the wood there's to us that's why we listen to their stories. reporter every weekend on dw, the on may 20 is 2023. greece is culture ministry announced the rest of the tuition of a trove of looted arts. a total of $351.00 objects were to be returned to the country. they had previously belonged to the disgraced former art dealer. robin simes, the among them is a bronze sculpture depicting the ancient macedonian ruler, alexander the great,

the peace is sou spectacular. did it seem destined to go on display at the acropolis? but there was a problem archaeologist think it's a fake, the archaeologist stuff on lima, and has spent the last 20 years researching fake antiquities. we 1st met him in 2015 when he was still working at the university of honda in germany. here he was just finalizing a catalog listing. suspicious, bronze is for publication. the artworks had come from auction houses, galleries,

and art dealer's. as many had been laundered onto the market by robin symes, the our dealer authorities also sees the alexander bust from lima and believes the bronzes are forgeries, the works of an expert forger or forgeries known in art circles as the spanish master. their identity remains a mystery. to this day, the spanish master often makes bronzes of ancient rulers, like emperor augustus. their faces are covered in a convincing path now and so well preserved. it's almost a miracle problem. so must, the north number kind of vanish. monster is just to make shifts name. no one knows who they are or where they're from. it's a name, i've heard a lot in the trade. so the police one was an abundance auction. this head came from robin symes and was on sale in new york and the december auction the gets

involved to own their home. uh, and that was sold over the counter and then you, you can take store if you're taking the novel move on to that one was an immunity collection told to him in 2015 lehman was a professor at the university of holla and also keeping a close eye on antiquities that came onto the market, each listed for a considerable sum. class prices da says around a 1000000 by whitening they own on the months research often took him to switzerland and important center of our trade. the city of bozza was then home to close stuff leone and our dealer, an archaeologist, with over 40 years of experience, who had sold many antiquities to international museums in 2015 leon

decided to do something unusual for an art dealer that he opened up to us about what he was seeing at international options this in the past, it's only a few of these pieces, a genuine instinct. let's go through them quickly. right? this is a fake, as we'll see how blurry it is. no scope through in antiquity was like that, a big group to meet those kinds of for guessing kind and no secret from antiquity looks like that. ok, with those big bulging eyes, it's a joy. can that be those into closer look at the has the head always gives it away as a here. bitten by. those boxes are okay for longer all packaged things, but this is so fake. it stinks. there's no way it's all fake. and that's true. and they said to some kind of antique, none of these are antiquities that she and izzy this. here's another

here. this menu say the organ bulging through the cloth. this is that was never done in ancient times. so it was always to sneak about buttons as i, they've all been saw of the few genuine ones and all the facts. yes. even of the $47000.83. that's big money. and because of the fact that everyone keeps the mouth shut and nobody says, hey, what's up, buddy, what you have there is a disaster. you've squandered your money. the the oven by 9 by 5, always tried to abide by certain rules in my work. i didn't do all the things other people in my field were doing because i knew that at some point it would blow up in my face the the

because i'm no sight, but i always kept to limit side set because i came from another side from academia come from that isn't just in those days, leon was visiting european museums to see collections live with his expert i. when knew, suspicious ancient pieces appeared to discuss the issue with stuff on lima. the . this is the last video we have of christoph leon. he died unexpectedly in 2017. the new york start market was also under scrutiny. at that time, archaeologist,

oscar white must corolla had tracked how dealers pushed their stakes onto the market. according to him, they were using galleries, art, stairs, and a bundle options we met most corolla in 2015 in his manhattan apartment. he had been a curator at the metropolitan museum of art for many years and was known for his expertise as well as his honesty. he openly criticize the our trade and was seen as a kind of whistle blower by one of my mentors. sherlock holmes, i have learned that both deals inflexible, sent things to watch and officers, because there forgeries, i talked to a deal about this. one said, he smiled and what they're doing, you see, instead of selling it to a customer from their own shop, they don't want to sell for what you want yourself,

which a lot of dealers don't want, don't want to sell to warranty. they put it up for auction under a false name, or let's say from adult collection. but it says the, the for the nonce from an old family collection or from an old collection off of a missed your x. and there's a deal is, was selling the for what you mean, an auction and not being personally involved and who buys it just in america? because it, as so many museums is a prime target for the sale of full address. yes. the bronze bust of alexander, the great, also came from the new york art market from the gallery of dealer robin signs, stuff on lima. and 1st saw it in the year, 2000, not in new york, but in the town of shed in dot, in eastern germany. it was exhibited at the think among museum without information on where it had come from. lima asked the museum about its provenance,

but got no answers. he concluded the piece was illegitimate either because it was looted art or because it was a fake. before the all happened younger quote. the 1st time i was there and took a look, this is and to me it just scream soldier involved and i was quite as a donation. so i bought the catalog and found that even less convincing if i but then i more or less the golf is again, on the also, i mean there are many forgeries and even the best of us console for a fake, it can happen at the highest level there's nothing more to say other guy now the, if you could see that was the on test. so i publish the lecture that i gave here in holland, in the form of i'm using and booklet. and i said that in my opinion, there is no way that the pacing question is from the ancient 12 to an organ or not

teachers over in the hospital and tom mt table, say, plastic arctic sound list his goals in order to fax them and internet to non constant. lemme chef noon. 14 john. even 5 scouts these. the plastic, the hudson's that she wouldn't oh, school stayed in being came on. we'll see them as like of it. and it's believe on some of this because he's the 1st to out of the faithfulness for bills. how's it been off before the mining, when you call it the physical properties of hope. you'd see it as a fuel by or mind to face on kind of on a full i'm don't know. do you think i'm on? because that have to want to look for good. good. the other stuff i to, to ask you what, ok, you scan the noun, i got along apple, it says on these are fine, because with them you can view them fine for me to avoid it and decided it's, it's don't know if there's like a good leaving the for mine to ship also isn't that you won't be stuck else to them . 14 got them for a shot, and this is in some of the cops, isn't not just the head is it is practically a bust on the that being said, much more has been preserved as it relates to bound side 1000. you 2000 prizes were

already quite high. it is that i'd say an original piece like this. right. and alexander in bronze would have gone for between 15 and 25000000 to which ones you can easily let me things by displaying the bronze of alexander the museum, gave it legitimacy, even though it was acquired through a dealer. and there was no documentation about its provenance, lima, and felt the museum was allowing itself to be used as a kind of money laundry for art. a specimen done the nice to speak to scientists and mutual fox, a go down the legal route, just assuming that was something new. i must of the same phone and in a certain way, it's a form of violence. different because of those. give us a, give us a full phone, divide to file that was also the intention. the lawyer for the plaintive told me that the aim was to have me removed from my post in archaeological

circles. forgery is an unpopular topic. but after the trial word got around that lemme and was addressing the issue publicly and a swish collector who wished to remain anonymous since lima a bronze had to investigate. the collector had bought the piece of new york in 1993 and had doubts about whether it was genuine. the the portrait is of emperor augustus being able to examine it was a rare opportunity for layman and his colleague, fellow archaeologist henley, clara by sending the word to lima instead of selling it onto someone else. this was

collect or risk losing a lot of money. interesting pace. if genuine, the head would be worth a good 1000000, a fake. it'd be worth little more than the material. perhaps 500 euros. this is this on 0, but certainly very impressive. the 1st thing you say when you see it is that it's a wonderful head. i'm sending a special because there are very few bronze hazel gases, which would increase its value. so for this, i'll post post to seek to all send via that explains why 4 entries are made. you see, and for just a sold all over the place. and the car step there that there's a bulk at 4 because museums and collect despite we're talking money, money, money is the underlying factor. and the reason this is the only rich people have

the money to pay for it. and these rich people take, get further advantage by donating it, taking a tax deduction, shooting, getting prestige. and this goes on and on and on as we're sitting here, it exists at this very moment. lima and suspected that the spanish master could have made the bronze had his research also provide insight into the forgers market strategies. first of all of his father from my thoughts, the spanish most as forgery, woodshop thinks about which objects it will produce for the market. navea told in the ranking of ocoee a logical loss effect bronze sculpture is a number one community successor, the size of these very special cases to defend. so you'd expect them to attract a lot of attention. increase christmas. he has a grumpy expression. nope,

the ideal we'd imagine for all gust, as you can tell, the artist is playing with the motions to assume that it's a fantastic piece of test. this is in the votes of the university and how to there's a collection of plaster casts of original antiquities. these correspond exactly to the genuine ancient portraits, lima and compared the bronze head from switzerland, with this genuine like this of emperor augustus. archaeologists call this method stylistic analysis. it's a centuries old approach, used to identify genuine works of art simply by looking at them. it takes decades of experience, a wealth of knowledge. and intuition is

in the office here this you can see here what's an official portrayed civil gas. this looks like the eyes on the very opposite. they just have a slight cuz we the nose is alone. and the mouth is oriented towards the vertical axis. the facial expression is very calm, with only slightly raised comfortable as we move and slice to. there's only very light modeling which conveys a calm, timeless face site was diseased. and then we have the jagged edge of the button on the bench at all, but allegedly turn off with great force of the

tires. of looking at these details, you begin to doubt whether it is a faint it's being made perfectly. it's mostly but definitely layman's archaeological expertise told him that the head was a fake. and having the object in hand meant he could have the material of a suspected spanish master forgery, analyzed for the very 1st time the phone whole for institute in philip specializes in carrying out computer tomography or c t scans. usually, the scientists here test industrial products. the disputed alexander bust couldn't

be analyzed during the trial because it went missing. following the exhibition when i go to computers or a patient ready for his scan, that's good. good now, physicist and material scientist. hi mila. we'll examine another suspected forgery . the head of augustus. this hall is essentially one giant c t scanner, one of the most powerful in the world, the, the scanner had the radiation levels are extremely high. so the scientists leave the hall and seal the doors. the, the,

the analysis focuses on the bronze alloy to see if it has the characteristics of bronze created 2000 years ago. but even if it does look for jurors are believe to meltdown ancient coins and use the metal to make new hands. celebration voltage. 9 electronic balls 90 v, which device texas i'm talking to, it's a cooking element detector with $200.00 micro made a pick. so pitch pitch it came off. and now this, this quinta, from a range of the material characteristics correspond with antiquity. so we believe that this sculpture is made of genuine ancient material. i took my to you could find ancient metal to use for this. so okay, so in order to get done and using old materials for forgeries isn't an entirely new

idea using here's a whole you can see it here, but you wouldn't be able to through the crust. of course the whole has been chiseled out in a structured way. jesus last something was slotted in mindfulness and 9 capacity. yeah. so you can see the edges of the insects and paste my teeth. this is my thing, i know, and this material has a different density to the material surrounding it, which has a different ally, compositions and kind of kind of showing those who come up with a sized and carried out metallic graphic tests and then a cross section of the materials and the outer crust. the reason for one thing we determine that the corrosion, which looks very bad to the naked eye, is only on the surface to the shoes. photo sees that leads us to conclude that this artifact was created in modern times and designed to look very old.

the, the test showed the bronze sculpture of augustus to be a think the at the time, step on lima and had uncovered $35.00 bronze works, suspected to be forgeries. and that number was likely to rise if those are for those files, most of it on the image most is web shop divides the labor of a seamless or i could be wrong. that could be more. but i suspect that there are 12, or 3 people who get together and say, what are we going to do next? the take these exceptional bronze portraits of a black african woman. and i felt awfully kind of in. and you have to come up with the idea 1st of all, as of then you have to make the most cost the middle east and then begin ruining it

. so making those damage marks and the degree to make it look ancient. and the end of this, i'd so little of that requires a lot of skill. it falls will just as the tradition museums and you know, means it, museums are obviously never happy when someone calls important pieces from the major collections into question on those 2 devices. that usually also leads to interpersonal problems and trust in place. and then come out of these things, guns and then can't be avoided of a tank or a to fargo. but i think the question of whether these original ancient works full more than full jury's skill is serious enough. but you have to look pause, things like fast and vixen most as a professor at the university of honda, stephan lima was in

a position to be able to freely designate expensive artworks as worthless facts. of course, the practice didn't make him many friends in the our trade or at the museums that were affected in his book about the spanish masters forgeries was published in 201550 at the diamond. how did you, ladies and gentlemen, the students welcome to these book, launch at the mazda and elisa university's archaeological museum of this movie on the page. either to own this, i believe scholars must respond to these challenges quickly, clearly and effectively to law. only then can we defend the foundations of val discipline from this money grabbing attack of to go to the law office up to the,

to this day. it's still not clear who the spanish master is. the person or people behind the forgeries are likely still working in secret smuggling fix onto the international art market. stuff on lima has now retired. we caught up with him again in the city of cologne. he still spends time on the topic of forgeries ever since his book was published. fellow experts from all over the world have sent him images of suspicious bronzes, lima and says that the spanish master is slowly but surely distorting a image of antiquity. the alexander bust from the bank and museum in stand, which landed him in court and 2010 had remained missing until 2023. in the my company for me, which is including the end of may i go to

a newspaper clipping with a photo from a great colleague and those people who, oh he right, was contented. really be what is cooked in woods. uh, i looked at the picture and saw a box in the thoughts was the alexander from stand up, parked to pick the articles and the piece was from the geneva collection of the criminal dealer. robin signs will be in times as quick as i think that collection was discovered in 2006 office wrote on the other side that i, i, there was a legal dispute involving easily in greece. and then the antiquities were returned to italy and also to grace as lou, 2 dogs, it's all queens pizza, or even boulder among the things returned. was the alexander from stand? um it is oh, it's now resurfaced. greece is culture ministry published the list of 351

antiquities restore to the country from the collection of robin symes. number 11 is the alexander bust. the court has now ruled that it was looted. art extend shouldn't have exhibited it without documentation about its origin, just as lima and said in 2000 lima and still believes the bronze is a forgery. he's pleased, it's turned up and hopes the material will be analyzed to some books and it's a great outcome. you live in a bad wouldn't be and if we'd found out they had had been mailed to down off in this, it's more, it's a naive american multi millionaire. i had both it even if that would have been a sensation. the closer to that we just had in the tune script of. but i haven't returned to a country that spectacular arguing on the island a dozen a spectacle. yeah. the 1st time

i went to anything, the split piece is so prestigious. it has such a smell on it that people will get in touch with the, the doesn't the, the, on the slow to move, it's unlikely the authorities in athens don't know that the alexander bronze from robin simes collection is suspected of being a think after all, greece, is culture minister has a doctorate in archaeology, herself. it's now up to greek authorities to make the next move and disclose to the world the providence, the alexander bronze, the,

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a pulse. beginning of a story that takes us along for the ride. it's about the perspectives culture information. this is the, the news w mines the slicing for the traditions and language the have the indigenous people live on the cruiser volumes of the candidates pacific coast. after 2 centuries of oppression. that finding the way back to the root of that culture. the have the people in the seventy's w version now understand

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