Etruscan Fakes

This paper aims to provide a synthetic overview of the phenomenon of forgery of ancient Etruscan artefacts. This will be done by highlighting the different ends and modalities that such a phenomenon successively acquired in the course of its development over time. In delineating the typological-structural aspects, as it were, of the phenomenon, our attention will focus on Etruscan “fakes”, leaving aside other forms of reproduction and reworking of ancient materials (copies, pastiches, imitations). We will retrace the various steps of a track that runs parallel to that of the interest towards Etruscan antiquity, one that began as early as the 15th century and that stretches down to our present day (being now dictated almost exclusively by economic motivations). We will take into account some particularly significant episodes (ranging from the terracotta sarcophagus sold to A. Castellani and then purchased by the British Museum in London, to the terracotta warrior statues at the Metropolitan Museum in New York) with reference to the activity of the best-known Etruscan art forgers (A. Scappini, P. and R. Riccardi, A. Dossena, etc.).