Posted on 12/29/2004 10:10:45 AM PST by theconservativerepublican
Police indict 4 on charges of running antiquities fraud ring
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent and AP
Police indicted four antiquities collectors and dealers Wednesday, accusing them of running a sophisticated forgery ring over the course of 23 years, that created a trove of fake biblical artifacts, including some hailed as among the most important archaeological objects ever uncovered in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Tell me it ani't so people FAKING religious articles.(sarcasm)
The forged treasures include an ivory pomegranate touted by scholars as the only relic from Solomon's Temple, an ossuary that reputedly held the bones of James, Jesus' brother, and a stone tablet with inscriptions on how to maintain the Jewish Temple, officials said.
....
According to the document, the members of the ring took genuine artifacts and added inscriptions to them, falsely increasing their importance and greatly inflating their value. After forging the inscriptions, they would paint the items with a coating designed to emulate the patina that would accumulate on the object over thousands of years, the indictment said.
The work was so sophisticated, it fooled top antiquities experts, and some of the fake artifacts sold for huge sums, authorities said.
...
The indictments came less than a week after the Israel Museum announced that the ivory pomegranate, one of its most prized possessions, was a forgery.
The museum bought the pomegranate from an anonymous collector for $550,000 in the 1980s, with the money deposited into a secret Swiss bank account at the time.
Among the other objects the police tagged as forgeries were two of Golan's possessions, the James ossuary and the "Yoash inscription," a shoebox-sized tablet from about the ninth century B.C., inscribed with 15 lines of ancient Hebrew with instructions for maintaining the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
The ossuary, with the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," had been touted as a major archaeological discovery - the oldest physical link between the modern world and Jesus. But last year, Israeli experts said that while the ossuary, a 2,000-year-old limestone box, was indeed ancient, parts of the inscription were added recently.
The forgeries also include clay tablets with descriptions of biblical events, a stone menorah said to belong to the priests in the second temple and a stone seal said to belong to Menashe, king of Judah.
Too bad. I was hoping some of these items would turn out to be real. Oh, well...
I saw the box that held the bones of James with the new inscription added that said "The brother of Jesus" on PBS a few weeks ago.
Hilarious! Anyone who has traveled in that part of the world has been offered fake antiquities. A whole lot of them buy the darned things, then brag about their "ancient" scarab or bottle or whatever.
I love antiquities, and have a small collection of genuine Middle Eastern pieces. I have never once seen a genuine piece in the possession of anyone who bought one piece while being a tourist. Anything you are offered while in the Middle East is a fake. I guarantee it.
These elaborate fakes are amazing, but they're not all that different from the junk people bring home from their trip to Israel or Egypt.
i saw a show on the history channel about these brothers, they have been under scrutiny for 20 years and cant enter some countries because of smuggling and other shady dealings. very interesting show, cant remember the name of it.
ive been importing edwardian furniture from england for over a year now and ive heard alot of horror stories about faked antiques. thats the reason i picked edwardian era, they are barely antiques over there.
"ive been importing edwardian furniture from england for over a year now and ive heard alot of horror stories about faked antiques. thats the reason i picked edwardian era, they are barely antiques over there.
"
True enough. I don't think anyone is making fakes of that period's furniture...yet. It's a smart choice, I think, to focus on what is just used furniture in England and bringing it here, where it has a market. I thought about doing that a few years ago, but never followed through.
I didn't stay in contact with this guy (for obvious reasons) but every time a news about some ancient religious/art treasure breaks I think about him and look to see if this guy is a part of the story. I fully expect that one day he will be.
I'm an online appraiser--haven't gotten any middle east items lately but have seen quite a few from China. They were 'uncovered due to the building of the three rivers dam' and, yes, every one of them was fake.
"I'm an online appraiser--haven't gotten any middle east items lately but have seen quite a few from China. They were 'uncovered due to the building of the three rivers dam' and, yes, every one of them was fake."
I'm sure. It's really amazing how gullible many collectors are. I collect Middle Eastern stuff, very modestly, but I've taken the time to do my homework, and buy only from experts.
My favorite piece is a Sumerian cuneiform tablet. How do I know it's authentic? I bought it from the archaeologist who dug the thing up 40 years ago. Its provenance includes a photo in an archaeological journal. I paid a pretty penny for it, too.
But, the desire for antiquities far exceeds their availability, so fakes are everywhere. I know about Middle Eastern stuff, but not about other specialized antiquities, so I don't buy them. I've sure been offered a lot on my travels, though. My rule is that if someone offers to sell me something, I'm pretty sure it's a fake. If I want something, I seek it out from reputable experts and pay what it's worth.
He was probably late 50’s and had a lot of knowledge about art. He’d study a famous artist like Rembrandt or something. He’d look at his “style” and practice reproducing it.
He made all his own paints using the same materials that artists did back when they did their work. He’d cruise around looking for 100 or 200+ year old structures (barns and such) that were being torn down and he’d grab up as much of the old wood as he could.
Finally when he’s all set he does his painting on canvas. He’ll do a painting similar to a famous one but takes care not to try and copy it. Just does it in the same general style. When it’s finally dry he bends and rolls it so it has cracks all over.
Then he has some sort of process to separate the painting from the canvas. He ultimately ends up with the painting being transferred to a piece of the old wood. He also used some liquid with fine dirt and dust in it that he rubbed all over the nearly-finished piece so it would have dust/dirt in all the little cracks.
At the end, he has a couple of people that own galleries of some sort. They’d take the painting and stick it back in an inconspicuous place. They never point it out to anyone or represent it as being anything special.
What happened in this case (and what prompted the show, I guess) was that an American from a museum happened to be in the little town and spied the picture. Got all excited. Thought he’d found a “missing treasure” or something.
Plunked down a big deposit and took it for testing. Wood tested old, paint tested “good” for the period - arsenic in the yellow (white?) or what-not, dust in the cracks. Finally paid millions for it. Then found out it wasn’t what they thought it was.
They got upset and wanted to sue and prosecute but the local German(?) police said they could do nothing because he never represented it as being a real-whatever. It wasn’t signed. It wasn’t even a “copy” of anything.
They said they could sympathize because he’d been doing this for 30 years and other people had the same problem previously but he didn’t legally do anything they could arrest/try him on.
Literally art people all over the world had been scammed. The guy was pretty interesting. Don’t remember his name or anything.
IIRC, the phrase "The Brother of Jesus" was found to be in "Times New Aramaic" font....
i am doing ok, ive only had a few shipments, i am working my way up to bigger containers. my best friend lives in england and visits scotland all the time, she considers it more of a hobby since she loves estate sales and auctions. i am still trying to figure all of the ins and outs of customs both here and there, it is amazing the hurdles one has to jump through to get something from over there to here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.