Fake fresco art history scam
Incredible! A fake fresco at the Cairo Museum
6 Nov 2002
It is hard to imagine that since its discovery in 1987 in the tomb of Amosis IV, this fake fresco could have gone so unnoticed by experts. Indeed, the reader will notice many anachronisms. The pharaoh is depicted with his wife, who is on his left, while a slave brings perfumed oil. His son is seated lower and wears the typical hairstyle. A closer look shows that he is holding a three-inch diskette, while a ... Mac Intosh is on the tablet, seen from the side, which obviously did not exist at that time. The "Apple" apple is also visible in one of the cartouches.
The fresco was immediately removed. An in-depth investigation showed that its author was none other than Jean-Pierre Petit, author in the 1980s of numerous forgeries of this kind, dating from the time when he was deputy director of the Calculation Center of the University of Provence. It is regrettable that researchers at the CNRS have at times devoted their leisure to such works. If you have masterpieces at home, make sure they do not contain such inconsistencies. According to our information, Petit would have at that time circulated many forgeries signed Daumier, Picasso, Lautrec, etc.
The photo below comes from the temple of Karnak, where the portal is visible in the background. Contrary to what one might think, it is not a montage at all. Egyptian archaeologists have often randomly assembled stones found on site, for example, to make a wall. This is the case of what we see before our eyes.
In the main avenue of the Karnak complex, seen by millions of tourists
The stone in the center of the photo clearly represents a pair of feet, which are probably those of a pharaoh or Osiris, the bifurcated stem being the classic base of an "Egyptian shepherd's staff". Not only are the feet of the characters upside down, but the hieroglyphic cartouche visible above, on the left, also has its head upside down! One would expect the site's curator to immediately exclaim, regarding stones that are daily seen by thousands of visitors (it is in the central aisle) "remove these blocks and put them back right on the field!". Well, no. The most probable is that the Egyptian archaeologists did not notice this detail, which would explain why the forgery made by Jean-Pierre Petit could have escaped their attention for fifteen years.
If the reassembly of the Karnak relief is an authentic nonsense, the Egyptian fresco is a joke! It was I myself who, twenty-five years ago, created these "works", pastiches such as this fake Daumier or this fake Picasso which, all, clearly show a ... computer. A friend had a magazine "Administrative Computing" and had ordered me covers. So there was this whole series. I could not find a fake Toulouse Lautrec I had made at that time where a group of women of ill repute are counting their tricks on a ... Mac Intosh. I never imagined for a second that readers could take seriously pranks with such obvious strings. Who could have imagined that museum directors and art experts could have failed to see the obvious presence of a computer on an Egyptian relief, a Daumier or a Picasso. But it turns out that some readers were taken in, in good faith.
When I, on my website, placed a file mentioning the implementation of a test designed to detect stupidity, due to Wilfried Wurmstein and Laetitia Paparrazi, some readers rushed to Google, a reflex that has become standard today, to find the trace of these two researchers in what Internet users today consider a real encyclopedia.
There is a lesson to be learned from these experiences, where I was myself the first surprised. I have written many times "learn to think for yourself, otherwise others will do it for you". These harmless pranks remind us how much information can be manipulated. Some write to me "we follow your writings because we trust you". That is not the right approach. You must learn to read everything that comes your way with a critical mind, as I try to do myself. What may be the most interesting in this information dissemination approach on a website is its interactive nature. Readers constantly write to me "what you say is inaccurate, Untel has never been president of a Franco-Israeli association ... things did not happen that way" etc. And I take that into account. Information that, on the Internet, can remain accessible without time limits, becomes dynamic, subject to daily revision and I am grateful to my readers. It is this interactivity that has allowed me to venture into such detailed topics as the Israeli-Palestinian problem or, as I am doing now, a reminder of the events of the Algerian War.
Finally, know that Google, so surprisingly efficient, is a creation of the NSA, the American National Science Administration. By becoming immediately the most efficient search engine on the planet, Google enters your home, detects your interests, locates you and can eventually manipulate you when you give it ... absolute trust. Do you think you can trust the NSA blindly? The current world is living through too serious times for us to keep our naivety. Lies are not an invention of our contemporary world. Contemporary history reminds us of that, which reveals its truths so slowly.