Art fraud is the intentional misrepresentation of the artist, age, origins, or ownership of a work of art to profit financially. The most well-known type of art fraud is the forgery of a famous artist’s work, but fraud can also result from a knowing misattribution of the age or origin of a work of art. But did you know that the great Michelangelo committed art fraud?
Michelangelo sculpted a sleeping Cupid out of acidic earth to make it appear ancient. He then sold it to a dealer, who sold it to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio, who later discovered the scam and demanded his money back. Michelangelo was allowed to keep his share of the proceeds.
Michelangelo’s Attempt at Art Fraud
A lost sculpture by Michelangelo known as the Sleeping Cupid helped launch the career of one of history’s most famous artists. The Sleeping Cupid statue is also considered one of the most famous fabrications in art history.
During his time in Florence, Michelangelo worked on the sculpture. He was employed by the Medici family at the time and sculpted two small statues, including an effigy of St John the Baptist and the Sleeping Cupid. The sculptures were done for Lorenzo di Pierfranseco, but the Cupid statue, he had asked Michelangelo to fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried. Lorenzo had intended to smuggle the sculpture to Rome and sell it as an ancient work for a much higher price.
Michelangelo took Lorenzo’s advice and artificially aged the sculpture. The young artist used acidic earth to give the statue an antique appearance. He had no idea this would become one of the most famous fake sculptures. (Source: The Vintage News)
Selling the Fake Ancient Cupid
The Sleeping Cupid was then sold through a dealer to Cardinal Raffaello Riario of San Giorgio. He discovered the piece was a forgery and demanded his money back from the dealer. However, the cardinal was impressed by Michelangelo’s virtuosity, so he did not press charges against him.
He let Michelangelo keep his share of the deal and invited him to visit Rome. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in the artist’s life, who was only twenty years old at the time.
Following the deception, the magnificent Renaissance artwork became part of the d’Este collection in Mantua, which helped Michelangelo’s reputation. His Sleeping Cupid was allegedly displayed alongside ancient marble sculptures attributed to Praxiteles, the most famous Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. The ancient sculptor’s work included a Cupid sleeping on a lion’s skin.
The standing Cupid is said to have been created for Riario’s banker, Jacopo Galli. Contemporary artists have described it as a Cupid or Apollo with a vase at its feet. If The Young Archer is the same work that belonged to Jacopo Galli, it has certainly been damaged over the centuries.
Little is known about its whereabouts before 1902 when it appeared and failed to sell at a London auction. Another source claims that the sculpture was created while Michelangelo was still a student in Florence, further complicating the story. (Source: The Vintage News)