"The Late Mistaken"
This is one of the stories in The Bewitched Bourgeois by Dino Buzzati, which will be published next month by New York Review Books. Translated by Lawrence Venuti.
In this story, the noted painter Lucio Predonzani, who had retired to his country house in Vimercate, opened the newspaper to discover an announcement of his death. The headline said: "Italian Art World in Mourning; Painter Predonzani is dead."
He tells his wife, then rushes to the city to confront the editor of the paper. The editor is surprised but protests that this could be a good thing for Predonzani. If he pretends to be dead, his paintings will go up in value after his death and he could make money on that. He decides to do exactly that, with the cooperation of the newspaper editor, who would provide publicity for gallery showings of his works.
The rest of the story is about what happens after that.
This is a very short story about an extremely absurd situation. It is humorous at times. I was intrigued, and would like to try more stories by Buzzati.
Per Wikipedia, Buzzati was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet who was born in 1906 and died in 1972.
I read this story in the December 2024 issue of Harper's Magazine. It can be read online here; Harper's Magazine allows two free articles a month.
