He built a fake Roman theater among the hills of the Italian province of Vicenza using modern stone blocks artificially aged to give them an ancient look. He presented it as an archaeological find with vestiges of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and even the Neolithic; he organized guided tours and historical re-enactments, charged up to 40 euros per visitor, mistakenly slipped into an official tourist guide, and ended up in prison, sentenced to two years and four months in jail definitively. This is the incredible story of Franco Malosso, a 69-year-old Italian who called himself Franz Von Rosenfranz in artistic circles and managed to pull off one of Italy’s most unusual archaeological hoaxes.
After a 10-year process and after parole was dismissed and the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction, the author of this colossal farce entered Ventimiglia prison a few months ago to serve the sentence imposed for illegal construction and falsification of works of art.
The origin of the story is uncertain, dating back a few years before 2016, when Malosso began to erect the fake ancient theater in the hills of Arcugnano, in the province of Vicenza. On an area of 5,000 square meters, he installed a series of stands built with superimposed stones worked in such a way that they appear ancient. Also fake are the columns, made of cement, the plaster statues, and an artificial pond excavated under the stands, in the arena area. The so-called Berico Amphitheater, which is still standing, despite its name, is actually a structure inspired by a Roman theater, with a semicircular plan.
In 2016, after a complaint from the Arcugnano City Council, an investigation was launched which concluded that the entire complex was modern and had been built without the necessary urban planning and landscape authorizations. At that moment, a complex judicial process began, plagued by defense appeals.
The archives do not clearly allow determining whether Malosso’s intention was to reconstruct a supposed ancient theater or simply to create a fake archaeological site to pass it off as authentic. His version changed over time. Initially, he presented the site as an authentic archaeological site with remains from different historical periods. Later, when investigations began, he maintained that it was actually the reconstruction of a supposed ancient theater that, according to him, would have existed under the hill. This thesis, however, was dismissed by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, which determined that there were no archaeological vestiges on the site and that all structures were of modern construction.
Throughout these years, Malosso’s defense has always maintained that the falsification had been done in such a “crude” way that it was impossible for anyone to believe it was a real archaeological vestige, and therefore the deception thesis could be dismissed.
The conviction includes urban planning offenses and offenses against cultural heritage. The judges considered it proven that the gigantic installation had been presented as an authentic archaeological remnant, also generating economic benefit through visits and activities organized at the site. The case continues to cause surprise in Italy due to how a fiction of these dimensions could be built and maintained.
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The experts consulted agree that an authentic archaeological site is easily recognizable by a specialist. Jacopo Bonetto, archaeologist and professor at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua, explains that identification does not depend solely on the visual aspect of a construction, but also on its architectural characteristics, the materials used, the construction techniques, and the state of preservation. “It is totally absurd to think that an ancient building can be confused with a modern one, even if they are built in the same way,” he points out in conversation with this newspaper.
According to the archaeologist, Roman buildings are identified by their architectural characteristics, the materials used, the construction techniques, and, above all, by the wear accumulated over centuries, elements impossible to faithfully reproduce in a recent construction. Added to this is the cost of a work of these characteristics: “Reconstructing an amphitheater today would entail an enormous expense, hardly affordable for a private citizen,” the expert maintains.
Bonetto also emphasizes that the very location of the supposed theater was enough to raise suspicions. “The context is fundamental, as ancient buildings were only constructed in certain places. Ancient amphitheaters were built, in 99% of cases, on the outskirts of Roman cities. An amphitheater in the middle of the countryside, far from an ancient urban center, is naturally fake,” he states. The expert highlights that this type of episode, fortunately, is extraordinarily infrequent.
Beyond the anecdote, Bonetto believes that the case highlights the importance of scientific rigor in the management of historical heritage. “Competencies must be respected, and that doesn’t always happen. Too often, cultural heritage is left in the hands of people who lack specific training. European heritage is an enormous wealth that must be preserved and requires qualified specialists,” he argues. In the case of Vicenza, he adds, “an inspection by competent archaeologists was enough to understand that it was a fake.”
The court ruling also obliges Malosso to compensate the City Council for the damages caused, to demolish the theater and the rest of the illegally erected constructions, and to restore the hill to its original state, although this order is still pending execution.
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