Mystery is shrouding a probe into a Modigliani picture found in a northern Italian airport bathroom a month ago.
According to unconfirmed reports, Italian art cops are investigating whether the work, entitled Portrait de Rosalie, was being illegally exported from Italy.
Police sources said they could not comment on the reports until the authenticity of the picture was proved.
If it is a Modigliani, it would be worth millions of euros on the international art market.
Some art experts believe it is significant that police have not yet released a photograph of the painting.
They feel this indicates the art cops must be on somebody's trail.
Others have already dismissed the unseen portrait as a fake.
"The real painting is called Testa di Donna (Rosalia), and it's hanging in the Brera Gallery in Milan," said Carlo Pepi, one of the world's top Modigliani experts and the first to denounce as a hoax the work of two cheeky students with a drill who produced the infamous 'Modigliani Heads' of 1984.
"This is just one of the countless fakes that circulate on the market, masquerading as the real thing. Modigliani is one of the most copied artists in the world because he's worth so much".
Curiously, an alleged Modigliani with the same name is currently up on eBay for $228.
