Friday 17 August 2007

The chariot from Monteleone di Spoleto

Dr Jerome Eisenberg has issued a press statement announcing his view that the Etruscan chariot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 03.23.1) is a forgery (see short announcement).

The find-spot is recorded in the new catalogue for the Met (C.A. Picón, J. R. Mertens, E. J. Milleker, C. S. Lightfoot, and S. Hemingway, Art of the Classical world in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Creece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.).

"In 1902, a landowner working on his property accidentally discovered a subterranean built tomb covered by a tumulus (mound). His investigations revealed the remains of a parade chariot ..." (no. 323).

The find-spot is given as: "Found near Monteleone di Spoleto in 1902".

Is this a reminder that even historic "find-spots" can be misleading? What other "objects" were created by this "master forger" from 1890? Should the Met catalogue have inserted "said to be"? Is this another example of the corruption of knowledge?

Eisenberg's article appears in Minerva; he is also Editor-in-Chief.

But this does not stop you buying a T-shirt to support research on the chariot ...

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