Peter Kidd: A Documented Case of Defamation and Concealment – From Giovanni Mazzarelli to #ReceptioGate
- ISFiDa
- May 10
- 1 min read
Updated: May 12
In 1979, Italian collector Giovanni Mazzarelli legally acquired several illuminated manuscripts through a Sotheby’s private sale. Yet decades later, he became the target of defamatory narratives suggesting — with no court conviction — that he had purchased stolen goods.
Documents publicly available on Mazzarelli’s website show a decade-long smear campaign built on insinuation and omission, in which Peter Kidd, then cataloguing for Sotheby’s, played a recurring role.
Kidd’s name surfaces in confidential communications used to raise suspicion against Mazzarelli while concealing key facts: the private nature of the sale, Mazzarelli’s willingness to cooperate with Italian authorities, and his ultimate restitution of the books.
This disturbing precedent shows how institutional silence and selective disclosure can destroy reputations. The same tactics re-emerged in 2022 when Kidd, now running the blog Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, launched a defamatory campaign against Prof. Carla Rossi — another figure challenging the commodification of dismembered manuscripts.
Mazzarelli’s story is not just a cautionary tale — it is a documented case of narrative abuse and reputational harm, still relevant today.
