Decades down the road, I write of this crime. One of the only wrongs and lies that I was never caught for. The one I benefitted the most from. – Miles Gannon
I’m not sure who will read this. I’m guessing one of my children after I leave this existence. I hope that it is not one of my grandchildren, but I know deep down it likely will be.
For the last forty years, I worked as an art conservator with a speciality in ancient sculptures. Working in both public institutions and for private collectors allowed me to see art up close in a way that many don’t get to. All the little minutiae that make up some of the best work of humans. One would think that being able to study sculptures like that would allow me to create better art. Try as hard as I might, I was always a mediocre sculptor, no matter how badly I wanted to be great. My best work was making imitations.
That would be helpful to me in the end. As an art conservator, I had extensive training and education on art history and chemistry: what degrades materials, what makes them shine. As well as a fine arts degree in sculpting. Working for private collectors was the highlight of my career. They paid much better than museums, and were often much more colorful characters. That’s how I was approached for this. A wanna-be-art dealer, who happened to be the son of a very successful art dealer and collector. This son seriously lacked his father’s knack for negotiation and manners. But still he wanted to make his mark on the art world. Thus, he hired people to make forgeries.
The Beginning
Everyone in this story is dead except me, and I will be soon. No real names have been used as to preserve memories and reputations.
Micheal Approached Me
- In hindsight, I was the perfect person for him. I had the all the training and access to resources needed to pull off the creation of the piece, the need for financial gain due to high student loans, and was known for not sharing information about my clients.
- Micheal wanted something that wouldn’t turn too many heads, yet would still command a high price. A marble head of a women from the Greek Archaic period was suggested after seeing a similar piece sell for $42,000 at Christie’s.
- He gave me the impression that he had done this before. Told me any and all paperwork for the sculpture would be handled by him. I didn’t ask about that side of this operation.
I didn’t expect it to work all that well, but Micheal had ensured me that I wouldn’t be connected. Plus, I could always try to feign innocence by saying I thought I was just making a copy if we were caught.
The Plan
Materials
It is surprisingly easy to buy Greek marble online, there are wholesale suppliers like The Compleat Sculptor. Many marble sculptures from this period often used Parian, or Thasos, marble, which can be bought at $560 for 112 lbs, and comes directly from Greece.
What it looked like
The face and hair of the sculpture was based off of an Archaic head of a young women held in the British Museum. However, there will be an added braid going across head. As well as the tip of an arrow against the back of the skull, it makes the piece seem to be either the goddess Artemis, or one of the nymphs that followed her.
The Shape
While the reference statues were missing their noses and their necks, this head would start having those details. This is so that during the weathering processes, the breaks and damage looks more natural and convincing. Yet, not a whole lot of effort or time was put into those parts of the head.
Weathering
The weathering and condition of the piece was the important part of getting this head to pass as an authentic, yet it is also the place with the most likely chance of discovery. And if the damage and weathering looks fake, questions will arise.
How was it weathered?
To make the weathering look natural, I tried to recreate some of the conditions that a sculpture that old would be exposed to. Dropping the head from the approximate height it would stand at and dropping it onto the soft dirt outside will not shatter it the way concrete would. As well as keeping it outside for a prolonged period of time and exposing it to a variety of weather conditions.
Cleaning
After all that, then I focused on cleaning the piece the way I would for a client looking to sell a newly discovered piece. The cleaning focuses getting rid of any organic material that could be carbon dated. Then I gave the sculpture a surface consolidation, such as ammonium oxalate, in order to make dating the oxalate crust of the marble much harder.
Statue
This is the statue that I used as a point of reference of what the head of Artemis should look like. This statue is currently at the British Museum.
Kore
This marble head of Kore was the one that Christie’s sold for $42,000 in 2011. This was also used as a point of reference for what the head of Artemis would look like.
Head of Artemis
This is what the forgery looked like. The forgery was heavily inspired by the two images above, but had some stylistic differences. Such as the braid on the top of the head and the arrow tucked behind the head.
Of course there was the scientific testing to consider. Even though marble can’t be carbon dated, there are other types of tests.
Isotope Analysis
Isotope Analysis tests the makeup of stone to find the exact geographical origin of the material. It does so by comparing the stone against others of the same material. At times, it can be specific enough to find the exact mine. I got around this by importing Thasos marble from Greece, even though it wouldn’t prove it without a doubt of authenticity. It could be enough to let it slip.
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
This type of testing focuses on dating the age of the marble by testing the oxalate crust build up on the stone. The oxalate crust is the buildup of calcium that naturally occurs on stone. However this testing can be rendered as inconclusive when a surface consolidation, such as ammonium oxalate, is applied to marble. As the chemical penetrates deep into the calcium. As mentioned above, I applied this to the marble for this purpose. It wouldn’t be unusual either, as a surface consolidation can help to keep the stone from eroding. This is a common material for art conservators to have access too.
As for the provenance and history of the piece, as mentioned above, that was all handled by Micheal, and I was not as privy to the details. Which was completely fine by me.
I was afraid for years we would get caught, but as forty years passed, and I learned of Micheal’s death, that worry disappeared. And here I am, at the last few weeks of my life, telling the world this story.
Bibliography
Frel, Jiří. “Imitations of Ancient Sculpture in Malibu.” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 9 (1981): 69–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4166442.
Jason, Aongking. “The Evolution of Greek Sculpture: Archaic to Classical.” Medium, June 6, 2024.
Museum Conservator”, Purdue University: College of Science.
Preusser Frank. “Scientific Examination of the Getty Kouros,” in The Getty Kouros Colloquium. Kapon Editions, 1993 63 – 64.
True, Marion. The Getty Kouros: Background on the Problem” in The Getty Kouros Colloquium. Kapon Edition, 1993. 11 – 16.