1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display, 5 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet 6 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. In the town of Monte Fiasconi, in central Italy, 7 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: there stands a small, unassuming convent chapel. Up until it 8 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: had gone relatively unnoticed. A convent chapel in a small 9 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:51,159 Speaker 1: town was nothing special. Inside it, however, was a secret, 10 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: one discovered by two Italian art dealers named Alfredo Fazzoli 11 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: and Romano Pelessi. Within the chapel was a life size 12 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: stat you of Madonna and child. It had been carved 13 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: out of wood and painted by a claimed Renaissance artist, 14 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: Giovanni Pizzano. Chiseled in the sculpture was a rarity, as 15 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:12,639 Speaker 1: all of his known work was done in stone, not wood. 16 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:15,480 Speaker 1: This piece was literally a one of a kind, and 17 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: word about its existence soon made it to Harold Parsons, 18 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: who acquired art for the Cleveland Museum of Arts in Ohio. 19 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: He was given a private viewing of the sculpture within 20 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 1: the chapel, and quickly offered eighteen thousand dollars for it. 21 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: One year later, the museum's curator announced its arrival to 22 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,840 Speaker 1: the public and that tests were being conducted to verify 23 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 1: its authenticity. To the trained eye, there was no way 24 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: it couldn't have been made by Pizzano. The smooth curves, 25 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:45,440 Speaker 1: the intricate details, it was all there. The museum X 26 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: rayed the sculpture and saw something odd inside. Nails had 27 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: been used to hold pieces of it together. But it 28 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: wasn't the nails themselves that upset the museum's experts. It 29 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: was how old they were. The nails were brand new. 30 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: The mada A sculpture. It was shipped back to Italy 31 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: deemed a fake, and in its place, the museum purchased 32 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,600 Speaker 1: a statue that was considerably older. It had been carved 33 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: in the town of Magna, Grecia, settled by the ancient 34 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: Greeks around seven fifty b C. It depicted the Greek 35 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: goddess Athena, and though it cost the museum one twenty 36 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: thousand dollars, its historical significance was priceless. For three years, 37 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: museum visitors admired the statue, getting a firsthand look at 38 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: the incredible talent of the ancient Greek virtuoso. Then in 39 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: nineteen the art world ground to a halt. Like the 40 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,680 Speaker 1: Madonna and Child before it, the Statue of Athena had 41 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,560 Speaker 1: been found to be a fake. In fact, many statues 42 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:43,400 Speaker 1: and sculptures in museums everywhere had been uncovered as forgeries, 43 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: and all of them had been made by one man. 44 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: His name was Alco Dosina and he had been born 45 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,760 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy eight in Cremona, Italy. He had studied 46 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,519 Speaker 1: art at an Italian trade school, learning how to copy 47 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: the works of the masters even from a young age. 48 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 1: Dosina as a talented mimic, and he didn't see school 49 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: as a place to learn greatness. For that, he would 50 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: need to enter the professional world. He took apprenticeships working 51 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 1: for art restorers in his hometown as well as in Milan. 52 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: He traveled from church to church throughout Italy, repairing real 53 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:20,519 Speaker 1: statues and sculptures. Then, in nineteen sixteen, Dosina joined the 54 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:23,600 Speaker 1: military to fight in World War Two. Despite the fighting, 55 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: he never gave up his art. He'd even managed to 56 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: find time to make a small sculpture of Madonna and 57 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 1: Child out of terra cotta, which he took around Rome 58 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:33,919 Speaker 1: with him while on leave for the holidays. It was 59 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: during this time when he met an antique dealer, Alfredo Fazzoli. 60 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: Puzzoli didn't realize the little sculpture was a fake. He 61 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: thought Dosana had stolen it from a church, maybe during 62 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:47,240 Speaker 1: a raid on a small town during the war. He 63 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: wasn't even upset when he realized he'd paid twelve dollars 64 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: for a forgery. To Fazzoli, Dosana would be his meal 65 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,680 Speaker 1: ticket when the war ended. He went into business with Osena, 66 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: churning out modern antiques for over a decade. But Dosana 67 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 1: claimed all along that he hadn't done it for the money. 68 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,560 Speaker 1: He'd seen almost none of it, except for the price 69 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: he'd charged the dealers for each commission. While Fazzoli and 70 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: Pelessi were raking in millions of dollars, Dosina had made 71 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 1: a few hundred dollars per commission, enough to live on, 72 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: but hardly a fortune that he deserved. It had no 73 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: idea his works were being displayed in museums all around 74 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:25,160 Speaker 1: the world. Either the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New 75 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: York City conducted its own investigation after buying a bogus sculpture. 76 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: Its agents eventually unmasked Dosena as the forger. They visited 77 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,040 Speaker 1: the artist in his studio, where he showcased his works 78 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: without fear or shame in his eyes. He wasn't imitating 79 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: the masters. He himself was a master, and he believed 80 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:46,160 Speaker 1: his sculptures deserved to be displayed alongside those of the greats, 81 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: and they soon were. He held exhibitions of his work 82 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 1: in France and Germany from nineteen twenty nine to nineteen 83 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,599 Speaker 1: thirty one. Two of his sculptures can be seen on 84 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: display at the University of Pittsburgh today. Despite his wounded reputation, 85 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: there is no doubt that Alceo Dossena was a talented imitator, 86 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 1: and imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery. 87 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: Dead Men tell no tales. It was a common pirate 88 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 1: saying that meant that a dead man couldn't give away 89 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 1: any secrets. But one man found floating off the coast 90 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 1: of Spain during World War two had a wild story 91 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: to tell. It would alter the course of the war 92 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 1: and turn the tide against the Germans at a crucial time. 93 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: His name was Major William Martin and he was an 94 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: officer with the British Royal Marines. In late April of 95 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, Major Martin and his briefcase were discovered 96 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: drifting in the ocean by Spanish fishermen. The men took 97 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,600 Speaker 1: the body to the nearby town of Hueva, where authorities 98 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: performed an investigation. Inside the briefcase, they found diplomatic cables 99 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: between Martin and British like Consul Francis Hasselden, who also 100 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: happened to reside in town, and he could identify the corpse. 101 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: After a quick autopsy, which described the cause of death 102 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,680 Speaker 1: as drowning, Major Martin was buried in a local cemetery 103 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: with honors. In early May. The Spanish Navy held onto 104 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: the briefcase, though, which should have meant that it was 105 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,599 Speaker 1: secure from the enemy. However, as it was being transported 106 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: to Madrid, German sympathizers got their hands on it just 107 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:27,400 Speaker 1: long enough to snap a few pictures of what was inside, 108 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,719 Speaker 1: including the encrypted cables. They sent the photos to a 109 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: top agent within the German intelligence agency, and that agent 110 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:36,840 Speaker 1: passed them onto the head of his agency, who stepped 111 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:40,680 Speaker 1: in and insisted the Spanish turnover what they had. They 112 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 1: agreed to give up the documents, but not before getting 113 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: to look at them. First. They extracted the damp and 114 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: letters from their envelopes, dried them, and then took their 115 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,920 Speaker 1: own photographs. The letters were then placed in salt water 116 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 1: overnight and slid back into their envelopes so it didn't 117 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: look like anything had been tampered with. The Spanish sent 118 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: what information they had on to the Germans, while the 119 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: documents themselves were sent back to Hasselden. The British vice 120 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,280 Speaker 1: consul had no idea The enemy knew their plans and 121 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: were preparing to defend themselves from an Allied invasion, an 122 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: invasion that would march through Greece into the Balkans and 123 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: overtake German forces there. That July, the Germans acted quickly. 124 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler an Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini met to 125 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,720 Speaker 1: discuss next steps. Hitler insisted that his first Panzer division 126 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: defend Greece, while tens of thousands of German troops were 127 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: pulled out of Sicily and planted in Sardinia. On July 128 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 1: tenth of ninety three, Hitler's forces waited for the Allies 129 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:40,000 Speaker 1: to arrive in Greece, and they waited and waited until 130 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:44,200 Speaker 1: one hundred sixty thousand Allied troops finally showed up, but 131 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: not in Greece, in Sicily, over four hundred miles away. 132 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: The German soldiers there were now sorely outnumbered. The Allied plot, 133 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,880 Speaker 1: known as Operation Mincemeat, had been a trick. There had 134 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: never been a Major William Martin nor any encrypted cables. 135 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: The man found off the coast of Spain had been 136 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: a homeless man from Wales who had sadly died from 137 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: eating rat poison, but his body would go on to 138 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,640 Speaker 1: help win the war against the Germans in a critical way. 139 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: His preserve corps was taken aboard the h M mess Seraph, 140 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: a British sub along with a briefcase full of fabricated documents. 141 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: There were the letters, of course, which outlined the military plans, 142 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,080 Speaker 1: but he also carried a photograph of a woman purported 143 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: to be his fiancee, bank documents and a receipt for 144 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: an engagement ring, all of which had been included to 145 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:37,320 Speaker 1: add authenticity to the invented persona, and it had worked. 146 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:41,400 Speaker 1: The submarine then surfaced off the coast of Spain and 147 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,520 Speaker 1: lowered the body into the water, and everything played out 148 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: exactly as the British had hoped. The deceptive information leaked 149 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: its way to the Germans, who pulled troops out of Sicily, 150 00:08:51,679 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: leaving it wide open for attack. As a result, the 151 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: Allies retook Sicily from the Germans and Mussolini was stripped 152 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: of his power. A new Italian government took his place, 153 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: which negotiated a surrender with the Allies. An evil empire crumbled, 154 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:11,000 Speaker 1: all thanks to one man who never existed in the 155 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:17,160 Speaker 1: first place. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of 156 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 157 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 158 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky 159 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,560 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 160 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 161 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 162 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:42,440 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 163 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:44,439 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.