FAKED ANTIQUES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, 24 May 1910, Page 3

FAKED ANTIQUES.

I HOW AMERICAN COLLECTORS ARE DUPED. An instructive illustration of tht Italian export traffic in faked antiquities is afforded by a huge bronze Romar chariot just sequestrated by the Customs authorities at Turin, and placed | in the hands of the police. The chariot, which was about to rush the frontier en route for London, has been forwarded by Domenico Fuschini, an antiquarian dealer, at Orvieto, in a strong, tightly-fitting packing-case, and specified as theatrical property. | The dealer, after vainly trying to persuade the Customs to pass the chariot as an antique worth £60, for export purposes, subsequently stated that it was modern, and valued at over £800. The Government assembled a commission of experts, who, on the first examination, were unable to pronounce judgment, so perfect was the fake. Certain pieces, which were old work, and some lunettes and decorations cleverly soldered, told their tale, and the wheels, .thickly bound with iron, were, says the "Corriere Delia Sera," found to be well coated with modern rust. It was supposed that the pseudoantique was purchased by an American collector.