It only took them 17 years

A previously unknown painting by Amadeo Modigliani has been discovered.

The "Portrait of a Man" dates back to around 1918, said a Modigliani expert Christian Parisot. It was authenticated after 17 years of expert checkup, Parisot, the director of Modigliani's Rome-based archives, said.

Read the AP story here. Something in the article raised my eyebrows a little: "The canvas measures 46 x 38 cm (18 x 15 inches) and shows an unknown young man. Experts said the oil colors had been watered, a sign that the artist was poor at the time of the work."

I was not aware that oil colors could be "watered." In fact, I'm not aware of any technique where this is even possible.

An oil paint can be stretched and diluted by using a paint thinner, such as turpentine, which is usually the cheapest (and nastiest) thinner around, but unless I missed something in art school, one can't add water to oil paints (especially at the turn of the last century) to stretch the oil paints.

Some "new" modern oil paints can now be diluted with water, and there are some odorless paints thinners out there, but nothing that Amadeo would have had available during his lifetime.

I suspect that the AP article meant to say "diluted" rather than "watered."

Pedantic me.