The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology (University of Reading) leads a successful educational programme which offers school activities to local Key Stage 2 pupils. Here, children have the opportunity to get familiar with the different shapes, functions and artistic techniques of Greek pottery. In order to get a better understanding of these subjects, they handle museum objects and try to discover what type of liquid they contained, their purpose, decoration, etc. However, among these artefacts, two fakes are usually included: a clay cast of a metallic rhyton (probably forged in the 19th century, in Italy) and a lekythos from the Victorian period. This paper will focus on the importance of forgeries from a pedagogic point of view, as a didactic resource to highlight basic concepts on ancient Greek pottery, to favour the thorough visual analysis of ancient artefacts and to motivate insightful discussions. Moreover, we will address the relevance of historical forgeries in archaeological collections and their role in a museum, as well as the reinterpretation of Greek Art from present day.

Scholars for centuries have regarded fakes and forgeries chiefly as an opportunity for exposing and denouncing deceit, rather than appreciating the creative activity necessary for such textual imposture. But shouldn’t we be more curious about what’s spurious? Many of these long-neglected texts merit serious reappraisal, when considered as artifacts with a value beyond mere authenticity. We do not have to be fooled by a forgery to find it fascinating, when even the intention to deceive can remind us how easy it is form beliefs about texts. The greater difficulty is that once beliefs have been formed by one text, it is impossible to approach the next without preconceptions potentially disastrous for scholarship. The exposure of fraud and the pursuit of truth may still be valid scholarly goals, but they implicitly demand that we confront the status of any text as a focal point for matters of belief and conviction. Recent approaches to forgery have begun to ask new questions, some intended purely for the sake of debate: Ought we to consider any author to have some inherent authenticity that precludes the possibility of a forger's successful parody? If every fake text has a real context, what can be learned about the cultural circumstances which give rise to forgeries? If every real text can potentially engender a parallel history of fakes, what can this alternative narrative teach us? What epistemological prejudices can lead us to swear a fake is genuine, or dismiss the real thing as inauthentic? Many new and fruitful avenues of investigation open up when scholars consider forgery as a creative act rather than a crime. We invited authors to contribute work without imposing any restrictions beyond a willingness to consider new approaches to the subject of ancient fakes and forgeries,. The result is this volume, in which our aim is to display some of the many possibilities available to scholarship when the forger is regarded as “splendide mendax”— splendidly untruthful.

In 1565, the collector and art adviser Girolamo Garimberto congratulated Cesare Gonzaga on the recent acquisition of a series of ancient heads. In Garimberto’s words, what made this purchase so extraordinary was the “presence of an emperor [Geta] so rare, with his wife and two children, that, to tell the truth, this is an extremely rare and impossible occurrence, difficult to be arranged in any century, if not by sculpting them ex novo.” While approving the acquisition, Garimberto was voicing a deep concern: collectors’ high demand for “rare and impossible” works was encouraging the creation of forgeries. During the sixteenth century, for instance, the growing request for ancient coins with unusual reverses fostered a flourishing production of skilfully made fakes, which dealers were not ashamed to bring to the market that were still scorching hot. In such a competitive context, it was crucial to learn how to recognise an original coin from a fake, for instance by scratching the metal with the tip of a knife or hitting it to check its sound. As the market for antiquities boomed, so did the production of fake coins, sculptures, gems, inscriptions. This paper investigates the production of fake antiquities in Italy during the early modern period. Through the discussion of some sixteenth-century forgeries, it addresses the following questions: by whom and how were fake antiquities produced? How and by whom were they sold to collectors? What kind of expertise was required to identify forgeries? Were printed books on ancient coins and antiquarian collections useful to assert the authenticity of a piece?

any new and fruitful avenues of investigation open up when scholars consider forgery as a creative act rather than a crime. We invited authors to contribute work without imposing any restrictions beyond a willingness to consider new approaches to the subject of ancient fakes, forgeries and questions of authenticity. The result is this volume, in which our aim is to display some of the many possibilities available to scholarship. The exposure of fraud and the pursuit of truth may still be valid scholarly goals, but they implicitly demand that we confront the status of any text as a focal point for matters of belief and conviction. Recent approaches to forgery have begun to ask new questions, some intended purely for the sake of debate: Ought we to consider any author to have some inherent authenticity that precludes the possibility of a forger's successful parody? If every fake text has a real context, what can be learned about the cultural circumstances which give rise to forgeries? If every real text can potentially engender a parallel history of fakes, what can this alternative narrative teach us? What epistemological prejudices can lead us to swear a fake is genuine, or dismiss the real thing as inauthentic? Following Splendide Mendax, this is the latest installment of an ongoing inquiry, conducted by scholars in numerous countries, into how the ancient world-its literature and culture, its history and art-appears when viewed through the lens of fakes and forgeries, sincerities and authenticities, genuine signatures and pseudepigrapha. How does scholarship tell the truth if evidence doesn't? As the Cyclops is munching on the comrades of Odysseus, is he lulled into thinking that any creatures so easily deceived must be too stupid to accomplish meaningful deception themselves? Sentimental tradition reads the Odyssey and identifies the blind bard Demodokos, singing his tales at the court of Alkinoos, to be Homer's own self-portrait. But what if we thought about the blind Cyclops in the same way? How does scholarship evaluate the truth con

Riflessione sui vari tipi di falsificazione epigrafica, con particolare attenzione da parte dell'autore per i falsi storici e genealogici

This contribution tackles the presence of modern forgeries of Apollonia Pontica coins in the collection of the National Museum of Aquileia. As demonstrated by the die link analysis, these specimens bear close resemblances to the Apollonia Pontica forgeries featured in the famous Black Sea hoard. Furthermore, no evidence is known for finds of genuine coins of this mint in the area of Aquileia, as this coinage was primary conceived for circulation along the western shore of the Black Sea. As a matter of fact, these numismatic fakes were deliberately purchased to meet the demand of the black market of ancient artifacts in Aquileia. After some seizures undertaken to strike down this illicit trade, they became part of the numismatic collection housed in the local National Museum. In this way, these numismatic fakes could alter the picture of the local monetary circulation in ancient times and, therefore, they need to be detected and then isolated within the archaeological collection of coin finds recovered in Aquileia.

This book discusses non-excavated ancient works of art; how individual works have been deemed authentic, etc.. My review provides an overview of the author's stated positions regarding the various categories of artworks, some of which are illustrated in the volume.