Two pale men with dark hair, mustaches, and beards. They are both wearing suits and facing each other with their arms crossed.
“Yes, officer, I am a fraud, but I would like to know what you imagined when you took the action of corruption from us. Did you think you would buy honest people in Romania? You were bitterly deceived, in this country you can only buy ordinary crooks like me."
– Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești
From art forgers, regular forgers, and of course, the ever-present reality that any expression of queerness has in and of itself been banned in many different spaces and times, queer history is full of rule-breakers. Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești was a thief, a political agitator, a con artist, and a man who kept close company with others who broke social conventions as well as laws. Throughout all of these parts of his life, Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești still somehow remained a man with a steady moral compass, though it was slightly hard to understand at times.
Born in Romania on June 13, 1870, Alexandru was the son of an immigrant and a boyaress and was surrounded by a fair amount of wealth. Though he did initially go to medical school for some time, he abandoned it to go to Paris to join the thriving art scene there. It didn’t take long for Alexandru to settle into the life and culture of Paris, though he was much more accepted by the people of Paris than by the leaders.
It was in Paris that Alexandru began to make connections with people from all walks of life, including ones that were not entirely concerned with following laws, and from these friendships, Alexandru began to find his moral footing. He explored as much of the life of Paris as he was able, embracing Anarchism as his political belief and experimenting with the world around him from “criminal enterprise to decadent poetry.”
Though he built many lifelong friendships, they were not with law enforcement, and he was put under surveillance for revolutionary behaviour, ending in his expulsion from Paris. Though, some people have pointed out that this consequence may have been because of his tendency to steal bicycles more than because of his political opinions.
Returning to Romania, he was determined to bring all he loved of Paris with him. Hosting Salons, becoming a patron of the arts, and making connections with other outcasts within Romanian society.
Because of his family, Alexandru had a privilege that many other artists at the time did not have access to, and he tried to support as many other artists financially as he was able to. Creating a space in his home for all types of people, including poets, artists, sex workers, revolutionaries, priests, con artists, and anyone who opposed academic art.
Alexandru himself mostly created poetry and essays, publishing them in magazines, some run by himself and others not. He also avidly bought other people’s art, building up quite a collection by the end of his life that he intended to go to a museum. In the interest of fostering other cutting-edge artists, Alexandru, along with some of his friends, formed "Societatea Ileana", an association dedicated to supporting Avante Garde Romanian artists in a society that pushed forward safer art pieces.
Much of Alexandru’s contributions to Societatea Illeana’s press branch were writing praise for other artists, though he was often frustrated by the differences between Romania’s and France’s art scene.
While all of this was happening, he was also continuing his general rule-breaking ways, often landing himself in jail. It wasn’t long until both he and others understood him as a con artist, something he was always strikingly honest about. What he was less honest about was his said to be forty arrests which he said were all because of his political stance, something that many historians are skeptical about considering how many misdemeanors he participated in.
One con that it is known that he was involved in was a long-term one, as in the 1910s when Germany was paying many people within the Romanian press to print propaganda. A list of people was revealed and it was discovered that one of the men given the most money to spend on such things was Alexandru. Despite his pay, it is said he didn’t spend anything on propaganda; instead buying himself art, cars, and property. When German officials discovered this, Alexandru said:
“Yes, officer, I am a fraud, but I would like to know what you imagined when you took the action of corruption from us. Did you think you would buy honest people in Romania? You were bitterly deceived, in this country you can only buy ordinary crooks like me."
Further scandals he was involved in included an accusation of blackmail and his continued political involvement that once resulted in a run for office that led to both other parties accusing each other of supporting him because of his mixed policies.
Though he generally had relationships with men, he married Domnica Colanoski in 1917. Known to history under the name Mica she was painted by many of their painter friends and would dress androgynously and often wear suits. While because of the second name, her dress, and her short hair there is speculation that she may have been transgender, there is not much evidence of her life outside of other’s accounts and paintings, so it is not possible to concretely determine.
She was among one of his many friends who worked in sex work, and they were married up until his death. It is unclear as to whether Alexandru was bisexual or homosexual not only because of his seemingly honest affection for his wife but also because he said he had hundreds of sexual relationships with women throughout his life. It is only because of his tendency to embellish and outright lie about many aspects of his life, including his parentage, that this claim is doubted. While it is not clear cut, Alexandru was likely bisexual.
Alexandru’s death when it came was sudden in 1922, and he died while on the phone with a friend. Though he had said after his death, he wanted all the art he had collected to be given to a museum, it was sold off instead.
He was remembered after his death with a wide range, going from vitriol to adoration and more than a little in between. His friend Zambaccian described him best, saying that he was:
“A man created from a mold in which the evil and the good genius were present in equal measure. [...] Cynical and suave, generous on one side, a con artist on the other, Al. Bogdan-Piteşti relished the abjection that he served with cynicism".
He spent a good period of his life supporting other Romanian artists but also wasn’t always able to pay them well. He was very consistent in his belief system, remaining an Anarchist to his last days, but he was also always a con artist. He was a man who deeply embraced his complexities, something that, while hard to understand, is easier to respect. While it is difficult to discern a logical progression of his actions at times, it is generally very clear that what he was doing made sense to him, which was, in the end, what mattered the most. He never got acclaim from Romania, but he had never seemed that interested in giving acclaim to Romania. Holding Salons in his home he was able to build a vibrant artistic community and support it in a way the government and the high society of the country never really did. With his help, the Romanian artistic community was conflicted, but it also was active and thriving in a way it wasn’t always allowed to, which seems to have been what he always wanted.
[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material]
Bărbieru, L. (2017, April 18). The Romanian who stung Germany with a fortune to make orgies and literary ashes. Vice. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/ro/article/jpzm74/romanul-care-a-tepuit-germania
Teacă, C. (2011). Fin De Siècle Biographies: Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti. Beaux-Arts, 48.
Lecţia de istorie. Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti, regele escrocilor. (2018, July 12). Jurnal de Arges. Retrieved from https://jurnaluldearges.ro/lectia-de-istorie-alexandru-bogdan-pitesti-regele-escrocilor/
