The Tiara of Saitaferne (also Saitaphernes or Saitapharnes)
is a tiara in gold sheet, acquired by the Louvre in 1896, afterwards
demonstrated to be fake by its creator.
On April 1, 1896, the Louvre announced that it had purchased
a gold tiara that had belonged to the Scythian king, Saitapharnes. The museum
had purchased the artifact for 200,000 gold French francs. A Greek inscription
on the tiara read: "The council and citizens of Olbia honour the great and invincible
King Saitapharnes". To the experts at the Louvre, the tiara confirmed
an episode dating to the late 3rd-century BCE or early 2nd-century BCE.
According to the story, Saitapharnes had besieged the Greek colony of Olbia and
was convinced to leave the city in peace only through the offering of expensive
gifts.
Shortly after the Louvre exhibited the tiara, a number of
experts challenged its authenticity. Among them was the German archaeologist
Adolf Furtwängler who noted many stylistic problems with the tiara's design and
questioned the lack of aging apparent on the artifact. For several years, the
Louvre defended the authenticity of its treasure and even prepared a
magnificent book on the treasure. Eventually, news of the story reached Odessa.
In 1894, two years before the Louvres acquisition, two
dealers, Schapschelle Hochmann and his brother Leiba, had commissioned Israel
Rouchomovsky, a skilled goldsmith from Odessa, to make the tiara. They let him
believe that it was intended as a gift for an archaeologist friend and provided
Rouchomovsky with details from recent excavations to aid his design. It wasn't
until news of the Louvre scandal reached him that Rouchomovsky learned of the
fate of his creation. He traveled to Paris in 1903 and presented himself as the
maker of the tiara. Experts at the museum refused to believe him until he
demonstrated the ability to reproduce a portion of the crown. Embarrassed, the
museum hid the object away in storage. Louvre had been fooled in one of the
greatest archeological scandals of the century; Rouchomovsky, on the other
hand, became famous for his work and earned a gold medal at the Paris Salon of
Decorative Arts. He lived in Paris until his death in 1934.
In 1954, the tiara was included in a "Salon of
Fakes" at the Louvre. In 1997, the Israel
Museum in Jerusalem borrowed the Tiara of Saitapharnes from the Louvre for an
exhibition on Israel Rouchomovsky. In
2009, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta borrowed the tiara for a Louvre
exhibition. In 2014, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the wall of
Rouchomovsky's workshop in Odessa where the tiara was created. The "LWL-Museum für Archäologie" in
Herne, Germany borrowed the tiara for the opening weeks of their new exhibition
Irrtümer & Fälschungen der Archäologie (English: Errors & Forgeries in
Archaeology) in March 2018.
A copy of the tiara is on display in the British Museum. As of 2009, another was on display at the Tel
Aviv Museum of Art.
Comments
Post a Comment