Art: Embarrassment

^ dean of Italian painters takes a dim view of modern art, even when it is” his own. Giorgio de Chirico, 63, would like to be known for the neoclassical nudes and warriors, done in lush, candy-box style, which he paints today. Instead, he is famed for the works of his youth: surrealistic cityscapes laced with long shadows. Such pictures simply embarrass De Chirico nowadays. Last week his embarrassment was acute.

A Los Angeles collector had bought a signed and certified early De Chirico in Milan, and then asked the artist to authenticate it. Cried De Chirico: Fake! The collector promptly took his canvas, An Italian Square, to court.

De Chirico contested the suit. He recalled that he had painted a similar picture with the same title back in 1913, but the train smoke in that one had been different. “I painted the smoke in the form of a globe,” he said—not in the form of a small cloudlet. Art experts and three former owners of the painting pooh-poohed the distinction. After hearing the evidence, the court handed down its judgment: De Chirico had peevishly denied his own work, must pay costs plus 330,000 lire ($500) in damages.