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Forgery And Tiaras: The Tiara Of Saitaferne
There are a lot of stories of fakes and frauds throughout history, where even experts have been fooled into thinking certain recreated artefacts are real historical relics. One particularly famous story of historians being fooled was that of the Tiara of Saitaferne, that allegedly belonged to a Scythian king known as Saitapharnes. Scythians lived in a country known at the time as Scythia, which in modern day is now known as Ukraine. In April of 1896 the Louvre museum, national museum of France announced that they had purchased the gold tiara, claiming it was the tiara that belonged to King Saitapharnes.
The museum had apparently purchased this priceless artefact for a mere two hundred thousand French francs. The tiara itself had an inscription that read 'The council and citizens of Olbia honour the great and invincible King Saitapharnes'. To the historical experts at the Louvre, this tiara was confirmed as dating back as far as the 3rd century BC or early 2nd century. According to history books, King Saitapharnes had besieged the Greek colony known as Olbia and was convinced into leaving the city alone with expensive gifts such as tiaras.
Shortly after the Louvre exhibited the tiara there were doubts from outside historians and archaeologists surrounding the actual authenticity of the tiara, one of these archaeologists was Adolf Furtwangler who noted stylistic problems with the tiara's design. He also questioned the real lack of aging of the artefact, but the Louvre continued to defend the authenticity of this supposed kings treasure. Eventually this news story ended up travelling all the way to Odessa, located within Southern Ukraine.
Two years previously before the Louvre purchased the controversial tiara; two dealers had approached and paid skilled goldsmith Israel Rouchomovsky to make the tiara. They explained to him that the tiara was a gift for an archaeological friend and provided the goldsmith with details from a recent excavation to aid the tiara's design. It was not until the news had spread worldwide that Rouchomovsky realised that his tiara had been used to deceive. He then travelled to Paris and presented himself to the Louvre as the maker of the tiara. Experts at the museum refused to believe he was the maker of the tiara until he recreated a section of the crown.
Highly embarrassed by this revelation the museum hid the fake artefact away into storage, whereas its creator Rouchomovsky become famous for his work and earned a medal at the Paris Salon of Decorative Arts. He then continued to live in Paris until his death in 1934; the tiara was then borrowed in 1997 by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for a special exhibition presenting Rouchomovsky's work.
About the Author Dominic Donaldson is an expert in archaeology. Find out more about Tiaras and how the website available offers a wide selection of beautiful jewellry.
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