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Roman coins were struck using a minting process, not cast, so these coin molds were created for forgery.
Although tomb robbing throughout the middle east had been in evidence since ancient times, but with the influx of the foreign travelers, it really began to proliferate and continues to this day. When the demand for ancient art and archaeology began to increase, a new type of forger developed. Skilled copies of anything began to appear. Objects in wood, stone, gold, silver, and bronze made to look like an original were now available. We are still dealing with a method of making money as the primary motivation.
From a personal standpoint, I began to notice a secondary gain in the deception process in my dealing with Egyptian shopkeepers in the days after the second world war when travel was once more open to the public. For some time, I had developed an interest in Egyptian scarabs. The going price from a Cairo shop was five English pounds for a nice one. This is how it worked. You would come into a shop, greeted warmly. asked to be seated and were served a cup of coffee. A certain degree of small talk preceded the presentation of a wooden tray of scarabs, all of which were obvious fakes. You would smile and tell the shopkeeper that you were interested only in ancient scarabs dating from the time of the pharaohs.
A second tray would appear with half excellent quality genuine ancient scarabs and half modern copies. You were being tested to find out just how much you knew about what you were asking for. When you had established yourself as a knowledgeable person, you then entered the barter or negotiation stage of the endeavor You selected a scarab that you liked and asked the price. Fifty English pounds. When you immediately got up to leave, the shopkeeper would indicate that for you there would be a special price. Ultimately, you would pay five pounds for each scarab. You never bought more than four or five in order to keep the price at a standard level.
All of this was done “in house”. The searching the desert for real scarabs and the manufacturing of the fake ones was done by the family of shopkeepers.
After the purchases were completed, you were given another cup of coffee, and an invitation to visit the home of the shopkeeper in a village near Cairo that evening.
Upon arriving, it was noticed that the entire village had been invited to meet the English Professor who had traveled down from London for the sole purpose of buying antiques from the shopkeeper. Everyone was duly impressed. The cost of this occasion was far more than the small profit made from the sale of a few scarabs. It was very important that the shopkeeper be seen as a person with an international reputation.
But why the charade of offering me a tray filled with copies? If I had not been knowledgeable like most of his customers, he would have made more money, but would not have developed a respect for a person in his mind of a higher order which he could show off to his friends and neighbors. Strange by European standards, but typical of the oriental mind set.
In the late Victorian period and well into the new century, more and more people traveled and made purchases in Italy, Greece and Egypt. The demand became higher and after the discovery of Tut Ankh Amun in l922, more and more interest began to develop not only in Egyptian artifacts, but anything from the ancient world.
Business establishments in London, Rome and Paris began to deal in antiquities. Much later, this also occurred in America. You could still buy genuine artifacts, but like anything else, there developed a trade in fakes. Since the demand outpaced the supply, the forgers began to appear. After WW2, these businesses grew as did the interest in the ancient world. My five pound scarab now cost in excess of fifty English pounds. Auction houses began to sell ancient antiques. As they increased their ability to separate the genuine from the fakes, it required that the forgers also become more skilled.
We are now being told that American museums are very much in the nefarious business of buying (and often selling) ancient pieces. A forger of a well authenticated work of art are getting past the professionals at the museums. The museums themselves are now greedy and are taking advantage of the public demand for works of art, genuine or otherwise.
New businesses in ancient art on all levels has been so financially attractive that otherwise honest dealers are doing anything they can to get their hands on anything they can sell, genuine or fake. Governments in the middle east have began to institute extreme controls on anything leaving their country. This has been an even greater motivation for the forgers.
The psychological need for recognition, the need to present oneself if even in their mind a belief that they are able to fool the museums, and the unsuspecting public is important to the forger. He gains a great deal of satisfaction from having outsmarted everyone and often made money in doing so.
Students, scholars and others are encouraged to continue to take a serious interest in the ancient world. There is no ethical reason for not buying art, both ancient and modern. One must be aware that it is very unethical to rob ancient sites and violate rules and regulations designed to protect the ancient past. Museums all over the world make copies to be sold in their museum shops. There are reputable international dealers who are both skilled and honest. There are now organizations which police these dealers and insure the public regarding their integrity. Many of them offer products on the internet and on Ebay. The majority of sellers on the internet are not reliable and one must put forth effort to determine who is reputable and who is not.
I am very much afraid that at the end of the day, the primary reason for forgers is that of making money. There are other psychological reasons, but they are far outweighed by the hope of financial reward.
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