Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. New York's Metropolitan Museum
Speaker 1: of Art paid a handsome sum for the statue. In
Speaker 1: The forty dollar price tag was the equivalent of nearly
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand dollars today, but to the Met it
Speaker 1: was worth the price. The statue, known as the Big Warrior,
Speaker 1: stood nearly seven feet tall and showed the likeness of
Speaker 1: a soldier from the Etruscan civilization. They were a people
Speaker 1: group that lived in central Italy, but were absorbed into
Speaker 1: the Roman Empire as it grew and took over the region.
Speaker 1: It's an older and less own culture, and relics from
Speaker 1: that period are incredibly difficult to find, So yeah, the
Speaker 1: Met knew a good deal when it saw one. The
Speaker 1: statue was part of a collection that the met purchased
Speaker 1: over the span of six years from a team of
Speaker 1: restoration experts in Italy. The Big Warrior had been pieced
Speaker 1: back together by this team. Two brothers and their sons,
Speaker 1: all with the last name Ricardi, but other items were
Speaker 1: in a less complete state. One example was the four
Speaker 1: foot tall sculpture of a warrior's head, the body lost
Speaker 1: to time. Experts of the met concluded that when it
Speaker 1: was new, the head sat atop a statue nearly twenty
Speaker 1: five ft tall. The last item purchased was another warrior
Speaker 1: of similar height to the big warrior. This one was
Speaker 1: put on display as the old warrior, but it was
Speaker 1: in much worse shape. The entire right arm had been lost,
Speaker 1: as had the thumb from the left hand, but it
Speaker 1: was still beautiful and made for a great addition to
Speaker 1: their growing Etruscan collection. The exhibit featuring them opened in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three, but right from the start there were
Speaker 1: scholars who had doubts. There were debates and papers published
Speaker 1: from both sides of the argument, but by the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties most archaeologists were in agreement the Etruscan statues were fakes.
Speaker 1: There were a number of pieces of evidence that helped
Speaker 1: seal the case. Part of it came down to the
Speaker 1: chemical analysis of the glaze used on the terra cotta,
Speaker 1: but there were also some discrepancies regarding the way these
Speaker 1: statues were crafted and fired. Etrushcans made everything in one piece,
Speaker 1: while these were clearly built in segments and later assembled. Finally,
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty one, an elderly man named Alfredo Fioravanti
Speaker 1: slowly walked into the American Consul in Rome, where he
Speaker 1: sat down and wrote out a formal confession. He had
Speaker 1: been a sculptor employed by the Riccardi's back in the
Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, helping them craft allow forgeries that were
Speaker 1: later sold to museums like the met in New York.
Speaker 1: Even had photographs of the statues to show them. Furavanti
Speaker 1: told them how they did it too. They would work
Speaker 1: for months to craft a statue and get it just right,
Speaker 1: and then when it was finished, they would push it
Speaker 1: over and watch it shatter into hundreds of pieces. Then
Speaker 1: painstakingly they would reassemble it, as any restoration expert might
Speaker 1: do with a broken archaeological find. If parts were ever missing,
Speaker 1: that was entirely by design, as in the case of
Speaker 1: the Old Warrior. The authorities were skeptical, though one man
Speaker 1: decades later claiming to have answers to a long forgotten mystery. Well,
Speaker 1: that's the stuff of movie plots and paperback thrillers. Not
Speaker 1: real life, but the old man insisted he was telling
Speaker 1: the truth. To prove it, he pulled a small object
Speaker 1: out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
Speaker 1: The authorities there gave him a puzzled look before picking
Speaker 1: the item up and turning it over in their hands.
Speaker 1: When they realized what it was, they knew the mystery
Speaker 1: had been solved. It was a piece of the old
Speaker 1: Warrior that no one had ever seen before, but everyone
Speaker 1: had assume existed once the missing left thumb. It's one
Speaker 1: of the many tales of the founding of America. Settlers
Speaker 1: from England were exploring more and more of the New World,
Speaker 1: and as they did, they set up new communities far
Speaker 1: from the comfort of home. We know these stories as
Speaker 1: well as the backs of our hands, if not in detail,
Speaker 1: then at least in theme. Most of the original states
Speaker 1: have a story that echoes these themes. But there's one
Speaker 1: tale in particular that I want to tell you. Some
Speaker 1: think it begins as far back as the late sixteen seventies,
Speaker 1: when English settlers began to cross over the Appalachian Mountains.
Speaker 1: First there were dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands. They
Speaker 1: made their homes in an area that was part of
Speaker 1: the far western edge of the colonies of North Carolina
Speaker 1: and Virginia, Settling along the Wattuauga River Valley, they farmed
Speaker 1: and hunted for years, making a new life for themselves.
Speaker 1: But in seventeen sixty three, England declared it to be
Speaker 1: illegal to cross the mountains into the west, so they
Speaker 1: had a choice returned to North Carolina's legal territory or
Speaker 1: become united and support themselves. They had fought to be there,
Speaker 1: after all, defending themselves against the Cherokee tribe of Native Americans.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to give up on all of that.
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy two, they drafted a document that foreshadowed
Speaker 1: the coming declaration of independence. With it, they formed the
Speaker 1: Wattuauga Association, set up courts and a militia, and continued
Speaker 1: to defend their territory. A few years later, the British
Speaker 1: sent troops over the mountains to attack them, but these
Speaker 1: frontiersmen were stronger than they seemed. They met the British
Speaker 1: at the foot of King's Mountain and sent them retreating
Speaker 1: back into the eastern colonies. After the war was over,
Speaker 1: they tried their hand at being a satellite colony of
Speaker 1: North Carolina, But after being taxed almost as severely as
Speaker 1: they had under the Crown, they succeeded to go it alone.
Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty four, they set up their own state,
Speaker 1: America's fourteenth in fact, and elected a governor named John Seviere.
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson even backed their move and helped them make
Speaker 1: a formal request to the government to be recognized as
Speaker 1: a new American state. Sadly, they failed to get the
Speaker 1: votes necessary, and their entire enterprise fell apart about four
Speaker 1: years after becoming an independent state. Their lands were repossessed
Speaker 1: by North Carolina, and Sevier was a reested as a trader,
Speaker 1: which is why you've never heard of the first fourteenth
Speaker 1: state in American history, a state named after one of
Speaker 1: the heroes of the Revolution, Benjamin Franklin. Yes, the State
Speaker 1: of Franklin was shut down before it could even begin
Speaker 1: its new official life, but the spirit that gave birth
Speaker 1: to it, the strength of the frontier settlers and their
Speaker 1: fierce independence, helped keep the dream alive. In seventeen nineties,
Speaker 1: six twelve years after their first failure, the people of
Speaker 1: the territory were successfully admitted to the Union as a state.
Speaker 1: They changed the name from Franklin to Tennessee, and it's
Speaker 1: stuck ever since. Oh and their first governor none other
Speaker 1: than John Seviere. Naturally, It's a powerful lesson wrapped up
Speaker 1: in a bit of lost bizarre history. Our failures often hurt,
Speaker 1: but over time most people will forget about them. What's
Speaker 1: truly important, it seems, is to ever give up. You
Speaker 1: never know how things will turn out in the end.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.