The Forged ‘Ancient’ Statues That Fooled the Met’s Art Experts for Decades

Cool piece up on Atlas Obscura that details one of the more notorious forgery incidents at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art .

In 1933 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, three Etruscan warrior sculptures of black terracotta clay towered over their audience in an all-new exhibit. The ancient art, believed to be from the fifth century B.C., had never been displayed before: two warriors stood eight and six feet high, and a four-foot tall head stared into the audience from under its war helmet and big, curly beard.

The curator who acquired them, John Marshal, wrote “I can find nothing approaching it in importance,” in a report for the museum; these pieces challenged known history of ancient Italian art. They were in amazing condition.

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