‘A sucker born every minute’: The man who duped tourists with a fake Greek amphitheater

By Julia Buckley, CNN

(CNN) — Of the eight TripAdvisor reviews of the amphitheater near Arcugnano, in Italy’s northern Veneto region, all give fulsome, five-star praise.

“An enchanting place,” reads one review.

“A world beyond space and time,” enthuses another. “Definitely one of the best places I have ever been to,” raves another.

“Unique on the planet,” writes another visitor. That last one was prescient, because the theater certainly was unique. It wasn’t Greek, as it purported to be. It wasn’t even Roman.

Instead, the “kind custodian” who was “more or less a historian, and an excellent narrator,” as one other visitor dubbed him, had built it himself. This month, after a 10-year legal battle, the owner has been jailed for forging works of art, carrying out building works without authorization, and destroying a protected landscape.

The case has scandalized Italy, a country that just edges out China for the most UNESCO World Heritage sites and is home to many legitimate Greek and Roman theaters, from those of Syracuse and Pompeii, where productions are still staged each summer, to the amphitheater of Verona, 40 miles west of Arcugnano, which becomes a mega-stage for opera each summer.

Franco Malosso, the owner, creator and self-styled discoverer of the nearly 54,000-square-foot “ancient” site, charged visitors up to 40 euros ($46) to visit the “theater” he had built from scratch.

On a scenic hillside, employing a local construction firm, he had built seating and steps, which, according to evidence presented in court, he had artificially aged, then added a smattering of cement columns and plaster statues over the small “lake” that he had dug out himself.

The traditional tiered seating, which he said had been built by hand by the ancient Greeks over 2,000 years ago, was constructed by 21st-century builders using machines. They used newly quarried stone from Puglia and cement, while a supporting wall was topped with polystyrene, according to court documents shared with CNN.

“Just the idea of it is insane,” Darius Arya, archaeologist and director of Ancient Rome Live, told CNN, calling Malosso’s scheme “diabolical” and “terrible.”

Malosso, according to evidence presented in court, is said to have hosted concerts and performances inside the site, which went by no fewer than three names: Anfiteatro Berico, Anfiteatro Marittimo Berico and Anfiteatro Porta degli Angeli. He also led guided visits around the site, according to prosecutors.

For anyone with a basic knowledge of ancient history, there were red flags aplenty. Malosso’s building was a fan-shaped theater, not an amphitheater, which is oval. It wasn’t near the sea, as “Marittimo” implies — Arcugnano is around 50 miles from the coast. There wasn’t an ancient “Angels’ Gate” (Porta degli Angeli) at the site, either. Nor could it have been Greek — while northern Italy is replete with Roman remains, the ancient Greeks only colonized farther south.

Not that the visitors, who raved about the concrete columns and chalk statues, seemed to have cared.

Nor did they seem to notice that where there should have been a stage, Malosso — who also went by the name of Von Rosenfranz — had excavated a photogenic pool of water.

“Why was there a pool of water there, there were no maritime performances,” said Arya. “It’s like a folly — it doesn’t feel right.”

The dupe theater, on a hillside covered in protected woodland outside the small town of Arcugnano, just over three miles south of Vicenza, was discovered by local law enforcement, who immediately referred it to the cultural superintendency in October 2016.

A site inspection was carried out by a representative of the local heritage board and police from the Carabinieri’s Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico (TPC), the division known in English as the “art squad” for its work investigating stolen artworks and forgeries.

The theater was so clearly fake that the inspection was concluded in a single day, Lt. Col. Giuseppe Marseglia, commander of the TPC in Monza, which covers northern Italy, told CNN. Marseglia called it a “truly obscene” attempt at forgery. “Of all criminals, forgers are the ones with the most talent, because they are able to create works of art,” he said. “Then there are scammers … I have no respect [for Malosso]. Calling him a forger is an offense to forgers.”

Marseglia said that in his 25 years in the force, he had never seen or heard of an entire archaeological site being faked.

‘Make it look old’

The theater was constructed on land that was part of the UNESCO-protected Berici Hills landscape. Malosso — who claimed to be the legal representative of the land owner, a business based in the British Virgin Islands — had originally applied for planning permission to build a garage, according to court documents. Instead, he hired local builders to construct the theater, instructing them to “make it look old,” according to one of them, who gave evidence in court.

Prosecutors said he told visitors that he had discovered it after a landslide and advertised it to the public starting in 2014, including writing to the mayor of Arcugnano to explain how profitable the site could be. Ticket-holders were told that the site had been visited by Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Juliet Capulet, the fictional character invented by William Shakespeare.

Unearthing the theater like Malosso claimed wouldn’t be reasonably possible, says Mauro Puddo, an archeologist specializing in the Roman world and researcher at the Università per Stranieri di Siena. According to Puddu, at the standard rate of excavation only a maximum of one row of seats per year could be revealed as part of an extensively planned and carefully monitored excavation.

“You’re not allowed to dig up antiquities in your backyard,” Arya added. “You have to declare it, they investigate it, they excavate. This is terrible.”

Visitors from out of town were charged 12 euros ($14), according to local media, while locals were disincentivized with a 40 euro ($46) charge. Private group tours were also reportedly available at a cost of 600 euros ($692) for 45 minutes. Marseglia said the charges were framed as a “minimum contribution for the upkeep of the site.” It is not known how many victims took the bait but the site was only reported to the authorities in 2016, two years after its opening.

“I guess there’s a sucker born every minute, but I suppose when you have something advertised, people think this is the real deal,” said Arya.

Malosso was convicted in 2019 and lost an initial appeal in 2020. He made a final appeal to the Corte di Cassazione, Italy’s supreme court, arguing — among other things — that his forgery was so obvious that nobody could have reasonably believed it to be true.

The Cassazione rejected his arguments and reaffirmed the original sentence, which he is now serving, including a 28-month jail term and a fine of 3,000 euros ($3,462) plus 3,500 euros ($4,040) in legal fees. Since his original conviction, the law has been tightened to allow sentences of up to five years for forgery, said Marseglia.

‘Clearly modern’

Why Malosso embarked on his scheme is a mystery, experts told CNN. For starters, he apparently hadn’t done his homework. The ancient Greeks never colonized anywhere as far north as Vicenza, said Marseglia, who called it “crazy.”

Arya was baffled at what the plan was. “You can tell it’s fake immediately,” he said.

One photo from the site’s Facebook page shows a visibly cement column accompanied by a rather modern-looking sculpture of a man, which turned out to be made from plaster.

“The columns are clearly modern,” said Peter Matthaes, director of Milan’s Museo di Arte e Scienza, which is partly dedicated to the art of forgery.

Matthaes said that he thought perhaps Malosso’s skills as a raconteur could have swept visitors along. “From a few comments on the internet you realize that the visitors were accompanied by a narrator to turn the visit into an experience. How many times are we in front of this situation? How many times are we told a story — by advertisements, in politics or in the media trying to convince us of what is the ‘truth,’ when in reality the truth is something different?”

‘Grudging respect’

Malosso’s theater-amphitheater is hardly the first fake to hit the headlines, says Puddu, who points to the Renaissance-era Donation of Constantine — a forged Roman imperial decree that transferred imperial authority to the Pope — as the most famous fake of classical history.

Rome’s Museo di Arte Salvata, or Museum of Rescued Art, exhibits both stolen and forged works of ancient art in an ancient Roman bathhouse, while Matthaes’ Museo di Arte e Scienza devotes an entire floor to archaeological and artistic forgery.

Marseglia said that forgery of antiquities started in the Renaissance. Today, he said, a 15th-century forgery of a Roman medal would be more valuable than an actual Roman artifact.

“It’s a very vast topic,” said Puddu. “I understand why archaeologists are horrified, but I understand why you might feel a grudging respect.”

“Forgeries are a part of human civilization — we try to trick each other all the time,” he said. “A foundational text of humanity, the ‘Odyssey’ and also the ‘Iliad’ are based on a trick — an illusion, a forgery.”

The site has now been sequestered and Malosso was ordered to tear down the theater, though its fate remains to be seen. Arya warned that it will be an expensive job.

“I’d hate to think of seeing taxpayer money going to remove something like that,” he said. The mayor of Arcugnano recently told La Repubblica that he would not spend public money on it. He did not respond to a request for an interview from CNN. Nor did the attorney who represented Malosso in his supreme court appeal. His attorney from his original trial declined to comment.

Actual Roman ruins

As for those interested in seeing legitimate sites, Arya recommends Verona for an amphitheater, or Aquileia, two and a half hours northeast on Veneto’s border with Friuli. The Roman city is accompanied by a church with early Christian mosaics.

The area around Arcugnano is rich in history, says Andrea Rosignoli, the superintendent for the Ministry of Culture for Vicenza. Within Arcugnano’s territory is the Lago di Fimon, which was once home to Neolithic stilted structures on the lakeside. The Berici Hills are home to various prehistoric caves, he said, recommending the Grotta di San Bernardino, while genuine Roman sites are on lower ground nearby. Rosignoli also recommended the Museo Civico Naturalistico-Archeologico in Vicenza, which has finds from Lake Fimon and Teatro Berga, an actual Roman theater that once stood in the city center.

Meanwhile, for Puddu, two of the best-preserved Roman theaters are at Amman in Jordan and Orange, France. Closer to home, he recommends the one in Lecce, Puglia, which sits in the main square.

In the meantime, in Arcugnano, the entrance to Malosso’s theater is still visible. A modern-looking stone wall and huge metal gate are accompanied by signs detailing the supposed history of the site. One mentions that the house where Juliet Capulet grew up is within the complex, including a balcony, with no reference to her being a fictional Shakespearean character. Another mentions an ancient burial site.

Locals say that the theater used to be visible from the road below, but today it is covered entirely by thick undergrowth. If the plans to destroy the theater are followed through, the process will, ironically, have to start with an excavation. Only this time, a real one.

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