Maurizio Calvesi, influential Italian art historian, dies at 92

Maurizio Calvesi, one of the last great 20th-century Italian art historians, has died. Alberto Dambruoso, a young scholar who collaborated with Calvesi, recounts their personal and professional relationship. In 2004, Dambruoso organized a show of Roman artists from the 1960s and invited Calvesi, who arrived by bicycle and was impressed by Dambruoso's knowledge. Calvesi later asked Dambruoso to co-curate the Premio Vasto, effectively adopting him as a son. Calvesi shared anecdotes about artists like Mario Schifano and Tano Festa, and recalled visiting Giacomo Balla's childhood home and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's house as a boy. They worked together on the Boccioni catalogue raisonné, where Calvesi could instantly spot forgeries. Dambruoso remembers Calvesi as generous, humble, and ironic, who once said, 'I know I am the greatest of all, but you must never show it.'