The whole story
Italy/Florence 1955 - 1963
Marisa Schmitt-Viassone learns miniature painting in Florence in 1955 and sets up her own business with this art form.
Marisa Viassone grew up in modest circumstances in post-war Italy of the Second World War. She attended the art academy in Florence and became enthusiastic about miniature painting at an early age. In 1955, at the age of 17, she learned this demanding painting technique from a respected master, Lionello Lascialfari. After completing her art studies, she decided to earn her living with this art form. She financed her studies by accepting commissions and making miniature copies of portraits, which were in great demand at the time. They are set in ivory frames and in jewellery. As medallions, ear studs or rings, they sell in large numbers, also as tourist goods. She first painted for Maria Luisa Gechele, who ran a stall at the Vatican in Rome. Marisa receives 1 US dollar from her for each miniature.
An advertisement in an American trade magazine for antiques brought her orders in the USA.
For Manuel Bustillo, a Cuban art dealer in New York, she mainly copies portraits of the South American liberator Simón Bolívar and his generals. He sends her black and white copies by post and notes the colours to be used. Marisa does not know the original paintings. Among others, she copies ancient artists such as José María Espinosa Prieto, who is considered the court painter of the famous Simón Bolívar, as well as Meucci and Legros. She also copies the artists‘ signatures, as requested by her client Manuel Bustillo.
Bustillo invited her to the USA in 1963 to work for him as a „court painter“ for a few months. On site, she painted photos of his clients as miniatures and further copies of Bolívar, Santander and other personalities. He paid her 30 US dollars per miniature.
Severe eye problems forced Marisa to break off her stay prematurely and even to give up her dream job as a miniature painter.
Colombia/Bogotá 1989 - 1993
After more than 30 years Marisa Schmitt-Viassone coincidentally discovers two of her miniatures in a museum.
In 1989, Marisa Schmitt-Viassone, now married and living in Germany, made a grand tour of South America. Shortly before her flight home, she visited the National Museum in Bogotá, Colombia. Here, to her astonishment, she discovered two of the miniatures she painted for Manuel Bustillo over thirty years ago. Underneath, the original artist José María Espinosa Prieto was identified as the author.
For Marisa, the challenge of proving her authorship began. She was able to prove it beyond doubt on the basis of her preliminary drawings, but the National Museum did not take her up on it. She regularly sent letters to the museum with preliminary drawings and sketches. All attempts remained unsuccessful, her letters unanswered – for four years.
America 1993 - 2002
Marisa’s copies had been considered and traded as originals for decades
In 1993, a reply finally came from the new museum management of the National Museum in Bogotá, as a new miniatures catalogue was being planned there. Marisa’s letters had been stored in the museum’s archives for four years. Provenance research began: with the help of Elvira Cuervo Jamarillo, the new director, and her assistant Beatriz Gonzales, light was slowly shed on the matter.
After the two fake Bolívar portraits at the museum became known, art and antique collectors in America became nervous and had their pieces checked for authenticity. Many of them had bought their miniatures in the 1960s at a New York auction house for very high prices. To identify her works herself, Marisa travelled to the USA in 2000, to Venezuela in 2002 and again to Colombia.
In 2002, Marisa got in touch with the history professor Prof. Dr. Carlos F. Duarte, who had evaluated the estate of a renowned Bolívar collector in Caracas/Venezuela. In it he found the correspondences Manuel Bustillo had had with the collector in the 1960s.
They revealed: Manuel Bustillo had converted Marisa’s miniatures into supposed originals by applying antique paper and old dates in sepia ink to the backs and inventing a corresponding false story to go with it. He sold these directly or by a well-known auction house in New York at high prices.
Of a total of 120 portraits that Marisa Viassone copied in good faith for her patron, 11 have been identified so far as supposed originals.
The whereabouts of the remaining 109 miniatures are unknown. Manuel Bustillo died in 1989 – the year of Marisa’s first discovery.
He could never be called to account.
The novel based on the true story
