[3]: chapter 22 In 1932, he returned to the United States leading a salon orchestra impersonating Riccardo Drigo, an Italian composer who had died in 1930.
[8]: 74 He achieved this by visiting libraries in Milan housing historical manuscripts, and tearing out flyleaves (blank pages at the front or back of books) on which he would then add autographs.
[9]: 290 He wrote on the laid paper taken from those old manuscripts with a quill using iron-gall ink, which gave the forged documents an air of legitimacy.
[10]: 1 He also created forgeries of letters and other documents purportedly written by famous historical figures, including Christopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, the Marquis de Lafayette, Martin Luther, Michelangelo, and George Washington.
[14] Nicotra was paroled early by the National Fascist Party that ruled the Kingdom of Italy, in order to have him forge signatures for them.
[3]: chapter 22 In August 2022, a Galileo Galilei manuscript at the University of Michigan Library that had been described as "one of the great treasures" held in its collection was identified as a Nicotra forgery.