An Italian archaeologist and antiquities expert says a “substantial part” of looted items returned to Italy earlier this year from the United States are fakes. Gianfranco Adornato, professor of Greek and Roman art and archeology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, says a high percentage of the 60 works, collectively valued at more than $20 million, are “made up of easily recognizable forgeries. .. these supposed works will hopefully never be exhibited in Italian museums”.
The 60 archaeological artifacts believed to have been looted from sites across Italy, including a fresco taken from Herculaneum and bronze busts, were repatriated in January with much fanfare. Some of the items were purchased by billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt, while more than 20 items were also part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, including a marble head of Athena, dating from 200 BC.
The objects, handed over by US officials to their Italian colleagues in New York last September, were repatriated thanks to an international trafficking investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Unit, Italian National Police.
A Greek drinking cup, believed to have been created in the 6th century BC, depicts two sphinxes in the wrong pose Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC)
“This unit has been particularly effective; remarkable objects and monuments, part of the Italian cultural heritage, have been recovered from major international museums, especially in the United States,” Adornato writes in our sister article, The Giornale dell’Arte.
Most of the works were exhibited in Rome Museum of Surviving Art (Museo dell’Arte Salvata) which opened last year in a space of the ancient baths of Diocletian. Adornato says, however, that several objects may be fakes, including an amphora from the Greek Nicosthenic workshop (530BC-500BC) and an “eyecup” with a mask of Dionysus in the center (500BC).
“We can notice that the eyecup has a strange eye pattern; it is devoid of tear wattles, characteristic of this typology. Even the Dionysian mask [featured] is simplified by superficial and imprecise engravings. Another Attic band-stopper, adorned with sphinxes on its sides, dating from the second half of the 6th century BC. J.-C., presents the two monsters in a completely false pose, never seen in Greek art”, explains Adornato.
He also distinguishes a dinosaurs– a Greek mixing bowl – with a series of jumpers. “Although it mimics metallic prototypes, this vase has a particularly chunky support not found in other comparable vases. Moreover, from a technical point of view, the forger exaggerates the mane, the neckline and the ribs of the horse: the caparison [cloth covering] on horseback is never depicted in ancient art. Italian authorities have not disclosed the collections that housed these objects in the United States.
Adornato tells The arts journal“I suspect other forgeries among the objects; not only the pottery – easily recognizable thanks to the iconography – but also certain sculptures do not seem authentic. We should take a closer look because the surfaces have been acid-smoothed and the inlays look artificial. The Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Unit did not respond to a request for comment.
