Modigliani work claimed found in flea market draws posers

It's a story almost too fantastical to be true: A flea market dealer finds a painting near a subway trash bin, submits it for laboratory analysis and emerges convinced he has a Modigliani on his hands. No one would believe it, given the modernist master is one of the most sought-after and forged artists around.

But a public relations firm in Rome that doubles as the Amedeo Modigliani Institute is claiming a signed portrait of Odette could be a real deal. It's putting the work on public view this week saying it hopes to start an academic debate on its authenticity.

"I assure you, this isn't a fake and we are dealing with a discovery," insists Luciano Renzi, the institute's president and head of an eponymous publicity firm. While acknowledging that experts must make such a certification, he says he wouldn't put it up to critical review "if the institute didn't firmly believe it".