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Museums face a persistent challenge with art forgery. Occasionally, institutions acquire counterfeit artifacts that remain on display for years before their authenticity is questioned. The lucrative rewards for forgers drive them to continue producing convincing replicas.
Forgers employ sophisticated methods to deceive museums into purchasing their creations. Some counterfeits are so meticulously crafted that even experts struggle to distinguish them from genuine pieces. Renowned institutions like the Louvre have been duped, displaying fake artworks for extended periods without detection.
10. The Three Etruscan Warriors
In 1933, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the Met, in New York City introduced three new sculptures to its collection. These pieces, depicting warriors from the ancient Etruscan civilization, were sold by art dealer Pietro Stettiner, who asserted they dated back to the fifth century BC.
Italian archaeologists initially raised doubts about the authenticity of the statues, but museum curators dismissed these concerns. They were convinced they had secured the artworks at a favorable price and were unwilling to risk losing them to rival institutions.
Subsequent observations by archaeologists highlighted irregularities in the statues' shapes and proportions, which were inconsistent with the era they were supposedly from. The figures displayed disproportionate body parts and showed minimal signs of wear. The truth emerged in 1960 when archaeologist Joseph V. Noble replicated similar statues using Etruscan methods, concluding that the Met's collection could not be genuine.
Investigations uncovered that Stettiner collaborated with a network of forgers to produce the statues. The group based their creations on artifacts from various museums, including the Met. One warrior was directly copied from an image of a Greek statue featured in a Berlin Museum publication.
The head of another warrior was replicated from a design on an authentic Etruscan vase owned by the Met. The forgers faced spatial constraints in their studio, leading to unevenly sized body parts. Additionally, one statue lacked an arm because the forgers couldn't settle on a suitable pose for it.
9. The Persian Mummy
In 2000, tensions flared between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan over the discovery of a 2,600-year-old mummy and coffin, believed to belong to an unidentified princess. Known as the Persian Mummy, it was uncovered during a police raid in Kharan, Pakistan, prompted by reports of illegal antiquities trading.
The mummy was in the possession of Sardar Wali Reeki, who attempted to sell it for £35 million. Reeki alleged he had discovered the artifacts following an earthquake. Iran staked a claim, citing the proximity of Reeki’s village to its border. The Taliban, then ruling Afghanistan, also entered the dispute, asserting their right to the mummy.
The mummy was exhibited at Pakistan’s National Museum, but archaeologists soon raised suspicions. They noted that parts of the coffin appeared too modern and found no historical evidence of mummification practices in the region. Further investigation revealed the mummy was the remains of a 21-year-old woman, potentially a murder victim. The remains were moved to a morgue, and Reeki, along with his family, was arrested.
8. Dead Sea Scroll Fragments
The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of ancient handwritten manuscripts containing Jewish religious text. Dating back approximately 2,000 years, they are among the earliest known recordings of Hebrew biblical texts. While most are housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, some fragments are owned by private collectors and other museums.
Among these, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, once displayed five fragments. However, in 2018, these fragments were exposed as forgeries after being sent to Germany for detailed analysis.
The museum initiated the examination after experts voiced suspicions that the fragments might be fakes. These doubts emerged months before the museum's opening in November 2017. Some speculate that the museum invested millions in acquiring the counterfeit fragments, though this remains unverified as the museum has not commented.
7. Several Artworks at the Brooklyn Museum
In 1932, the Brooklyn Museum inherited 926 pieces of art from the estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, who had passed away the previous year. The collection included a diverse array of items such as paintings, jewelry, woodworks, and pottery from ancient Rome, China's Qing dynasty, and the Renaissance era.
Colonel Friedsam donated the artworks with the stipulation that the museum obtain approval from his estate before selling or decommissioning any piece. This condition posed a challenge years later when it was revealed that 229 of the items were counterfeit.
The Brooklyn Museum faced a dilemma: it could not decommission the forgeries because the last of Friedsam’s descendants had died decades prior. Additionally, disposal was not an option due to strict regulations set by the Association of American Museums regarding the storage and handling of art by member museums.
In 2010, the museum sought court approval to decommission the fake artworks. According to their petition, if denied, the museum would need to spend $403,000 initially to prepare a storage facility and an additional $286,000 annually for maintenance and staffing.
6. The Henlein Pocket Watch
Peter Henlein, a German locksmith and inventor who lived from 1485 to 1542, is credited with creating the watch. His innovation replaced the heavy weights in clocks with a lighter mainspring, enabling the production of smaller, portable timepieces. During that era, clocks were crafted by locksmiths and blacksmiths.
A pocket watch believed to be one of Henlein’s early works has been housed at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum since 1897. Resembling a small tin, it fits comfortably in the palm of a hand. However, its authenticity has been questioned since its addition to the museum’s collection.
Historians have argued that the watch is a forgery, despite the signature inside its back cover claiming it was made by Peter Henlein in 1510. A 1930 report revealed that the signature was added long after the watch’s alleged creation.
Experts concluded the watch was fake after noticing the signature overlapped scratch marks inside the cover. Modern analysis further indicated that most components were made in the 19th century, suggesting it might be a counterfeit. However, some believe these parts were added during a repair attempt.
5. Nearly Everything at San Francisco’s Mexican Museum
In 2012, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, granting it access to borrow and exchange artworks with over 200 partner institutions. However, the Smithsonian mandates that member museums verify the authenticity of their collections before participating in such exchanges.
In 2017, the Mexican Museum found that only 83 out of the first 2,000 artworks assessed were genuine. This raised concerns, as the museum’s collection totals 16,000 pieces, with experts estimating that half may be counterfeit.
Some forgeries were crafted to deceive, while others were originally decorative pieces. Many had no connection to Mexican culture. The prevalence of fakes is unsurprising, given that the museum acquired most of its collection through donations without verifying authenticity.
4. The Amarna Princess
In 2003, the Bolton city council in Manchester sought to enhance their local museum’s collection with new artworks. They purchased a statue believed to be 3,300 years old, known as the Amarna Princess, which was said to depict a relative of Pharaoh Tutankhamun from ancient Egypt.
The sellers asserted that the statue was unearthed at an Egyptian archaeological site. The British Museum supported this claim, finding no evidence of tampering after an examination. Convinced, the Bolton council paid £440,000 for the statue, which was then displayed at the museum.
Years later, it was revealed that the British Museum’s assessment was incorrect. The statue was a forgery created by Shaun Greenhalgh, a notorious counterfeiter who specialized in selling fake artworks as genuine. Ironically, Greenhalgh resided in Bolton and had crafted the sculpture there.
Greenhalgh’s parents, George and Olive, acted as his intermediaries, selling the counterfeit pieces to museums. In 2007, Shaun was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison, while his parents received suspended sentences for their involvement.
3. Everything at the Museum of Art Fakes
The Museum of Art Fakes, located in Vienna, Austria, is a unique institution dedicated entirely to counterfeit artworks and artifacts. Among its collection are pages from a diary falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler, which were actually forged by Konrad Kujau.
The museum organizes its exhibits into three categories: forgeries designed to imitate the style of renowned artists, those created to be sold as undiscovered works by famous artists, and counterfeits intended to be passed off as original masterpieces.
Additionally, the museum features a section for replicas, which are artworks produced after the death of the original artist. These replicas were clearly labeled and sold as such, with no attempt to present them as genuine originals.
The Museum of Art Fakes also highlights notorious forgers such as Tom Keating, who produced over 2,000 counterfeit artworks in his lifetime. Keating intentionally included errors in his pieces, which he referred to as “time-bombs,” ensuring they would eventually be exposed as fakes long after he profited from them.
Another featured forger is Edgar Mrugalla, who crafted more than 3,500 fake artworks sold as originals. Mrugalla’s forgery career ended with a two-year prison sentence. He was released on the condition that he assist authorities in identifying counterfeit art.
2. Over Half of the Paintings at the Etienne Terrus Museum
The Etienne Terrus Museum, located in Elne, France, showcases the works of Etienne Terrus, a local artist born in 1857. In 2018, the museum acquired 80 new paintings, but an historian hired to organize the collection discovered that approximately 60% of the museum’s artworks were forgeries.
The historian easily identified the fakes. For instance, the signature on one painting was wiped off with a single stroke of a gloved hand. Additionally, some paintings depicted buildings that did not exist during Terrus’s lifetime.
Further investigation showed that 82 out of the 140 paintings in the museum were counterfeit. Most of these forgeries were acquired by the city council between 1990 and 2010. The fake artworks were transferred to the local police station as authorities launched an investigation.
1. A Golden Crown at the Louvre
In the 19th century, two men approached goldsmith Israel Rouchomovsky in what is now Odessa, Ukraine, requesting a Greek-style gold crown as a gift for an archaeologist friend. In reality, the men intended to sell the crown as an authentic artifact from ancient Greece.
Schapschelle Hochmann, the more shrewd of the two, claimed the crown was a gift from a Greek king to the Scythian king in the third century BC. While several British and Austrian museums rejected the crown, Hochmann succeeded in selling it to the Louvre for 200,000 francs.
Shortly after the crown was displayed at the Louvre, some archaeologists expressed doubts about its authenticity. However, their concerns were dismissed, as they were not French. The Louvre interpreted their skepticism as jealousy, assuming they desired the crown for their own institutions.
The archaeologists were vindicated in 1903 when Lifschitz, a friend who had witnessed Rouchomovsky crafting the crown, informed him that it was being showcased as an ancient artifact at the Louvre. Rouchomovsky traveled to France with a replica to demonstrate that he was the true creator.
This revelation embarrassed the Louvre but brought immediate fame to Rouchomovsky. A century later, the Israel Museum borrowed the crown from the Louvre and displayed it as an original work by Rouchomovsky.
