An Amazing Fake - II
An amazing historical fake: the so-called Pennelli Sarcophagus. This was claimed to have been excavated in Caere but is now regarded as a forgery. The inscription on its lid was derived in part from a gold brooch in the Louvre, while another inscription, which had been misread, was indicated later as another possible source. Several elements are unlike anything from the Etruscans: the poses of the couple, the nudity of the man, and the nineteenth century undergarments of the woman
This remarkable piece is first heard of in a letter of 26 January 1873 from Antonio Castellani, an Italian dealer, to Charles Newton, the Keeper of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum. Castellani had been embroiled in lengthy negotiations over the sale of his large collection of jewelry, bronzes, terracottas, and vases. This is the letter translation.
«Truly now, through not having ready funds, I may have to let slip through my hands an important Etruscan monument for which negotiations had already opened be tween Helbig and the owner of the object in question. It is a terracotta sarcophagus of Phoenicio-Etruscan style of the same kind as the one in the Campana collection. A large bier (or bed) decorated all around in low relief, on which are lying two people, a man and a woman. It is archaism purer than I have ever known: it is an object of the first rank and is worthy of us. But, what am I to do? You keep me disarmed, and I am beaten by the Prussians. However I do not yet despair: I induced the owner to keep Helbig [Wolfgang Helbig, appointed Second Secretary in the German “Instituto di Corrispondenza” in Roma] at sea until you are here in Rome. Let us go and see the monument, and, if it pleases you, who knows but that we cannot make it ours.»
Castellani succeeded in acquiring the sarcophagus and Newton saw it in Rome in February, for it is specifically mentioned in his report to the Museum once more extolling the importance of the collection. It eventually became part of the huge purchase by the British Museum sanctioned in May of the same year.
Epigraphers were already doubting the Etruscan inscription on the side of the sarcophagus by 1874 and the whole piece by the following year, when one Enrico Pennelli, a restorer in the Louvre, began claiming that he and his brother, Pietro, had made the sarcophagus and then broken it up and buried it. There then followed a flurry of letters various people, as Newton tried to discover the truth of these rumors. Pietro Penelli denied the rumor and, eventually, Enrico seems to have recanted, although was to repeat it again later. Thus, despite Reinach's memorable comment on the piece in 1886, "C'est un chef d'oeuvre, mais dont les auteurs vivent encore", the sarcophagus remained on exhibition in the British Museum until 1936. Today the Pennelli Sarcophagus is stored in the British Museum deposits.
Most modern commentators have thought Castellani the mind behind this forged Etruscan sarcophagus, but Charles Newton, the Keeper of the Greek and Roman Department at the time, never accused Castellani. Newton and Castellani knew each other very well and Newton had already bought a great deal from Castellani. There was no need for Castellani to risk all by knowingly passing on such a fake.
Source: Dyfri Williams, “The Brygos Tomb Reassembled and 19th-Century Commerce in Capuan Antiquities” - American Journal of Archaeology 96, No. 4, pp. 617-636.
Terracotta sarcophagus
Height: 118 centimetres (Lid 78 cm. - Chest 40 cm. - Feet 21 cm.)
Length: 158 centimetres
Width: 72 centimetres
London, The British Museum Museum
An Amazing Fake - II
An amazing historical fake: the so-called Pennelli Sarcophagus. This was claimed to have been excavated in Caere but is now regarded as a forgery. The inscription on its lid was derived in part from a gold brooch in the Louvre, while another inscription, which had been misread, was indicated later as another possible source. Several elements are unlike anything from the Etruscans: the poses of the couple, the nudity of the man, and the nineteenth century undergarments of the woman
This remarkable piece is first heard of in a letter of 26 January 1873 from Antonio Castellani, an Italian dealer, to Charles Newton, the Keeper of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum. Castellani had been embroiled in lengthy negotiations over the sale of his large collection of jewelry, bronzes, terracottas, and vases. This is the letter translation.
«Truly now, through not having ready funds, I may have to let slip through my hands an important Etruscan monument for which negotiations had already opened be tween Helbig and the owner of the object in question. It is a terracotta sarcophagus of Phoenicio-Etruscan style of the same kind as the one in the Campana collection. A large bier (or bed) decorated all around in low relief, on which are lying two people, a man and a woman. It is archaism purer than I have ever known: it is an object of the first rank and is worthy of us. But, what am I to do? You keep me disarmed, and I am beaten by the Prussians. However I do not yet despair: I induced the owner to keep Helbig [Wolfgang Helbig, appointed Second Secretary in the German “Instituto di Corrispondenza” in Roma] at sea until you are here in Rome. Let us go and see the monument, and, if it pleases you, who knows but that we cannot make it ours.»
Castellani succeeded in acquiring the sarcophagus and Newton saw it in Rome in February, for it is specifically mentioned in his report to the Museum once more extolling the importance of the collection. It eventually became part of the huge purchase by the British Museum sanctioned in May of the same year.
Epigraphers were already doubting the Etruscan inscription on the side of the sarcophagus by 1874 and the whole piece by the following year, when one Enrico Pennelli, a restorer in the Louvre, began claiming that he and his brother, Pietro, had made the sarcophagus and then broken it up and buried it. There then followed a flurry of letters various people, as Newton tried to discover the truth of these rumors. Pietro Penelli denied the rumor and, eventually, Enrico seems to have recanted, although was to repeat it again later. Thus, despite Reinach's memorable comment on the piece in 1886, "C'est un chef d'oeuvre, mais dont les auteurs vivent encore", the sarcophagus remained on exhibition in the British Museum until 1936. Today the Pennelli Sarcophagus is stored in the British Museum deposits.
Most modern commentators have thought Castellani the mind behind this forged Etruscan sarcophagus, but Charles Newton, the Keeper of the Greek and Roman Department at the time, never accused Castellani. Newton and Castellani knew each other very well and Newton had already bought a great deal from Castellani. There was no need for Castellani to risk all by knowingly passing on such a fake.
Source: Dyfri Williams, “The Brygos Tomb Reassembled and 19th-Century Commerce in Capuan Antiquities” - American Journal of Archaeology 96, No. 4, pp. 617-636.
Terracotta sarcophagus
Height: 118 centimetres (Lid 78 cm. - Chest 40 cm. - Feet 21 cm.)
Length: 158 centimetres
Width: 72 centimetres
London, The British Museum Museum