Since then, Giovanni Bastianini is included in the long list of art forgers, running as a shameful supplementary chroni­cle under the glorious history of the achievements and ad­van­cements of art. Techni­cally speaking, Bastianini’s Beni­vieni-bust is a modern forgery; it is, as is indeed the bulk part of Bastianini’s production, an artificially aged sculp­tu­re purportedly depicting a Renaissance man. It is however questionable if it was produced to deceive, as the piece was commissioned by the art dealer Giovanni Freppa in 1864 for 300 francs.