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3 min read<\/p>\n3 min read<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
An Italian tourist attraction sold to visitors as a Roman theater full of Neolithic, Roman, and Greek artifacts was outed as a fake.Arrested for art forgery and unlawful construction, the owner of the site went to prison.The theater\u2019s owner continues to defy the government by not removing the fraudulent site as ordered.<\/p>\n
In the world of art fraud, Franco Malosso, known as Franco Alessandro Molosso Maltarel von Rosenfranz, went big. And bold. The Italian constructed a fake Roman theater, complete with stone steps, columns, and Greek-style statues, advertised it to tourists<\/a> as a bona-fide ancient site from 393 C.E.<\/p>\n But it most certainly wasn\u2019t. After his first court case, an appeal, and a second attempt at an appeal, Malosso\u2019s conviction for art forgery<\/a> and illegal construction stood, as did his sentence of two years and four months of prison time. Despite all that, the theater still stands, although it\u2019s been under judicial seal since 2016.<\/p>\n Exactly how and when Malosso created<\/a> the Porto degli Angeli Berico Maritime Amphitheater is a bit of a mystery. Malosso claimed he\u2019d found the site, known as the Berico Amphitheater, near the town of Arcugnano in the province of Vicenza in 2005 following a landslide. The attraction, complete with tours, operated for several years, showing off supposed Neolithic, Roman, and Greek artifacts, everything from the theater to statues. According to reviews, some tourists had a grand time, even though they were ultimately scammed out of their admission fee, which ran as high as \u20ac40.<\/p>\n By 2016, Italian officials got involved<\/a>, claiming the 53,000-square-foot hillside site was fake. The Vicenza Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office launched an investigation, and Malosso was charged with counterfeiting works of art and illegal construction.<\/p>\n Additional investigations revealed the extent of the fraud. Malosso reportedly told tourists the site was constructed in 393 C.E. and that Julius Caesar visited it with Cleopatra, an impossibility due to dating discrepancies. He also claimed that an ancient church at the site was once inhabited by Juliet Capulet, the entirely fictional character in Shakespeare<\/a>\u2019s Romeo and Juliet\u2014but he\u2019d confused Vicenza with Verona. Then came the actual construction, which included concrete pillars, fiberglass, papier m\u00e2ch\u00e9, statues created in the 2000s, and modern building blocks. All these overlapping elements were treated with putty and weathered to look old. There was an artificial pond added to the mix.<\/p>\n Comparing satellite images offered additional evidence that Malosso leveled a hillside and constructed the fraudulent ancient site. There was no evidence a landslide had ever revealed such a historic find.<\/p>\n
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