The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Romania has put on display three paintings that Israeli businessman Yaniv Cohen claims are works by Kazimir Malevich. According to him, the paintings were accidentally found in 2023 under the mattress of his grandmother Eva, a migrant from Odessa.
Cohen claims that the paintings — “Suprematist Composition with Green and Black Rectangle” (1918), “Cubo-Futurist Composition” (1912–1913), and “Suprematist Composition with Red Square and Green Triangle” (1915–1916) — have been kept in the family for over 90 years. He attributes the lack of documentation to Stalinist repressions, when avant-garde artists were allegedly forced to hide their work.
However, leading experts question this version. Ukrainian-American art historian Konstantin Akinsha recalls that Malevich had official exhibitions in the 1920s and 1930s and did not sell his works to private individuals. There is also no evidence that the paintings in question were ever documented or exhibited publicly.
Cohen appeals to the opinion of Kyiv art critic Dmitry Gorbachev, who recognized the works as “first-class examples” of Malevich’s work. However, Gorbachev has repeatedly supported dubious attributions that have not been accepted by the market.
Additional laboratory tests confirmed that the pigments date from Malevich's lifetime, but this does not prove that he painted the paintings himself. Similar conclusions have accompanied other works that were later revealed to be forgeries.
Complicating matters is the fact that Cohen values the three paintings at $160-190 million, despite publicly saying he has no plans to sell them. At the same time, BBC journalists have found evidence that the paintings were offered as collateral for a loan.
The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania distanced itself from the scandal, stating that the exhibition was a "curatorial experiment" and that the mere fact of the display could not be considered confirmation of the authenticity of the paintings.
Experts note that the market for Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde has long been overrun with fakes, and the "find under the mattress" only fuels doubts.
