8 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Authorities in New York have been accused by leading academics of repatriating fake Roman artifacts to Lebanon

Leading academics from France and the United Kingdom have accused New York authorities of returning fake Roman artifacts to Lebanon.

The artifacts were sent back to their country at a ceremony held in New York on September 7. The nine items were mosaics from the third through fifth centuries when Rome ruled the Mediterranean region that includes what is now known as Lebanon. Investigators valued the mosaics at $7 million.

The mosaics, which depict gods, gladiators, and mythical beasts, were seized along with 15 other objects in 2021 from a New Jersey storage unit by officials from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the district attorney’s office.

The unit was rented by Georges Lotfi, 82, a retired Lebanese-born pharmaceutical executive and sometime New York resident who collected and dealt in art.

Eight out of nine mosaic panels that the US authorities recently returned to the Middle Eastern country are not what they seem, according to claims made by Djamila Fellague of the University of Grenoble.

Mosaic fragment from the Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, a Unesco world heritage site.
Mosaic fragment from the Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, a Unesco world heritage site.

Fellague claims to have uncovered proof that forgers had copied designs from original mosaics in archaeological sites or museums in Sicily, Tunisia, Algeria, and Turkey.

Academician said. “Eight of the nine ‘returned’ mosaic panels were fakes that [are] relatively easy to detect because the models used are famous mosaics,”.

Fellague particularly highlighted a panel depicting an ‘Anguiped Giant.’ The academician claimed that this panel was copied from a mosaic at Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”

“The expert mentioned that only one of the returned artifacts was copied from an item housed at the Beirut National Museum in Lebanon.

Fellague suspects that a forgers’ mosaic workshop was located somewhere in the Middle East, probably in the 1970s and 1980s, judging from other pieces that have surfaced on the art market.

Christos Tsirogiannis, a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge and a leading expert in looted antiquities and trafficking networks, believes the evidence is irrefutable.

Tsirogiannis said that were the revelation to be shown to be true it would be extremely embarrassing for the office of the Manhattan District Attorney (DA), which had announced the repatriation of antiquities to Lebanon on 7 September.

“Even if you are not an expert, if you put the fake next to the authentic mosaic, you see how similar they are, but also how the quality is actually not that good,” claims Tsirogiannis.

Tsirogiannis added that the alleged forgers had made the mistake of copying well-known mosaics, which have been extensively photographed by tourists with images widely available on the internet and in academic publications. “The whole thing is crazy. The authorities continually do these things without consulting experts.”

Related Articles

Maltaş Temple Revealed

10 August 2021

10 August 2021

Phrygian Valley, 10 meters high monument with Phrygian scriptures inscriptions on it discovered. The unearthed Maltaş monument is actually the...

A Trove of ‘Exceptional’ stunningly preserved bronze statues found at an Ancient Thermal Spa in Tuscany, Italy

10 November 2022

10 November 2022

A group of Italian archaeologists made the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues from an ancient thermal spring in Tuscany....

Artificial intelligence is Detecting New Archaeological Sites in the Arabian desert

5 October 2024

5 October 2024

A team of researchers at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi has developed a machine-learning algorithm to help them trawl vast...

Saudi Archaeologists have discovered a pre-Islamic Musnad inscription and a bronze bullhead

18 February 2023

18 February 2023

Saudi archaeologists have discovered the longest pre-Islamic Musnad inscription -of the ancient south Arabian script- and three gold rings and...

An Ancient Building and Gold Artifacts Found in the Ancient Greek City of Rypes in Achaea

10 December 2024

10 December 2024

Recent excavations on the Trapezá plateau, eight kilometers southwest of the city of Aigio in the Peloponnese, have uncovered an...

The Oldest and Most Unique Example of the ‘Etrarchic Embracement Motif’ is on Display for the First Time

19 September 2024

19 September 2024

A relief depicting two Roman emperors’ embrace of Diocletian and Maximian during a ceremonial event, each other welcomes visitors for...

Oil drilling uncovers a 2,000-year-old cemetery with giant Urn-like tombs in Southwest Iran

16 July 2022

16 July 2022

An ancient cemetery with urn-like tombs was discovered in Ahvaz, the capital city of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. The...

A 2000-year-old bronze military diploma was discovered in Turkey’s Perre ancient city

2 January 2022

2 January 2022

During excavations in the ancient city of Perre, located in the southeastern Turkish province of Adiyaman, archaeologists uncovered a bronze...

The Catacombs of Commodilla in Rome will open to the public for the first time

21 September 2022

21 September 2022

The fourth-century Catacombs of Commodilla in Rome’s Garbatella district will reopen to the public soon after the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission...

4,500-Year-Old Three Warrior Graves Found in Germany, One Still Wearing an Arm Guard

30 January 2025

30 January 2025

Extraordinary discovery during the construction of a New Power Line: Archaeologists unearth a cemetery from the Copper Age with Three...

According to researchers, the bones discovered underneath St. Peter’s Basilica may not be his

5 June 2021

5 June 2021

Three Italian researchers have voiced doubts about whether St. Peter’s bones are buried underneath the Rome basilica that bears his...

409 silver coins, found in the Mleiha area of Sharjah, were inspired by Alexander the Great and the Seleucid dynasty

17 July 2021

17 July 2021

409 silver coins dating to the 3rd century have been found in the Mleiha area of Sharjah in the United...

One of the largest mass burial pits ever discovered in the UK has been unearthed next to Leicester Cathedral

21 November 2024

21 November 2024

While excavating the gardens of Leicester Cathedral for the future construction of a learning center, archaeologists uncovered one of the...

A Medieval Necropolis Discovered During Excavations at the site of the Future Bus Station in Sozopol, Bulgaria

4 April 2024

4 April 2024

A medieval necropolis was discovered during excavations at the construction site of a bus station in the old seaside town...

Great Wall Castle Remains Found in China’s Shaanxi

8 June 2021

8 June 2021

The remains of a Great Wall castle dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) were discovered in northwest China’s Shaanxi...