Etruscan terracotta warriors
From Freepedia
Three Etruscan terracotta warriors are art forgeries, statues made to resemble work of ancient Etruscans. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art bought them between 1915 and 1921.
Creators of the statues were Italian brothers Pio and Alfonso Ricardi and three of their six sons. They began their career as art forgers when Roman art dealer Domenico Fuschini hired them to forge first chards of ancient ceramics and eventually whole jars.
Their first larger work was a large bronze chariot. In 1908 Fuschini informed British Museum that the chariot had been found in the old Etruscan fort near Orvieto and Riccardis had been commissioned to clean it. British Museum bought it and published the find in 1912. Soon after Pio Ricardi died.
Ricardis enlisted aid of sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti and created a statue Old Warrior. It was 202 cm tall and was naked from the waist down. It was also missing its left hand and a right thumb. In 1915 they sold it to Metropolitan Museum of Art that also bought their next work, the Colossal Head in 1916. Experts decided it must have been part of a 7-metre statue.
The next work was a huge statue, the Big Warrior, designed by Pio's eldest son Ricardo. Forgers created a huge statue that was over two meters tall. They glazed and colored it. Then they pushed it over so it crashed on the floor and rebuilt it from the pieces. Ricardo Riccardi died in a riding accident before it was finished. 1918 the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought it for $40,000 and published the find 1921. The forgers dispersed.
The three warrior statues were first exhibited together in 1933. In the following years, various art historians especially in Italy presented their suspicions that the statues might be forgeries, but there was no proof either way. Finally, in 1960, a chemical tests indicated that the black glaze contained manganese that Etruscans had never used. The museum still was not convinced until Etruscan experts realized that the statues had been built from pieces, instead of being fired as a single object, as Etruscans had done.
Alfredo Fioravanti was still alive. In January 5 1961 he entered the US consulate in Rome and signed a confession. As a proof he presented the thumb of the Old Warrior he had kept as a memento. At February 15 the Metropolitan Museum announced that the statues were forgeries.
