Coccato, Luciana Mantovani, Romano Ferrari, Danilo Bersani, Mario Tribaudino, Pier Paolo Lottici, The Deposition from the Cross in the Church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France): A masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture? Materials characterization to solve a 20th c. mystery, in Journal of Cultural Heritage, 10 june 2019, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207419300317.
- 3.Ludwig Pollak, Römische Memoiren. Künstler, Kunstliebhaber und Gelehrte 1893-1943, Margarete Merkel Guldan (a cura di), L’Erma di Bretschneider, Roma, 1994.
- 4.Fulvio Mazza, Un genio e i suoi segreti, in "La Provincia", Cremona, 11 maggio 2021.
- 5.comune.fe.it. "Fakes, i falsi nell'arte", la mostra a Ferrara dal 7 aprile a Palazzo Bonacossi.
- 6.ferraraterraeacqua.it. Fakes. Da Alceo Dossena ai falsi Modigliani.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q2623158: Alceo DossenaWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Sculpture
6,174 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Albin MoroderArtist
- Albin PolasekArtist
- Albino MancaArtist
- AlcamenesArtist
- Alceu RibeiroArtist
- Aldemir MartinsArtist
- Aldo AndreaniArtist
- Aldo ButtiniArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Alceo Dossena?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.