Wednesday 28 March 2012

A Kore Hidden in a Goat-Farm

A statue of the peplophoros type of the archaïc period (c. 520 B.C.), measuring 1.20 m, of important historical and archaeological value was discovered in the possetion of two men, on a goat-farm in Fyli, Attica.

Εκρυβαν Κόρη σε μαντρί

As became known after police investigations, the two men who were arrested, were looking for buyers, asking for 500,000 Euros for the statue.

According to archaeologists of the Department of Recording of the Ministry of Culture, it is a unique object, of inestimable historical and archaeological value.

As it became known, one of the men arrested was a candidate in the local elections of the Municipality of Fyli, a member of the local council and professes to live of various incomes.

The second man had previously been arrested a year ago, together with two Albanian citizens, for possetion of a metal detector.

Source: To Ethnos, 28.03.2012 

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UPDATE 03.04.2012

The Statue of the Kore found in a Goat Farm was a Fake
All the archaeologists gave a negative opinion concerning its authenticity.
By Maria Thermou, To Vima, 03.04.2012

The supposed Kore of the Archaic Period, that was found in a Goat-Farm of Fyle, is in fact an exact copy of the “Peplophoros” of the Parthenon, kept in the Acropolis Museum.

All the archaeologists that were consulted by the police to give an opinion, were negative concerning its authenticity. Thus, if the police had not been able to arrest the people that held the statue in time, it would have been sold as a genuine work.

The original Acropolis Peplophoros Kore
It is not known, however, how a kore, whose value is estimated an 100 million, could have been sold for just 500,000 – the asking price of its owners. The professor Vasilis Lambrinoudakis and the archaeologists and restorators of the Archaeological Museum saw it for a fake as soon as they set eyes on it.

At first sight, however, the statue is quite convincing, as it was made probably from artificial stone. It is quite heavy. However it was seen that the kore has identical break points as the original, while the same parts are missing: the left hand and the lower part of the statue. It is also important that identical Kores did not exist in antiquity, given that they were offerings of different women to the virgin Athena, and no copies of them were made later, i.e. in the Roman Period.

The original Peplophoros Kore (520 B.C.) was found in 1886 in the Erechtheion of the Acropolis, broken in three pieces. It was made of Parian marble, had a heigh of about 1,20 m. and bears traces of its original decoration, that was especially rich. It received its particular name because of its clothing, the Doric, wool, peplon that covers an Ionian linos and a pliché himation.

The fake version has not yet been deposited at the National Archaeological Museum, where all seized works are deposited.

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A.M. Note
It is interesting to note that replicas of the statue have been made in the past, and used by the Greek state as gifts. See here for an example of a replica that was donated by Greece to the Beijing Museum in 2009. It will be interesting to see who is behind the replica found in the Fyle Goat-Farm, and how it found its way there, as to make an exact copy of a work of art, it is necessary to have direct access to the original (or to a previous copy)...

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