Marie Gicquel 11:08 a.m., February 21, 2023
In Egypt, a fake cemetery has been set up from scratch to attract art dealers.
If we do not yet know the amount of this scam, we know more about the modus operandi of the counterfeiters.
An investigation is underway.
It's a story worthy of a gangster movie script.
The authorities have dismantled a big scam in Egypt.
A mock antique cemetery has been set up to attract art dealers.
The amount of the scam is not yet known.
An investigation is underway.
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Crooks still on the run
The Pharaohs must have been turning in their graves.
The story shakes the country especially as the crooks are still on the run with their loot.
Some Egyptian historians are even calling for the death penalty for these aces of fraud who took three years to mount their deception.
Equipped with shovels, the band of scammers first dug a cellar 15 meters deep.
With a little plaster and gold plating, they fashioned statues, pots, vases, and reconstituted a coffin.
They even copied frescoes on the walls, frescoes found in history books to better recreate the atmosphere of ancient Egypt.
The perfect copy of a burial chamber of the time
In the end, it looked like the perfect copy of a burial chamber dating from 3,000 years ago, enough to make Tutankhamun green with envy.
Antique dealers have only seen old things there, convinced of the authenticity of these fake treasures, bought at a high price.
A setting so well done that the authorities had to commission experts to decide the true from the false.
This shoddy cemetery has since been destroyed.
Let's hope the archaeologists of the future don't get fooled.