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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome

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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson.

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Speaker 1: I promise we'll shut up about it soon. But we're

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Speaker 1: going to Paris. We are. I'm sure my friends wish

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Speaker 1: I would also shut up about it, because they're like,

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Speaker 1: we know you are lucky and you're going to Pariss. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you can come with us. There is a tiny amount

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Speaker 1: of time that you can still squeak in under the

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Speaker 1: wire on your booking. They're also a very limited slots,

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Speaker 1: so there's a possibility if you don't move very fast

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Speaker 1: that those slots will have been taken by the time

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Speaker 1: you get there. So we all sold out. If you

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Speaker 1: have been hesitating, now is the time to go check. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: April third, last day to do it. Yep, that's it.

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Speaker 1: So you have two days left. Uh So today being

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Speaker 1: April one, means you've got to jump on it. This

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Speaker 1: is not an April fool's joke. You have limited time.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be there from June second to the ninth,

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Speaker 1: and we are doing essentially a French Revolution tour of Paris.

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Speaker 1: But there's also plenty of free time baked in so

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Speaker 1: you can explore on your own. And if you're just

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Speaker 1: a single person and you're like, I want to go

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Speaker 1: to Europe, but not by myself, you're gonna be on

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Speaker 1: the whole group. We're all gonna be together. It's fine.

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Speaker 1: Uh So we encourage you come and join us. It's

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Speaker 1: going to be a blast. We also are going to

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Speaker 1: do a live show in Indianapolis as part of the

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Speaker 1: kickoff for the Midwestern Roots Conference that is on July.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, if you're interested in getting tickets to that,

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Speaker 1: you can go to our website and look at the

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Speaker 1: click on the link that says live shows, and that

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Speaker 1: will give you the info. If you want to get

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Speaker 1: to that Paris information, you can go to our website,

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Speaker 1: click on the link that says Paris trip exclamation point

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Speaker 1: due to excitement, and that will also give you all

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Speaker 1: the info you might need to do that. So we

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Speaker 1: hope to see people at both of those events. There

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Speaker 1: are more events coming. You'll get that news as we

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Speaker 1: have it. But today it's April fools Day. It is

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Speaker 1: April Fool's Day. If you're listening on the day that

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Speaker 1: the episode came out. Uh, it's one of the days

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Speaker 1: of the year that I want to love the most.

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Speaker 1: But I find that I am a little bit picky

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Speaker 1: about the level of tomfoolery that I get. It has

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Speaker 1: to be really good or wah wah. I don't want

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Speaker 1: your sad trombone mediocre pranks. I want really good one.

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Speaker 1: But because it is April Fool's Day, if you're listening

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Speaker 1: to this the day that it publishes, uh, we have

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Speaker 1: this auspicious calendar situation. So I thought it would be

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Speaker 1: fun to cover a historical hoax. And as I was

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Speaker 1: rummaging around for options, by blind luck, I ran across

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Speaker 1: one for which the date of April one actually figures

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Speaker 1: into the story. And this is the story of the

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Speaker 1: Tiara of Cia Taphernes. And this story sort of places

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Speaker 1: out in three acts. So first we're gonna talk about

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Speaker 1: the Scythians and how their artifacts became highly prized in

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century Europe. And then we're going to talk about

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Speaker 1: the hoax itself and that all went down. And finally

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about an artist who came into

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Speaker 1: fame as a result of his sort of accidental part

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Speaker 1: in this whole thing. In eighteen thirty, the archaeological site

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Speaker 1: known as cool Oba was discovered excavation started there. So

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Speaker 1: this site is on the Crimean Peninsula, six kilometers to

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Speaker 1: the west of the modern day city of Kirch and

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Speaker 1: it was a burial mound. The cool Oba site really

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Speaker 1: fascinated the world when it was discovered because it was

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Speaker 1: a Scythian burial site. So the Scythians were in the

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Speaker 1: height of their culture from nine hundred to two hundred

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Speaker 1: b C. And as a nomadic, tattoo covered warrior culture,

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Speaker 1: they touched many areas of Central Asia. Herodotus wrote about

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Speaker 1: their fear skills in battle, and they created weapons, particularly bows,

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Speaker 1: that were far advanced over those of other cultures. They

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Speaker 1: were so fast and mobile that they were able to

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Speaker 1: swoop in upon enemy territory and deliver serious damage almost

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Speaker 1: before anyone realized what was happening, and then they would

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Speaker 1: vanish back into their own territory, leaving destruction in their wake.

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Speaker 1: Even though they had a really nomadic culture, Scythiens had

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Speaker 1: elaborate burial rituals. Their burial sites were very deep, with

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Speaker 1: internal structures down in the pit, almost like cabins, and

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Speaker 1: the coffins were placed into these. They wanted the dead

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Speaker 1: to have everything they might need in the afterlife, so

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Speaker 1: they also sacrificed horses to include in the burial so

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Speaker 1: that the deceased would have mounts with them, and then

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Speaker 1: all of that in place, the site would be buried

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Speaker 1: under a mound. And the Scythians, because of their warrior

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Speaker 1: reputation and because there are still many gaps in our

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Speaker 1: knowledge about them, remain a source of fascination for historians,

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Speaker 1: and in the eighteen thirties, that fascination and the discovery

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Speaker 1: of the cool Oba site sparked a huge interest in

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Speaker 1: the collection of Scythian artifacts. Many of the items that

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Speaker 1: were excavated from Cooloba were beautiful, intricate gold pieces, and

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Speaker 1: they ranged in size from small pieces of jewelry to

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Speaker 1: larger works of often sculptural art. So there was just

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Speaker 1: a scramble to try to attain these pieces, and they

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Speaker 1: weren't always being sold through the proper channels to museums.

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Speaker 1: They also wound up being sold off to private collectors,

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Speaker 1: kind of on the download and the fact that the

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Speaker 1: documentation of the artifacts that had been recovered from the

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Speaker 1: site wasn't as meticulous as it should have been. I

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Speaker 1: meant that the knowledge that was pieced together from this

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Speaker 1: effort became just kind of a picture with big missing pieces.

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Speaker 1: That meant that it was not clear exactly what had

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Speaker 1: been at the site, and that also hindered the analysis

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Speaker 1: and the study of the culture itself that might have

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Speaker 1: been gained from the discovery if things had been more

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Speaker 1: meticulous and regulated. Yeah, I mean even today, like when

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Speaker 1: we have spoken with archaeologists, they talked about how imperative

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Speaker 1: it is to document everything in catalog everything and its place,

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Speaker 1: and in this case that was not happening very well

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Speaker 1: at all. It was pretty scratchy and kind of catches

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Speaker 1: catch can when things actually got notated. And as a consequence,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of nebulous sort of theoretical stuff that

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Speaker 1: people don't have any real evidence to back up. And

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Speaker 1: all we have the study of the Cythians are these

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Speaker 1: grave sites, which are called Kurgan's by the way, which

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Speaker 1: if it makes you think of highlander me too. Because

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Speaker 1: of their nomadic culture, they just they didn't have things

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Speaker 1: like cities or permanent settlements. So the Kurgans are the

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Speaker 1: only physical evidence that's left behind and after Cooloba. There

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Speaker 1: were more Kurgan's unearthed more than thirty years after this

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Speaker 1: site was discovered. Another one was found at Schertomic in

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Speaker 1: sixty eight. Yet another site, this one with multiple mounds,

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Speaker 1: was called Seven Brothers and that was found near the

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Speaker 1: Kuban River in the eighteen seventies. Both of these excavations

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Speaker 1: even more captured the public imagination. Music ems were extremely

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Speaker 1: eager to get their hands on artifacts from the city

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Speaker 1: and nomads, and it seemed like there could just never

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Speaker 1: be enough excavation or discovery to satisfy this demand for artifacts.

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Speaker 1: There became this really romanticized and kind of fetishized culture,

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Speaker 1: so no matter what was discovered, people wanted more artifacts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was uh, there was a little, a little bit

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Speaker 1: of city and fever going on in nineteenth century Europe.

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Speaker 1: And as the nineteenth century was coming to a close

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Speaker 1: and all of this fervor was still carrying out, a

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Speaker 1: very short article ran in a newspaper in Vienna, and

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Speaker 1: this brief write up told the story of a peasant.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you will see this written as though it was

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Speaker 1: peasants plural from the Crimea Peninsula who had made an

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Speaker 1: astonishing find of historical significance. So important was this item

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Speaker 1: that they had found that the discoverer or discoverers fled

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Speaker 1: Russia fearing that this thing, which was not detailed, was

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Speaker 1: going to be taken away by the government. A few

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Speaker 1: months later, the Huckman brothers, who were antiquities dealers, held

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Speaker 1: an exhibit in Vienna, Austria, that was in February of

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Speaker 1: Their exhibit featured a number of rare items that were

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Speaker 1: alleged to have been recently discovered in Russia. Just to

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Speaker 1: be clear, a lot of the places that we're talking

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Speaker 1: about in this episode, if if we were talking about today,

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Speaker 1: that would be Ukraine, but at the time it was Russia. Correct.

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Speaker 1: Among these was a tiara, And this is not a

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Speaker 1: tira like you would think of in the modern sense

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Speaker 1: of the word, with some kind of delicate or maybe

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Speaker 1: ornate little diadem. It was a small domed helmet that

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Speaker 1: was seven inches or seventeen point eight centimeters tall. It

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Speaker 1: weighs about a pound, and it's made of solid gold. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it was ornate, just not in the way we

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Speaker 1: would think of say a tierra. We might see on

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Speaker 1: um one of the lovely wives of the princes of England.

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Speaker 1: So the widest band of decoration on this era show

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Speaker 1: scenes from the Iliad in carved relief, and then the

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Speaker 1: lower band, which is not quite as as wide or tall,

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Speaker 1: depending on how you want to describe it, show scenes

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Speaker 1: of life in the Scythian culture. And there's also an

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Speaker 1: inscription inside the tiara in Greek indicating that it is

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Speaker 1: a gift from the people of the Crimean city of

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Speaker 1: Olbia to the king of the Scythians Ciataphernese. It was

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Speaker 1: a fascinating piece and it was shopped around by a

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Speaker 1: dealer by the name of Vogel with the story of

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Speaker 1: this clandestine journey out of Crimea, and he told this

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Speaker 1: story to several museums in Europe. Vienna's Imperial Court Museum

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Speaker 1: did not want this artifact, neither did the British Museum,

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Speaker 1: but the Louver did want it and did not hesitate

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Speaker 1: when it was offered the opportunity to acquire it. So

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Speaker 1: on April one, eight six, the Louver bought this tiara

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Speaker 1: for two hundred thousand francs. Yeah, that's the April first

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Speaker 1: tie in. It doesn't go any further than that. It

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Speaker 1: just is a nice bit of happenstance and kind of prophetic. Yes.

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Speaker 1: So now, the reason that the British Museum and the

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Speaker 1: Imperial Court Museum would pass on what sounds like an

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Speaker 1: amazing find is pretty simple. Both institutions believed that it

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Speaker 1: was a fake uh in the case of the British Museum,

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Speaker 1: there had not even been an inspection. Simply the claim

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Speaker 1: that it was from Olbia had a roused suspicion in

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Speaker 1: London because that had often been used by forgers as

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Speaker 1: a city of origin for fake antiquities. It was at

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Speaker 1: this point roughly the antiquities trade version of saying you

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Speaker 1: have a girlfriend in Niagara falls that no one has met,

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Speaker 1: and that perception that a tiara was not genuine wasn't

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Speaker 1: exactly a secret. As a consequent, the press and France

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Speaker 1: started running stories questioning the authenticity of this new acquisition

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Speaker 1: at the Louver, and the museum's reputation was also in question,

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Speaker 1: so this started a very public battle over the whole issue.

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Speaker 1: On August eighth of the periodical The Nation ran an

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Speaker 1: article titled the Disputed Tiara in the Louver, written by

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Speaker 1: French archaeologist Solomon Rainoch. It opened with the following paragraph quote.

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Speaker 1: Seldom has public attention been roused as it is just

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Speaker 1: now by a question of archaeological criticism. The Tiara of

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Speaker 1: Piataphernes and the gorgeous necklace purchased together with it for

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Speaker 1: the large sum of two thousand francs, have become a

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Speaker 1: favorite topic of conversation. People talk about them and judge

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Speaker 1: them who had never heard the existence of Olbia, nor

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Speaker 1: of the extension of Greek civilization to the northern shores

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Speaker 1: of the Black Sea. Of course, as the daily papers

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Speaker 1: have taken the matter in hand, much nonsense has already

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Speaker 1: been printed about the Tiara, and it is probable, the

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Speaker 1: debate having only just begun, that we shall hear a

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Speaker 1: great deal more of it. There was a lot of

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Speaker 1: squabbling that erupted around this tierra, and we will get

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Speaker 1: into some more of it in just a moment, but

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Speaker 1: first we will pause for a quick sponsor break. There

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Speaker 1: were many nix who said that the Tira was a forgery.

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Speaker 1: Um a professor of Vasolowski of St. Petersburg and German

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Speaker 1: archaeologist at Alfred Wangler were two of the most prominent

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Speaker 1: professor of Vassolowski, who taught Byzantine in Turkish History at

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Speaker 1: the University of St. Petersburg was actually the first to

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Speaker 1: publish a claim that the tiarra was fake. Vasulovsky had

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Speaker 1: a good reputation, and even one of the supporters of

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Speaker 1: the tierra as a true relic wrote, quote, Professor of

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Speaker 1: Vassolowski is not an urchin. He cannot have written such

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Speaker 1: a note without having serious reasons to give. Fort Wangler

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Speaker 1: made the case that the tiara of Sayataphanes was incongruous

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Speaker 1: with other genuine city and finds from Crimea because it

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Speaker 1: was dated much later. The vast majority of items that

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Speaker 1: had been excavated up to that point where from the

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Speaker 1: fourth and fifth centuries b c e. And this one

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Speaker 1: was supposedly from the third century BC. Fort Wangler's position

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Speaker 1: was questioned because it was common knowledge that fake antiquities

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Speaker 1: were coming out of Crimea, but he admitted he had

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Speaker 1: not seen any of them himself. Yes, And people were

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Speaker 1: kind of like, so you say it's a fake just

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Speaker 1: based on like the numbers, but you have never seen

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Speaker 1: a fake to know whether or not this compares to them. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The August issue of Cosmopolis featured an article by Adolf

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Speaker 1: Ford Wrongler dismissing any possibility that this tira could be

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Speaker 1: a genuine third century BC artifact, and then the next

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Speaker 1: month a counter to that article was published, written by

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Speaker 1: the Louvers curator of Greek and Roman antiquities, Monsieur Fosse,

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Speaker 1: and so began a year's long back and forth between

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Speaker 1: believers and detractors. Critics brought up the pretty glaring fact

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Speaker 1: that this piece looked way too pristine to date back

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Speaker 1: to the time of the Citians. There was virtually none

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Speaker 1: of the damage that you would anticipate when examining something

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Speaker 1: that old. Ford. Wangler did concede that some of the

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Speaker 1: tiara was legitimately old. He thought that the two brass

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Speaker 1: nails that were used in its construction were indeed antique.

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Speaker 1: Even outside the louver there were people who believed that

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Speaker 1: the tiara was the real deal. That article that I

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Speaker 1: quoted just before the Break from the Nation goes on

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Speaker 1: to state quite plainly that the author believed that the

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Speaker 1: tiara and the necklace it was purchased with both were

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Speaker 1: quote perfectly genuine antiques. And the trs backstory grew and

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Speaker 1: gained more detail as its status was hashed out, including

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Speaker 1: in that article so, according to Rhinock, the item came

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Speaker 1: into the possession of a dealer at Otakov, who tried

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Speaker 1: to sell it to account Tuskevitch before moving to Lemberg

257
00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:42,240
Speaker 1: and then to Vienna for the exhibit that we mentioned earlier.

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Speaker 1: Renach made the case that no one questioned the tr

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Speaker 1: is authenticity when it was on display, and that it

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00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,960
Speaker 1: was only once money got involved that people started claiming

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00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,600
Speaker 1: it was a fake. He also said that he had

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Speaker 1: been on hand for the meeting at the Louver where

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00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,720
Speaker 1: the purchase was approved, and that the committee present did

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Speaker 1: very carefully consider the possibility of a forgery, given the

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Speaker 1: knowledge that crime and fakes were becoming more and more commonplace.

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Speaker 1: He also pointed out that a lot of the Tiaras

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Speaker 1: detractors changed their minds once they had seen this piece

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Speaker 1: in person. Ryknoch went on to mention that the French

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Speaker 1: public was prone to dismissing their countrymen as experts in

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Speaker 1: anything and deferring to foreign scholars. When he shifted from

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Speaker 1: his critique a third Wonglar to discussing Vesselovski quote, the

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Speaker 1: public at large believed in the Russians assertion first because

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Speaker 1: a Russian in contemporary France is something more than an

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Speaker 1: ordinary mortal. And secondly, because our public is always ready

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Speaker 1: to believe that the officials of its own country are

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Speaker 1: lazy or ignorant. I love that quote. I did so

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Speaker 1: because Vesslovski was Russian and Ford Wongler was German. The

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Speaker 1: Louve dismissed their writings on the matter that this was

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Speaker 1: just an issue of national jealousy. This perfect and tidy

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Speaker 1: nature of the piece had been the primary clue to

281
00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,040
Speaker 1: its youth for its critics, but the lou claimed that

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Speaker 1: made it all the more special as part of their

283
00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:09,640
Speaker 1: collection because they had this relic that was in Christine condition.

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Speaker 1: The press continued to skewer the museum, though for more

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Speaker 1: than six years, over its insistence that the Tira was

286
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:21,400
Speaker 1: the real deal. Eventually, an editor at the newspaper Lan Trengs,

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00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:24,560
Speaker 1: again named on Re Rochefort, made the case to the

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00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 1: museum that everything would be settled if they just launched

289
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:31,400
Speaker 1: to throw investigation and determined the trs origin and as

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00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:34,600
Speaker 1: that was going on, the Tiara and whether it was

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00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:38,520
Speaker 1: a forgery was international news, and what had initially begun

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00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:41,720
Speaker 1: as a debate in antiquity circles over these six years

293
00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:44,960
Speaker 1: eventually reached even the smallest towns in the world, and

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00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,800
Speaker 1: that spread of information was what brought about a revelation

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Speaker 1: in the matter in the form of a jeweler from

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Speaker 1: Russia named lift Shoots. When this jeweler heard about the

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00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,680
Speaker 1: inquiry into the helmet's history, he remembered seeing a colleague

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Speaker 1: working on a piece that really matched this tiara. His

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Speaker 1: account of having seen the creation of the item that

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Speaker 1: had been the center of so many public disagreements was

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Speaker 1: printed in the newspaper let in Paris, and the man

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00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:16,199
Speaker 1: that he named as the creator was Israel Rushmovsky, because

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00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:20,040
Speaker 1: he had a reputation for excellent work. Rushmowsky actually had

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Speaker 1: briefly come up as a possible antiquities forger several years

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Speaker 1: before all of this. In even a man named Monsieur

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00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:32,439
Speaker 1: de Stern allegedly visited Odessa, where Rushmovsky lived, and started

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00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,840
Speaker 1: a rumor that this man was creating forgeries. Rushmowsky wrote

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Speaker 1: a letter to the journald Dabad firmly asserting that he

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Speaker 1: was doing no such thing, and that letter was published

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Speaker 1: on October three of eight But none of this had

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Speaker 1: connected the artist to the tiara. It was just a

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00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,919
Speaker 1: case of a general accusation being leveled based on the

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Speaker 1: fact that Rushmowsky was a very skilled metal smith working

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Speaker 1: in an area that was well known at that point

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Speaker 1: for producing forgery. The naming of a specific artist and

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00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:07,000
Speaker 1: a witness claiming that the Tira was fake was just explosive.

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Speaker 1: Monsieur Ronde de vi Fos made a formal request to

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Speaker 1: the French Minister of Public Instruction for permission to pull

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00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:18,280
Speaker 1: the Tiara out of the collection and do a full inquiry.

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Speaker 1: The minister granted the request and ordered a judicial inquiry

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Speaker 1: as well. Once Rushmowsky's name was in the mix in

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Speaker 1: the Tira controversy, the Louve brought him to Paris for

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Speaker 1: questioning as well, and as Rushmowsky told his tale of

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Speaker 1: creating this intricate helmet, it implicated the Hawkman brothers. Rushmowsky

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00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:39,639
Speaker 1: said that the Hawkman's had approached him about creating the

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Speaker 1: Tiara as a commission, claiming that they wanted it as

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00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:45,679
Speaker 1: a gift for a friend who was an archaeologist, and

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00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,280
Speaker 1: he was given reference material books featuring Greco Sydney and

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00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:53,159
Speaker 1: discoveries to base his design on. He was paid eighteen

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Speaker 1: hundred roubles for this work. It is unclear what, if anything,

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00:18:56,920 --> 00:18:59,159
Speaker 1: by the way, happened to the Hawkman's as a result

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Speaker 1: of all of this. They may have been long gone

333
00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:03,359
Speaker 1: because their name doesn't seem to come up in any

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00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:06,080
Speaker 1: accounts of what happened with this whole story. After this,

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00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:11,000
Speaker 1: Rusmovsky described in detail the design and construction process he

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00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:14,320
Speaker 1: had used to create the faux artifact. He made it

337
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:17,200
Speaker 1: in three separate pieces that were fitted together and soldered

338
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,000
Speaker 1: in a way that was really carefully hiding the seams.

339
00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,240
Speaker 1: Then he used a hammer to create some dents in

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00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,639
Speaker 1: the piece. Although he was really skilled and exacting in

341
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,320
Speaker 1: his work, these were the exact details that an expert

342
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,200
Speaker 1: would have noticed and factored into an analysis of the piece.

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00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:35,680
Speaker 1: One of the characteristics of the dents, which was cited

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00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,160
Speaker 1: as being an indicator of a fake, was the fact

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00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:40,600
Speaker 1: that none of the denting damage had been done to

346
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:44,480
Speaker 1: any of the detailed sections, only the pieces that didn't

347
00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,440
Speaker 1: have any design on them. And then there wasn't any

348
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,880
Speaker 1: weathering other than the minor dings here and there. Yeah,

349
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,040
Speaker 1: the backstory that was kind of being used when this

350
00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:55,959
Speaker 1: was sold was like, oh, those dents are from like

351
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:58,480
Speaker 1: a moldering crypt falling apart, and it's like, really, because

352
00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:03,040
Speaker 1: they have great aim. Um, you would think that an

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00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:06,080
Speaker 1: artist coming forward and describing exactly how he made this

354
00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:09,040
Speaker 1: forgery would close the case, but it did not. Not

355
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,920
Speaker 1: quite yet. We're going to tell you what happened next

356
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,760
Speaker 1: and how all of this impacted Rushmowsky's life. After we

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00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 1: hear a quick word from one of the sponsors that

358
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:28,040
Speaker 1: keep stuff you missed in history class going. While the

359
00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,600
Speaker 1: artist admitting to the work that he had done on

360
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,479
Speaker 1: this forgery would seem to be a fairly conclusive bit

361
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:38,320
Speaker 1: of testimony, the Louver wanted more proof, so Rushmovski was

362
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:40,479
Speaker 1: given a sheet of gold and asked to create a

363
00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,680
Speaker 1: piece of a fake city and Tiara basically create another one,

364
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,200
Speaker 1: And before witnesses he did exactly that, and that proved

365
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 1: the embarrassing fact that the Louver had bought and defended

366
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:54,600
Speaker 1: a forgery. To be fair. When compared to other forgeries,

367
00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:58,680
Speaker 1: Rushmovski's work was so far superior and more convincing in

368
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,760
Speaker 1: simply trying to make the best possible commission that he could,

369
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 1: he had outdone those who had actually been trying to

370
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,480
Speaker 1: pass off their work as ancient as all of this

371
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,920
Speaker 1: information about the hoax was circulating through the press around

372
00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:13,119
Speaker 1: the globe, so with something else, and that was a

373
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 1: universal admiration for Rushmowsky's work. Since he hadn't known that

374
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 1: his creation was going to be shopped around as a

375
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 1: historically significant find, and since he had been entirely forthright

376
00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:30,280
Speaker 1: under questioning, his reputation was not harmed, so people didn't

377
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,640
Speaker 1: brand him a forger. That was sort of an unintended

378
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 1: side effect of his making this thing. His work was

379
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,840
Speaker 1: described in articles as quote a very fine piece of

380
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,120
Speaker 1: Goldsmithery Rushmowsky sort of smartly brought one of his other

381
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 1: works to Paris when he traveled there on the business

382
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,880
Speaker 1: of the Tiara of Sayataphanes, so that he could enter

383
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:52,560
Speaker 1: that other piece into the nineteen o three Paris Salon

384
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,119
Speaker 1: Exhibition of Decorative Arts. That piece that he brought is

385
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 1: probably one that you have seen photos of because it

386
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,680
Speaker 1: occasionally gets passed around on social media kind of every

387
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 1: couple of years. It's a tiny, tiny skeleton made of gold.

388
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,160
Speaker 1: It's only three point five inches long, it's about nine centimeters,

389
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 1: but it has more than one hundred fifty parts and

390
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,119
Speaker 1: it's fully articulated. Even the jaw moves and it is

391
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,960
Speaker 1: highly detailed. The skeleton took him almost five years to make.

392
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:24,119
Speaker 1: He worked on it from eighteen ninety two to eighteen

393
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 1: ninety six, and then once he was done with it,

394
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: he thought it needed a proper encasement. So to hold

395
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,880
Speaker 1: this skeleton, he also made a tiny ornate coffin out

396
00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,879
Speaker 1: of silver with a blue velvet lining. He worked on

397
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,120
Speaker 1: that for the next five years, and then made additional

398
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:44,680
Speaker 1: edits over several more years after the three salon. The

399
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,440
Speaker 1: coffin that the skeleton goes in is so small. It's

400
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,640
Speaker 1: four and three eight inches long, which is eleven point

401
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,960
Speaker 1: two centimeters. It's so beautiful. It's one of those things.

402
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 1: Have you run into it on social media years So

403
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,760
Speaker 1: maybe it's just me because I run in um, you know,

404
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:06,239
Speaker 1: HALLOWEENI Gothy spooky circles, but um, it always comes up.

405
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: And I've had it sent to me many times where

406
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 1: people are like, this is right up your alley. I'm

407
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: like it is. Um. It is so spectacularly beautiful and

408
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,880
Speaker 1: Rushmowsky was awarded a gold medal at the exhibition in Paris,

409
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,159
Speaker 1: and moreover, he gained the attention and favor of a

410
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:25,480
Speaker 1: number of wealthy art patrons, including the Baron James de Rothschild,

411
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:29,080
Speaker 1: and when Rushmowski headed home to Odessa, he took with

412
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 1: him several commissions for more of his astonishing and beautiful work.

413
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: From nineteen o three to nineteen o six, programs destroyed

414
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 1: much of the Jewish community in Russia. Hundreds of Jews

415
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: were killed during a program in Odessa in nineteen o five.

416
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 1: Ruslmovsky and his family managed to survive. But when he

417
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: returned to Paris in nineteen o six too once again

418
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: exhibit his work in the Salon, he had an eye

419
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 1: toward the future. He really felt that he needed to

420
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: get his family out of Russia for their safety, and

421
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 1: he wanted to really kate to Paris. Yes, since he

422
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: already had kind of a client base developing there, it

423
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,920
Speaker 1: just seemed like the smartest move. But it still took

424
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 1: several years for Rushmowsky to execute his plan and get

425
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 1: everything arranged, but in nineteen ten finally he and his

426
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,440
Speaker 1: family permanently moved to Paris. He wrote his memoir in

427
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 1: Yiddish uh and those were published in the late nineteen twenties,

428
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 1: and then he died in Paris in nineteen thirty four

429
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 1: at the age of seventy four. Before he died, the

430
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 1: artist created a miniature headstone for himself and his wife,

431
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,240
Speaker 1: in which he engraved a happy man was I in life?

432
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 1: Peace and quiet, Bread and clothing were always found in

433
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:41,160
Speaker 1: my home. I loved my work, my wife, and my home.

434
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,840
Speaker 1: Even after my death, my spirit will prevail as the

435
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 1: work of my hands that I have left behind. The

436
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: skeleton that Rushmovsky made changed hands from one collector to

437
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: another over the years. In both it and the t

438
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: r Oh were included in an exhibit in Jerusalem titled

439
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:02,639
Speaker 1: The Secret of the in Tiara Works by Israel Rosbowski.

440
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:06,439
Speaker 1: On April twenty nine of two thousand thirteen, that tiny

441
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 1: skeleton was auctioned by Saucepies and it was expected to

442
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: sell for a hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred

443
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars, but when the bidding was all done,

444
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 1: it went for three hundred and sixty five thousand dollars.

445
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,359
Speaker 1: The Louve did not get rid of the Tiara of

446
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: Saatophanes after it was revealed to be a forgery. Initially,

447
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 1: they kept it tucked away in the museum archive. It

448
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 1: was widely presumed that it would never see the light

449
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,160
Speaker 1: of day again, but in the years since then, its

450
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 1: status as a famous fake has led to some public

451
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: interest in seeing it. In nineteen fifty four, the Louve

452
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 1: turned the institution's embarrassment into an exhibit and included the

453
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: tiara in their salon of fakes that they assembled for

454
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,640
Speaker 1: a limited run. Yeah, they're also I didn't write down

455
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:53,640
Speaker 1: the number, but I think there were eight fake Mona

456
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:57,159
Speaker 1: Lisa's included in that exhibit as well, um, which I

457
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,400
Speaker 1: thought was a pretty good pr move. Actually, the Louver

458
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 1: does mentioned the tira briefly on its website as of

459
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,880
Speaker 1: today in its section on the history of the institution.

460
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: In its section titled Sadness of the bellapoc Is, the

461
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,119
Speaker 1: note quote too unfortunate incidents seem to sum up this

462
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: difficult period. The purchase of the tiara of Saya Taphanes,

463
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: which proved to be a fake, and the theft of

464
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: the Mona Lisa in nineteen eleven embarrassing at the time,

465
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 1: but I feel like because everyone recognizes what a beautiful

466
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 1: piece of work it was at this point a hundred

467
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: plus years later, people are like, no, that's a valid

468
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: museum piece. Now I wish I wish we had a

469
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 1: better picture of it available to put on our website.

470
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,120
Speaker 1: Uh were the ones that we have access to our

471
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: don't They're not particularly crisp, so they don't show all

472
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:50,560
Speaker 1: the beautiful detail. Yeah, there are better pictures of it

473
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,880
Speaker 1: floating around the internet, but we do not have rights

474
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:54,679
Speaker 1: to use them. So if you want to see more

475
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,399
Speaker 1: of it in its full gold glory, you can do that.

476
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: The British Museum also has a copy of it that

477
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 1: has some pretty detailed photographs on their website. So uh yeah.

478
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: It's a interesting thing to think about an artist accidentally

479
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,399
Speaker 1: being so good at his work that he makes it

480
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,120
Speaker 1: very easy for a museum to be fooled without ever

481
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,439
Speaker 1: intending to do so. He just wanted to make the

482
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: best possible gift for that archaeologist that was imaginary that

483
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: he could, and uh yeah, it's a consequence all kinds

484
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 1: of craziness erupted and fights and people. It's very very funny.

485
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: Um that Reichmon article that I refer to talks about like,

486
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 1: you know, the deplorable articles of other people that will

487
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 1: not accept that this is the real thing. It's very funny.

488
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:43,160
Speaker 1: People got very very head up over this whole. Yeah,

489
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:46,639
Speaker 1: this whole, and it reminds me a little bit of

490
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:52,639
Speaker 1: the pilt down Man. Uma. How fun it was fun.

491
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: But also you know, it's it's uh disheartening that human

492
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,359
Speaker 1: nature is what it is sometimes, but it was it

493
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: was fun to read articles about the pilt down Man

494
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: that was just people talking with utter confidence about what

495
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: this meant from a scientific perspective when it was in

496
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 1: fact completely fake. Yeah. I mean there are are long

497
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 1: discussions even now about like what percentage of of pieces

498
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 1: in museums are forgeries, because odds are this is you know,

499
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: one of of many that passed over the years. There

500
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: are museums that have purchased pieces that you know, have

501
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: turned out to be um forgeries, or there are lots

502
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 1: of pieces that we probably don't even know our forgeries.

503
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 1: Um and there are plenty in contention all day, every

504
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 1: day as we speak. But again, so gorgeous that, in

505
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 1: my opinion, it belongs in a museum anyway. Um. We're

506
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of a very brief postcard round

507
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: up for for listener mail today. Nice just because I

508
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: want to get a couple you know included when I can,

509
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 1: because Like I said, we get many, many many. I

510
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: feel bad that we can only read them here and there.

511
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: The first one is very short. It's from our listener Kate,

512
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,000
Speaker 1: who writes, Deer, Holly and Tracy, my family is currently

513
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: enjoying our spring break in Savannah. The city is filled

514
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: with so much history. Any chance of future episodes featuring

515
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: Savannah maybe um. Our list is very long, and I

516
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: think I have some Savannah stuff online. But you never

517
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: know when we'll get to it, or if we'll find

518
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: enough information to merit a full episode. Uh. We always try. Uh.

519
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: The other one is from our listener may Have, and

520
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: she writes, Deer, Holly and Tracy, sorry for not getting

521
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: around to this sooner. Don't apologize you got around to

522
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 1: it eventually. That's better than I do most of the time.

523
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: I have been all over the world this year. I

524
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: meant to send a postcard to you from Edinburgh and Dublin.

525
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: Your podcast has gotten me through many a long layover

526
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: during my travels. I particularly love your podcast on Mary,

527
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 1: Queen of Scott's Uh. In Edinburgh, I saw where she

528
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: gave birth to James the first It was such a

529
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 1: small room. This postcard comes from Russell also known as

530
00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: the Hellhole of the Pacific, and then she describes some

531
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: of the the interesting historical sites that are there. She

532
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: also asked about, um, if we're doing any podcasts on

533
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: that area. We did one on the one Tangy Treaty.

534
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: Is that a two parter? I'm trying to remember it

535
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: is only one? Okay, uh yeah, so that's in there

536
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 1: if you want to look it up maybe. Um. She

537
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 1: also says thank you for making my favorite podcast. That

538
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: is so sweet, and thank you again to this beautiful

539
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,959
Speaker 1: postcard from New Zealand. I want to go. Um. If

540
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: you would like to write to us, you can do

541
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 1: so at History podcast at how stuff works dot com.

542
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: You can also find us everywhere on social media as

543
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: missed in History and online at mist in history dot com.

544
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 1: You would like to subscribe to the show, I think

545
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 1: that sounds like a great idea. You can do that

546
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, at Apple Podcasts, or

547
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. Stuffy Missed in History Class

548
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radios how stuff Works.

549
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart

550
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,719
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

551
00:30:58,760 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: favorite shows,