The Mystery Conman: The Murky Business of Counterfeit Antiques
directed by Sonje Storm
DW Documentary
Jan 13, 2017
Fake art sits unnoticed in galleries around the world. A talented fraudster has been playing the art market and ripping off collectors for years. Who is the mystery conman? Discover more in THE MYSTERY CONMAN - THE MURKY BUSINESS OF COUNTERFEIT ANTIQUES.
Museum curators and art collectors want to sweep the topic of counterfeiting under the carpet. But archaeologist Stefan Lehmann is on the hunt for the elusive figure whose counterfeit antiques are in some of the world's biggest collections.
Around 40 fakes have been discovered and Lehmann believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Alongside antique dealer Christoph Leon, Lehmann follows the forgery trail through Europe and to the US.
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Transcript
[Music]
0:07
69
0:17
well John's husband is this auction
0:20
houses usually care only about what goes
0:22
over the counter what makes money
0:24
animals genuine and fake goods go over
0:27
the counter there is no difference
0:32
the man is rather ethical principles
0:34
overboard as long as it sells anyone
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happy
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[Music]
1:04
ninety-five million dollar
1:13
[Music]
1:20
these bronze heads are from auction
1:23
houses galleries and art dealers they
1:26
all have one thing in common
1:29
archaeologist Stefan Lehmann reckons
1:31
they're fakes the work of a mystery
1:34
super forger known in German art circles
1:37
as the Spanish master no one knows who
1:40
he is but Lehman is on his trail sponsor
1:44
masters nota nom the Spanish master is a
1:48
makeshift name nobody knows exactly what
1:52
it's supposed to mean or where it comes
1:53
from I've heard the expression used in
1:56
the art trade in general my recently met
2:00
an archaeologist who claimed to have
2:01
coined the expression because he knows a
2:04
forger from Spain when I asked him for
2:07
his name he said oh I can't think of it
2:09
right now
2:11
Lehman describes these portraits of
2:14
ancient rulers to the forger Augustus
2:18
Caesar
2:20
Alexander the Great all the sculptures
2:24
have a common attribute an emotional
2:27
facial expression which is actually not
2:29
typical of classical antiquity they're
2:33
always bronze heads which are an
2:35
especially high demand among art
2:37
collectors this one was put up for
2:44
auction at Barnum's this is one of the
2:46
heads that was offered in New York by
2:48
Robin Symes in the December auction
2:50
it's about jewel this was acquired
2:54
conventionally over the counter in her
2:55
New York antique shop if you take
2:59
Aladdin of all born this one was put up
3:03
for auction in Munich this one's been
3:06
sold several times it's already got
3:09
quite a history today it's in the
3:10
possession of a foundation in Geneva in
3:12
a museum as far as I know this one is in
3:15
Geneva - lemon is a professor at Martin
3:19
Luther University and Haller from his
3:22
office the Berlin born expert researches
3:24
the art market and find so many heads he
3:27
considers dubious that he has to shake
3:29
his own load this one still on offer
3:32
approximately 250 AD price upon request
3:36
of course higher self na'far his claw
3:41
[Music]
3:45
what up close the price well it starts
3:48
at about a million my name you won
4:00
as an art dealer for 40 years Christophe
4:04
Leon sold many major pieces of ancient
4:07
art to international museums he made a
4:10
decision that's unusual for an art
4:12
dealer he wants to talk about his
4:14
observations in the ancient art trade he
4:18
shows us the catalogue of an
4:19
international auction house that sold
4:21
off a collection this in the past only a
4:25
few pieces of genuine let's go through
4:27
and quickly this one is so fake it
4:30
stinks look it's so blurred a sculptor
4:32
in antiquity would never have done that
4:34
you can forget it depends if it Kissin
4:40
kind o ancient sculpture ever looked
4:42
like that with these eyes these big
4:44
bulgy eyes
4:45
this one's ridiculous you can tell by
4:48
the hair the hair always gives the game
4:49
away the vases are okay we won't waste
4:52
our time on them this is so fake it
4:54
stinks this one's impossible it's all
4:57
rubbish this one here - none of them are
5:01
antiquities here's another one with a
5:06
male member bulging through the cloth
5:08
that was never done in ancient times
5:12
this is this antique Azizah it's always
5:15
always to sneak a mouse button it's just
5:17
a list oh it all got sold the few
5:20
genuine works and all the forgeries
5:23
$47,000 eighty-three thousand fifty nine
5:25
thousand that's big money and de casa
5:29
hey does a Kadima get ahead in
5:32
everybody keeps tight-lipped and says
5:34
nothing no one goes and says careful my
5:36
friend what you have here is a disaster
5:38
you wasted your money Leon says up to
5:42
50% of all antiques sold at auction are
5:45
fakes
5:45
it's an incredible figure
5:47
[Music]
5:50
high above Manhattan the experienced
5:54
American archaeologist Oscar white
5:56
muscarella watches the art trade he
6:00
worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
6:02
as a curator for many years and is a
6:05
renowned expert he's considered the good
6:08
conscience of archaeology because he
6:10
doesn't mince his words you could say
6:13
he's a kind of whistleblower why one of
6:19
my mentors here Sherlock Holmes I have
6:22
learned that both deals are flexible son
6:26
thinks the watching house is because
6:27
they're forgeries I talked to a deal
6:31
about this once and he smiled and what
6:33
they're doing you see instead of selling
6:35
it to a customer from their own shop
6:37
they don't want to salvage it we don't
6:39
want her soul for interest and a lot of
6:40
dealers don't one don't want to sell
6:42
avoid it they put it up for auction
6:43
under a false name or they'll say from
6:47
an old collection ministers the the
6:49
provenance from an old family collection
6:52
or from an old collection or from mr. X
6:55
and these are dealers were selling the
6:59
forgery and auction and not being
7:02
personally involved in who buys it you
7:04
see in America because it has so many
7:06
museums is a prime target but the sale
7:10
of forgeries yes
7:13
[Music]
7:16
New York may seem far away but the
7:20
international trade has made its way to
7:22
provincial eastern Germany to a Stefan
7:25
layman experienced personally this
7:28
bronze bust of Alexander the Great was
7:31
presented at the vinkor man museum in
7:33
Stendhal in saxony-anhalt in the year
7:35
2000
7:36
later it emerged that the bust had
7:39
belonged to the London art dealer Robin
7:41
Symes Stefan Lehmann attributes the bus
7:45
to the Spanish master whose style he
7:47
recognizes in it the special appearance
7:49
of the edges where it was supposedly
7:51
broken in ancient times and evenly
7:54
spread patina the face completely
7:57
preserved as if by magic Lehman went
8:00
public with the news that the museum was
8:02
displaying the bust without clear
8:04
details of its provenance it's what all
8:07
happening younger cooked I was there and
8:09
I took a look at it and to me it was
8:12
crying out that it was a forgery
8:14
I was quite astonished so I bought the
8:17
catalogue and I found that even less
8:18
convincing I mean there are many
8:23
forgeries and even the best of us can
8:25
fall for a fake that's completely best
8:27
in Keisel fool there's nothing more to
8:29
say
8:31
so I published a lecture which I gave
8:33
here in Hara in the form of a museum
8:36
booklet and expressed my own view that
8:39
in my opinion it's out of the question
8:41
that the piece under consideration is
8:44
from the ancient world an organ or an
8:48
antique is over nightfall and Tom unti
8:51
cables ancient bronze bust of Alexander
8:53
the Great or a well-made forgery by
8:55
international art dealer mafia ten years
8:58
ago this sculpture was considered a
9:00
sensation displayed at the vinkle minh
9:02
museum allegedly on loan from a private
9:04
collector but the accusations that it's
9:06
a fake go back a long way but not before
9:10
time I still have the same opinion as
9:11
stated in an academic publication that
9:13
we are dealing with the forgery or the
9:16
Winkelman society however accused him of
9:18
libel and sued was this simply a
9:20
scholarly dispute or an archaeological
9:23
scandal to avoid a lengthy trial a
9:25
mediator was hired
9:27
but meanwhile the purported bronze
9:29
sensation has been missing since the
9:32
exhibition 10 years ago
9:34
Osmund indeed I should speak for
9:36
scientists to go down the legal route in
9:39
Sumy that was a new departure I must say
9:44
and in a certain way it's a form of
9:47
violence your focus of this Avista
9:52
thoughtful goodbye it a foul Spectre
9:54
certain vital there was also the
9:56
intention the lawyer for the plaintiff
9:57
told me the aim was to get me removed
9:59
from my post eventually the trial ended
10:03
at the Berlin Regional Court with a
10:06
settlement the details of which both
10:08
parties have agreed to keep secret but
10:11
instead of shutting Lehman up the trial
10:13
spurred him on to carry out more
10:15
research forgeries are an unpopular
10:18
topic in archeological circles Lehman is
10:21
one of the few archaeologists to address
10:23
it publicly and word has got around
10:26
today he's looking at a new case a Swiss
10:30
collector who wishes to remain anonymous
10:32
bought a bronze head in New York but
10:35
then started having doubts about whether
10:37
it was genuine usually Lehman looks for
10:41
bronze heads at art fairs and in museums
10:44
galleries and auction catalogues now for
10:48
the first time a possible work by the
10:50
Spanish master is on his very own desk
10:54
it's a portrait of Augustus Caesar it's
10:57
a stroke of luck for Lehman and his
10:59
colleague Henry clue who's also an
11:01
archaeologist the Swiss collector says
11:05
Lehman could have sold the head on and
11:07
is now risking the loss of a good
11:09
million euros
11:17
impressive piece if the head turns out
11:20
to be a forgery it will be immediately
11:22
worthless this phones thereby endure
11:31
it's certainly very impressive you look
11:34
at it and the first thing you say is
11:37
it's a wonderful head it's also
11:40
spectacular because there are very few
11:42
bronze heads of Augustus that also
11:44
increases its value
11:54
prices for works of ancient art have
11:57
risen rapidly in recent years many
12:00
people looking for a safe investment by
12:02
works of art Stephan Lehmann believes
12:05
the stock markets and the trade in
12:06
antiquities are linked it's actually all
12:12
iron navaja de mons is the likely
12:15
outcome of course it's something you can
12:17
easily explain with the new era after
12:19
1989 when there was a whole new market
12:23
of billionaires oil billionaires stores
12:28
in this big idea of between meter they
12:30
got the other key bells and harmful the
12:33
stock markets went crazy people learned
12:36
quick money and now there are very many
12:38
people with almost inconceivable amounts
12:41
of money and one of the investments
12:45
recommended by banks is antiques
12:48
paintings and works of ancient art what
12:51
do you belong Tiki don't classify us
12:54
from Iceland the Spanish master and his
12:56
circle tried to help by meeting market
12:58
demand with forgery Simba Dolph Sabbath
13:01
reading that explains why four trees are
13:04
made you see and for jeewa sold all over
13:08
the place uh and because they have their
13:11
dead there's a market for it because
13:13
museums and collectors buy it
13:15
we're talking money money money is the
13:19
underlining factor and the reason this
13:22
is done because only rich people have
13:24
the money to pay for it and these rich
13:27
people take get further advantage by
13:29
donating it taking a tax deduction she
13:32
ain't getting prestige
13:33
and this goes on and on and on as we're
13:36
sitting here it exists at this very
13:37
moment
13:43
so the trade in antiquities is obviously
13:46
a wash with forgeries according to Oskar
13:48
muscarella surprisingly many experts in
13:52
German museums and universities know
13:54
about it - but it's frowned upon - right
13:57
expert opinions for the art trade
13:59
because of concerns that in addition to
14:01
forgeries there's a lot of looted art on
14:04
the market Marco's Harrogate who heads
14:12
one of the sections of Berlin's Pergamon
14:14
museum has bought his staff from writing
14:16
expert opinions on antiquities for the
14:19
art trade let's get doctor ions RTD
14:24
indigent is on the one hand you have
14:26
those who say we have to document
14:27
illegally exported works or academia so
14:30
that the knowledge does not get lost
14:34
designed on the other hand you have
14:36
those who say that my writing expert
14:38
opinions you raise the value of a work
14:42
of art and make it even more profitable
14:45
and that is also my personal opinion who
14:48
does this let's stop by the position of
14:51
us all I decided that we could not and
14:53
should not write any more evaluations
14:56
because the experts are the ones who
14:58
assess an item and give it its value
15:00
with their assessment often via team
15:03
Christophe Leon was an art dealer for
15:06
many years and has a doctorate in
15:08
archaeology we joined him on his way to
15:10
France a museum there is allegedly
15:15
exhibiting several heads of dubious
15:17
provenance including some works
15:19
ascribable to the spanish master
15:25
[Music]
15:30
Leon has known the archaeologists
15:33
Stephan Lehmann from Haller for many
15:35
years whenever works from antiquity show
15:38
up that appear suspicious they exchange
15:41
views and information Leon says the
15:44
market for forgeries has been booming
15:46
for several years now as an art dealer
15:49
he personally experienced the
15:51
developments on the art market for 40
15:53
years
15:58
ah dese nuts in home that I spent four
16:03
years at Baron University until 1970 and
16:06
an Borowski one of the biggest dealers
16:09
in antiquities at the time asked me to
16:12
join him in Basel we worked together for
16:15
a year and a half and then I set up my
16:17
own business I've been an art dealer
16:18
ever since but I never really left
16:20
academia me fellows
16:33
happened by mine over the years I've
16:35
always tried to stay within certain
16:37
rules of the game I did not do all the
16:41
things people around me were doing back
16:42
then because I knew it would backfire
16:46
sooner or later because I'm no saint but
16:51
I put limits on myself from the word go
16:53
because I came from a different side I
16:55
came from academia
16:57
[Music]
17:02
[Music]
17:07
meanwhile in Halle Stephen Lehmann
17:10
continues to examine the bronze head
17:12
from the New York art market
17:18
his research has also exposed the market
17:21
strategies adopted by the alleged forger
17:27
first responders from Isis the Spanish
17:30
masters forgery workshop naturally
17:32
thinks about images it can produce for
17:34
the market the via told in the ranking
17:37
of archaeological objects bronze
17:40
sculptures are number one there's
17:44
something very special and we can expect
17:46
them to attract great attention here's a
17:50
grumpy expression rather than the ideal
17:53
one we imagine for Augustus you can tell
17:58
that the artist is playing with emotions
17:59
a little bit but it's a fantastic piece
18:03
the fish
18:10
Stephane Lehmann also heads the
18:13
Archaeological Museum belonging to the
18:15
University in Halle its storerooms
18:17
contain a collection of plaster casts of
18:20
original artworks from classical
18:22
antiquity these correspond exactly to
18:25
the genuine antique portraits
18:27
whenever Lemmon examines a suspected
18:29
forgery he always compares this with an
18:32
original as in the case of this portrait
18:34
of Augustus Caesar archaeologists call
18:38
this method stylistic analysis
18:40
it's a centuries-old approach used to
18:43
identify genuine works of art simply by
18:46
looking at them it takes years of
18:48
experience a wealth of knowledge and
18:51
intuition
18:57
is in the of each other's you can see
19:01
here how an official portrait of
19:03
Augustus looks these eyes aren't very
19:06
arched they just have a slight curve and
19:10
there's the long nose in the mouth which
19:13
is oriented toward the vertical axis
19:15
then this calm facial expression this
19:18
very calm expression with only slightly
19:20
raised contours only very light modeling
19:23
which transports a very calm
19:25
timeless face sight losses is East
19:29
Formica
19:39
and then we have a serrated edge at the
19:41
bottom hardly man at all but allegedly
19:45
torn off with great force
19:57
you tired when you look at the details
19:59
you have doubts about whether it really
20:01
is a fake Cobalts 5 her bouzouki file
20:05
shows like this is a perfect come on
20:07
it's perfectly done masterly so to speak
20:15
my stylish Stefan Lehmann really does
20:24
think the head is a fake but to make
20:27
sure his verdict is right he has to get
20:30
the head examined again by scientific
20:33
means
20:36
[Music]
20:42
the Fraunhofer Institute in foot
20:45
specializes in testing materials
20:48
normally the scientists here test
20:50
industrial products and research
20:52
prototypes an alleged forgery by the
20:55
Spanish master is a first for them art
20:59
evaluator hard Marat wants to have the
21:02
bronze head scanned it's the first time
21:05
anyone has tried to analyze a suspect
21:08
sculpture head in this way we've already
21:16
conducted a range of tests and to round
21:20
it off we'd like a CT scan of the inside
21:24
of the head what exactly are you hoping
21:28
to be able to see with the CT scan you
21:33
can spot casting defects repair marks
21:35
and what I'm really looking for is the
21:37
holes left behind by the spacers use
21:41
English
21:47
Mona is hoping to see inside the head
21:50
into the material it's made of to find
21:53
out the method used to produce it
21:55
I reckon he's alright they're looking
21:58
good and stable well Gladys is set up
22:05
for his CT scan
22:09
now Miller and the Fraunhofer Institute
22:11
physicists are ready to examine the head
22:14
Mira is a materials scientist and
22:17
evaluates works of art made of metal
22:19
porcelain or fabrics this time it's
22:22
bronze purported to be from ancient
22:24
times the first of the pictures pops up
22:27
on the screen from Kevin who's even
22:34
brighter there you have your spacer
22:38
looks quite funny that's good too
22:52
but there appears to be a serious
22:55
problem this is very strong radiation we
23:01
can hardly recognize any sharp material
23:03
structure you get the feeling that there
23:08
are definitely some cavities in the
23:09
material but you can't define precisely
23:11
how deep they are we simply didn't have
23:14
strong enough radiation energy to
23:16
penetrate this head properly so all
23:21
Gustus will have to have his head
23:23
examined again back in Halle Stefan
23:27
Lehmann has fresh news a fellow academic
23:30
has brought to his attention a number of
23:32
suspect bronze sculptures in France
23:36
God's Word in capsule engine was he owns
23:42
it funk like in moves on as regards the
23:45
heads in the Museum in the South of
23:47
France in Mahjong
23:48
a private museum belonging to an
23:50
Englishman who made a lot of money loved
23:53
art he collected and then built a Museum
23:56
of antiquity in the South of France and
24:00
suddenly and this really surprised me
24:03
several ancient Roman bronze heads
24:06
showed up here one of them has long hair
24:09
that's highly suspect then there's this
24:14
head with short hair that was unknown to
24:16
me yes it's very strange and then called
24:21
stiff and then we have a head that is
24:23
certainly supposed to have been part of
24:24
a bust or a statue as you can tell from
24:27
the broken edge the person is wearing a
24:30
full beard and striking mustache I am
24:36
slark so all at once we have one known
24:40
in addition to two three four five of
24:43
these life-sized or slightly larger than
24:45
life-size heads made of bronze what
24:49
you're obviously supposed to come from
24:51
statues here in normal that's who come
24:59
meanwhile Christophe Leon has arrived in
25:01
the South of France he wants to take a
25:04
look himself at the Museum Stephane
25:06
Lehmann told him about
[Narrator] In his view, what some of his counterparts in the art trade do, is up to them. But when purported works from antiquity, that are considered highly suspicious by academics, make their way into museums -- that's going too far!
[Christoph Leon, Art Dealer] You can already identify the Museum's problem areas on the Internet, because the exhibits are very well depicted, well photographed, well presented. But there's a golden rule in archaeology. The key is forensics. In other words, you have to examine things yourself. And then, when you've looked at a piece, and determined that it's genuine, you have to be honest enough to admit that you got it right.
Mougins, France
We have to start fighting to keep museums free of forgeries. Museums are standard works. Imagine if Art History were suddenly studied on the basis of forgeries!
[Narrator] He's taking a look at the heads in the Museum. He wants to make up his own mind first before he makes his assessment known.
[Christoph Leon, Art Dealer] This is completely wrong way. Way off the mark. These locks of hair, like snakes. No! It's quite possible that this is a forgery by the Spanish master. I would definitely examine it with that in mind. Then I might be convinced. But, as I've said, one of the features of the Spanish master is that he tries to create ancient heads, but never quite succeeds. Ultimately, these heads portray a different zeitgeist, a different spirit. you can see it. No head of hair was ever portrayed like that in antiquity. Didn't happen. This head is strange, too. I don't trust it. It's not an ancient style, portraying someone like that. There's no such thing -- an ancient face with eyes rolled upward. And ultimately, things were sold to him that had already graced the depots of various antiquities dealers for years. And then things like that came along. That's definitely a fake. A head like that is not from antiquity. I have my doubts about this, too. And things come along, and you get carried away, and you want to have them. But, that's obviously what happens when you put together a big collection under pressure. And there are many objects here. The Museum's full. Like I said, all Museums have erroneous purchases in their basements. Lots of them. This museum, too. But they should sort through them, and only exhibit the real ones.
[Narrator] Stefan Lehmann is writing a book about the works of art he ascribes to the Spanish master. He has pictures of 32 bronze sculptures on his desk. He says the oldest items date from the 1970s.
[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] The Spanish master's workshop divides the labor, I assume, but I could be wrong. There could be more. But I suspect that there are one, or two, or three people who think. "What are we going to do next?" This here is an exceptional piece -- a bronze portrait of a black African woman. Do we even have the idea. "Let's do something like that, now"? They have to make the molds, cast the metal, and then ruin it all, make damage marks, create a fontina, make it look ancient. Well, that requires a lot of skill. Here we have two bronze sculptures. One is the head of a lady dated to the late Hellenistic period, or the second century, depending on academic opinion. And this one is a purported goddess -- a bust -- that was placed in a round shield at Tondo, as it's called. They're all part of the ancient art collection in Basel, and are on show there.
Basel, Switzerland
[Music]
[Narrator] The Museum of ancient art in Basel is the only Museum in Switzerland to exhibit exclusively classical antiques. The two sculptures Stephan Lehmann believes to be highly suspicious, stood here, considered stars of the exhibition. Museum Director Andrea Bignasca has sent one of them to the workshop to have it examined once again by conservators.
[Music] The museum received the sculptures as part of a private legacy gift from the Ludwig Collection in Aachen. Stephan Lehmann thinks the sculpture is the work of the Spanish master.
[Andrea Bignasca, Basel Museum of Ancient Art] I have to say, this all surprised me. We didn't know that Lehmann was conducting such investigations, and that he had included our two bronze sculptures from the Ludwig Collection.
[Narrator] Their former owners Peter and Irene Ludwig, collected art and acquired this bronze sculpture on the art market. But the Museum has no information about exactly where it comes from. The idea of classical works with no known origin, or provenance, making their way into public museums via the art market, is something Stefan Lehmann deplores.
[Andrea Bignasca, Basel Museum of Ancient Art] Herr Lehmann is a classical archeologist. He's a professor at a university. He's a curator at the Archaeological Museum. But he's no specialist in bronze statues, although he seems to think so. What I don't like in this case is this broadside on me personally, on the Museum, on my colleagues. So far, there's absolutely no proof. So, I'm sticking to the version that these objects are original, classical, works of art.
[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] Yes, of course, the museums are never amused -- obviously -- when important artifacts that are shown in their main chamber are cast into doubt. It always leads immediately to personal differences. That's normal. You can't avoid that entirely. But I think the question of whether they are original sculptures, or modern forgeries, is so important, that we have to be above these trifles.
[Narrator] Back at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute, preparations are underway for a second scan of the Swiss collector's Augustus. After the failure of the first attempt to get a CT scan, Material Scientist Harold Miller is now getting the bronze head x-rayed again in Europe's most powerful linear accelerator. Until now, no Museum collector was prepared to hand over a suspected forgery for such an examination. So no work ascribed to the Master has yet been proved fake by these scientific methods.
[Music]
The scientists have to leave the hall, because of the extremely high radiation from the linear accelerator. The examination is focused on the metal alloy in the bronze sculpture. Is it really from antiquity? Does it have the same characteristics as a bronze statue made 2,000 years ago? one suspicion is that the forgers melt down ancient coins to cast new heads -- a clever approach.
[Man] What is this device?
[Harold Muller, Materials Scientist] It's a Perkin Elmer Detector, with 200 micrometer pixel pitch. We believe, because of a range of material characteristics that correspond with antiquity, that this sculpture is made of genuine ancient material. There is ancient material available for things like this, and it would not be an entirely new idea to use, or to have used, old material for forgeries.
[Narrator] This time, the process works. Muller looks at the cross-sectional images of the head, and he notices that the patina on the head is only on the outside surface. That's strange.
[Harold Muller, Materials Scientist] You can see that that this material has a different density from the material around it, which has a different alloy composition. We've carried out metallographic tests, meaning on a cross-section of the material, and the outer crust, and determined, for one thing, that the corrosion, which looks very bad to the naked eye, is only on the surface. That leads us to the conclusion that this artefact was created in modern times, and designed to look very old.
[Narrator] Scientific methods have proved the bronze sculpture of Augustus to be a fake.
[Markus Hilgert, Museum of the Ancient Near East] I didn't think that the authorities are reluctant to regulate the art market, because a strong art market is viewed as in the interests of the German economy, maybe without exactly knowing what is going on today. I think we've learned a lot in the last few months. To start with, this trade, because it is so profitable, attracts those who try to make a profit from forged artifacts. So we have to be on our guard. Especially when we take note of how imprecisely many objects are described when they are offered up for sale. e If you want to import Ukrainian sausage to the EU, you need an import license, certification, a list of ingredients, and chemical analyses. Cultural artifacts, archaeological artifacts, can be imported just like that, without all the documentation and certification. So we have to assume that a corresponding proportion of forgeries is on the market, as much as 40 to 50 percent. Halle, Germany
[Music]
[Narrator] As an archaeologist at the University, Stephan Lehmann can avail himself of his academic freedom to evaluate items from the art trade. Today he has reason to be satisfied. His new book, about suspect and forged bronze heads, has been published, with the results of the new tests at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute, which give him certainty.
[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] Ladies and gentlemen, dear students, I'm happy to welcome you here at our book presentation at their Martin Luther University in Hara. In my opinion, scholarship must respond clearly and effectively to these challenges. Only then can we defend the basis of our subject against this money-grabbing attack.
[Narrator] And this is how he presents the results of his latest investigations into the museum in France.
[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] In Mougins, a small town where Picasso spent his retirement near Nice, a British multi-millionaire has established a private museum which is home to a number of heads which he acquired and exhibited. But which can hardly be described as classical works of art, in my opinion.
New York, USA
[Narrator] But while Stefan Lehmann presents the results of his research, another bronze head, which he describes in his book as highly suspicious, shows up in the US. It's presented as a loan from an anonymous private collector. And it's this bronze head of Alexander the Great which Lehmann attributes to the workshop of the Spanish master.
[Music]
It's no isolated case. Archaeologist Oscar Muscarella has observed that museums in the U.S. have often exhibited dubious works of art.
[Oscar White Muscarella, Former Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art] When the prominent collector decides to make a donation to a Museum, in 99% of the times and perhaps a 100%, but I'll be generous. In 99% of the time, the Curator and Director will accept it ipso facto. Why? Because they want this collector to give more things, and also make financial contributions. In very few cases, and if a Curator does recognize that one or two objects are a forgery, they'll keep them in the basement. In very few rare cases kept in the basement. In most cases it's on exhibit from the collection of "So and So donated." You see, and the donor's family get the prestige of the situation. And you have this all over America.
[Narrator] The bronze sculpture is being exhibited without any details of provenance. Christoph Leon , an old hand in the art trade, also comes to the conclusion that the head is the work of the Spanish master.
[Christoph Leon, Art Dealer] And now it's showed up in the Metropolitan, where it's being exhibited as a loan. Being shown there certainly won't be bad for its market value. I expect the head to show up at an auction again in the not-too-distant future. For sure it'll show up again.
[Narrator] And what about the Spanish master's identity and whereabouts? We're still in the dark about them. Stefan Lehmann suspects that what he's uncovered so far is only the tip of the iceberg, and that there are many forgeries on show in museums around the world.