Ettore Forti, Italian
“The Great Thing About This Piece Is Its Versatility. Displayed Like So, It’s Purely Ornamental. Orrr…You Can Take Off the Top and Use It As a Toilet Paper Holder,” Date Unknown
Oil on canvas
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here (archived if necessary), here (if truncated, can be read in full for free on Fridays), and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more, especially via the English Références links).
/// Blonde Victoria viewed the antique
dealer, noting his hard sell technique.
This winged Nike in bronze
seems like one of his cons,
but she’ll wait for her sister’s critique.
/// Seated Iulia had studied the face
of the statue; now peers at its base.
He is making the claim
that their family name
is carved there— where there’s still a small trace.
/// He had bought the piece as an investor,
betting that it depicts their ancestor.
“Buy her so she can shine at your Family Shrine.”
Twelve gold coins, and the sisters possessed her.
/// An ancestral shrine, that’s the right place
for a Nike with Iulia’s face.
It would surely be nice
if she’s grandma (“great” thrice),
but if not, this could be a disgrace.
/// Very soon, they regretted their purchase.
The slick dealer’s a crook and his “merch” is
very often a fake
(which his nephew would make).
He’d left town— gone despite thorough searches.
/// By a fluke, they learned something he’d sold
was worth much of what they’d lost in gold.
The antique spiral column
was uniquely un-solemn,
and is prized by collectors as “bold.”