Art forgery

Until now, all experts have dated the celebrated Lady of Elche, the beautiful and patriotic symbol of timeless Iberia, to pre-Christian Spain, some time between 500 B.C. and A.D. 150. John F. Moffitt dates it to "ca. 1897.".

The Lady, a magnificent sculpted bust of perhaps a princess or priestess, has been regarded as a major work of "ancient" Spanish art ever since it was unearthed near the village of Elche in 1897. Displayed at the Louvre until 1941, the sculpture has resided since then in a place of honor in Madrid's national archaeological museum. To every reputable art historian and archaeologist, European and American alike, it has defined the very essence of Iberian art and the foundations of Spanish art and culture.

. Moffitt's detective work will change all that. Pitting twenty years of research (and intuition) against voluminous scholarship and against Spanish pride and nationalism, Moffitt shows that the Lady of Elche is a carefully crafted fake. Further, he offers a detailed, wide-ranging analysis of the means of dissecting any suspected art forgery and discusses what he calls the "collective psychological need for certain kinds of hoaxes."