Fakes in museums

[Epictetus]

Apparently almost all of the 40,000 pieces in a Chinese museum have been revealed as forgeries.

I wonder 1) how often a museum's experts are fooled by a fake and 2) how often a museum knowingly displays forgeries as authentic?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...close.html

[Lyceum]

Actually more common than you think, for forgeries to turn up, as to their museum life....not really/sort of. I know the Egyptians are pretty hardcore on their end. Greek inscriptions are prone to being forged but philologists often spot these straight away, little mistakes in the Greek with regards to structure and register, errors in the script and how the script is formed are dead give aways. There are similar forgery problems with manuscripts. The most famous being the donatio constantini. Obviously there are tonnes of errors and interpolation in every classical text, but I get that this veering aside from the topic since it concerns textual criticism rather than museums. Though obviously inscriptions are often displayed in museums and many fakes were made in antiquity.

Otherwise artwork is particularly at risk, last time I was in Italy it was explained to me that they're unsure about a lot of the Etruscan stuff due to the...er...nature of the finds and several things have been caught as forgeries such as pots with faces which look far too modern or infelicities in so called "magic scripts". Honestly I've seen a lot of questionable stuff in general.

Generally though fakes are quite widespread, I doubt very many ever make it anywhere near the museum level though.

[john m roberts]

This makes me wonder how often museum workers have genuine artifacts copied, sell the originals on the black market and substitute the copies in display or storage. A few years ago in a Caribbean museum, a gold and emerald cross salvaged from a treasure ship was found to be plastic and glass. Someone had stolen the original and substituted the plastic.

[Sean Manning]

Apparently almost all of the 40,000 pieces in a Chinese museum have been revealed as forgeries.

I wonder 1) how often a museum's experts are fooled by a fake and 2) how often a museum knowingly displays forgeries as authentic?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...close.html

That is one reason why many people are opposed to museums buying new objects on the art market: with no provenance, forgery becomes much easier (it also enlarges the market for and value of loot). But the problem is that cultural heritage laws make it almost impossible to build up a collection of artifacts from other countries in other ways, even if the store-rooms of the country where they were excavated are overflowing with things which they can't afford to maintain or display.

[A_Volpe]

A very slippery slope between "forgery" and "reproduced/copy"

Had the museum been honest and said most of its artifacts were copies of originals, that may have gone over better than claiming everything was authentic when just about everything is really fake.

Maybe the museum can re-invent itself as a museum with lots of authentic Copies of actual artifacts, which could show the skill of the (artisan) making the copy itself!

[Quintius Clavus]

Producing fakes seems to be quite an industry in China. Some of it may be the rush to modernize along with a rapidly expanding middle class with disposable income and an appetite for all kinds of things and experiences.
I remember when I was in England many years ago, I saw a Roman helmet, which was clearly labeled as a reproduction/copy of an actual artifact held in another museum's collection. It was a faithful copy, but clearly identified as such.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

A lot of Museums in the US state that their items are reproductions of original finds, as there is only one original find after all.

[Scola]

I am living in Bavaria / Germany. We had a scandal some years ago when someone found out that the state collection of antique coins had lots of fakes. It turned out that a dircector had replaced the originals and sold them off. It was discovered only many years after the fact. You could have made probably good deals at that time!

[Palmerius2002]

Interesting topic about fakes in museums.

The curator of any museum is the so called "expert" when donations are made.
It is at his discretion as to judge fake from forgery or he can invite the opinion
of other experts professors, archeologists, anthropologists, collectors, appraisers etc.

Not too aware of any ancient artifacts that turned out to be fakes in museums in the USA.

Although, the Higgins Armory of Worcester, MA that will be transferring all of its collection
(supposedly) to the Worcester Art Museum Next year (2014).
Over 3/4 of the museums collection is fake 75% to 80% of their suits of armor are reproductions.
It would be the most valuable armor collection on earth if they were real and original.
Not sure how accurate this is but lots of armor was repurposed and donated during the scrap metal
drive of WWI and WWII in the UK and Europe so reproduction suits of armor based on the real thing
seems to be reasonable for the museum to display because of the rarity of the original. Correct me if I am wrong.
I believe the Roman Gladiator helmet to be real to the best of my knowledge saw this on display
some 30 years or more ago, I am no expert though.

The Pacific Science Center in Seattle, WA in 2006 had the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit
every scrap of the touring exhibit was 100% reproduction because of insurance to
ship the real thing would prevent the show from touring.
That is one practical aspect is that by displaying the reproduced items there
is no value in there being taken, or damaged (low replacement costs).

Some Museums have recreated uniforms Continental and British such as the Brandywine Battlefield Museum
in Chadds Ford, PA along with original items on display.
Because of the ultra violet lights effects on the wool material and the potential for
theft, damage etc would affect the museums insurance rates displaying the original
uniforms is out of the question. To give the public a better understanding of the events
as the occurred they display reproduction uniforms in a representative way.


Controvertial book authored by Phd. Bernard Fell America B.C.
only problem was he was an english professor not an anthropoligist archeologist or a historian
no matter how valid any of his points were or were not he did not have any integrity with
these academic communities and they discredited him rightly or wrongly depending on your
perspective.

Some archeology magazines have dealt with the topic of "salted sites" that have been contaminated with fake items in a dig.
Some items could be used as religious, cultural or political iconography.


In the 20th Century 2 world wars brought the looting of art in Europe.
Long vanquished foes in Europe seemed to be responsible for the
looting of museums in Europe that were resold to American and Canadian
Museums in the 1930's-1970's. Art had been tracked to various prominent
American Museums in the late 1990s until recently. What if the works of art
had become switched or bought as total fakes by well intentioned experts
or investors over 100 years ago? what then?

In modern times the origin of certain prominent paintings from the Medieval era through
the 19th century have been called into question. The provenance of the item and how it
came to be in certain museum collections. Up to and including its authenticity.
As it turns out paintings are highly faked or copied. If done in a school setting or with
the permission of a museum it could be considered to be a Pastiche if attributed to the
original artist.

read the article by David Wagner 15 Jauary 2013 Why the Brooklyn Museum Can't Get
Rid of All This Fake Art featured in the Atlantic Wire magazine

If you get a copy of the book I Was Vermeer writen by Frank Wynne

This book is the Biography of one of Europe's most prolific Art Forgers who reproduced
so many paintings that may be in Art Museums in the USA-ore elsewhere in the world
No matter if the art was "looted" in WWII or sold through a gallery it brings into question
some of the most significant artwork to adorn museum walls since museums started.
People who thought they bought a Dutch painting a hundred years ago may have
bought a complete forgery or student work etc.

Did go on a bit of a tangent and went off topic a bit in era but tried to stay
on the topic of museums and fakes of various periods in time.

Love going to museums miss it greatly as there are few here to attend.

Enjoy...

[A_Volpe]

I'm on the Education Staff at Higgins Armory Museum.

Some of Higgins' pieces originally were copied, but these have long been identified as copies, or with reproduced pieces, modern leather, etc. In the last decade many pieces were taken off of display for conservation and for re-examination, as Higgins wanted "full suits" not a bunch of pieces, so he allegedly placed similar pieces together to make a whole suit, so-called "Composite" armors. Some pieces / sections have turned out to be not only authentic, but exceedingly rare, if not having their own unique provenance or story once they were more closely examined. But Higgins was far from the only fellow doing this in the 1910's and '20's. Collecting armors was a hot thing at that time, so getting copies made was apparently a fairly common practice.

The ironic thing is while some pieces are reproductions/copies, they were done in the 20th century, so have themselves become rare pieces with significance.

As for the Gladiatorial helmet, it is 100% legit. It's one of only three Gladiator helmets in the entire U.S. It's only missing the face cage. As far as I am aware, all of the ancient period items, bronze swords, greek helmets, etc. are authentic and exceptional pieces. Including one of my personal favorites, a fully intact Egyptian axe, dated some 4,000 years old.


Unfortunately it IS true that the museum will be closing at the end of the year, and the collection will be maintained by the Worcester Art Museum. So, there's only a few months left for people to see this highly regarded collection within it's own original building.

[Palmerius2002]

Mr. Volpe, you are quite correct;

I never meant the armor was on display to deceive the public the curatorial
staff under Walter Karcheski (retired?) always clearly stated to the public
that these armors that were on display were clearly labeled reproduction or original
if it applied.

Will you stay on to staff the collection when it is transferred to the Art Museum?

The spokesperson I talked to several weeks ago stated that most of the staff are going
away from the museum when it closes. She stated the good news is that more armor
will be on display at the Art museum.

Good luck to you...

Maybe you could get sponsorship to open a museum of Armor on the West Coast or Mid West.

Isnt there supposed to be an Armor Museum in Kentucky and one in the Mid West (Wisconsin or Minnesota
that has a few spare pieces of armor from antiquity?

If I wanted to make museum quality reproduction armor and the SCA just insnt my thing.
How could I learn how?

[richard robinson]

Hi Andy
as you may be aware
some of us are trying to track down an image-any image
of the detroit gladiator helmet
-which my research says is the location of the third north american gladiator helmet-
have you any access/ contact that may help in this quest?
Enjoy the savouring of the end of an era with your museum closing. Strong echoes of nostalgia that you will be fortunate to carry throughout your life,
regards
Richard who is envious of your work place

[A_Volpe]

Thanks, we'll see what happens. It has been said the WAM wants to continue the public programming / demonstrations that Higgins made famous (such as my Roman program). But, I do not have any details and am barely in the know as it is. Everything's in a state of flux.

There is a museum, the Fraiser (sp?), in Kentucky that does have armor, that IIRC Karcheski formerly of Higgins (he left in the late 1990's from what I'm told, the current curator is Dr. J. Forgeng), had done work in, but I do not know the details, and have yet to go see that museum.

There are several museums in the U.S. that have armor and related period artifacts, only Higgins was the museum that not only focused on arms and armor, but also had a pioneering living history / presentation programming, as well as one of the only places/institutes that studied and demonstrated period Swordplay and weapons, of which I was also a part of for many years. So, that will be the greatest loss of the museum, and things like History Channel, which seems to have been moving more towards yahoos and aliens. But that's a whooooole other rant.

As for the other Gladiator helmets, I do not know their locations.

[john m roberts]

The "Etruscan" terracotta statue called the "Big Warrior" stood in the Atrium of the Metropolitan Museum in New York for many years before it was proven to be a forgery. The museum was very reluctant to believe it had been hoodwinked until one of the forgers showed up with the statue's missing left thumb in his pocket. They'd paid $40,000 for it, a lot of money in 1918.

[john m roberts]

Here's the Detroit helmet. I have a better, black-and-white picture of it around here somewhere, but I have to find it.