The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-04-17
THE TANAGRA FIGURE FRAUDS.
How the Boston Museum Sfatuettes
Were Pieced Together.

" EEPced IOEeIHSF
BOSTON, April 1.-THE report of the
curator Of cIassica. antiquities of the
Boston Museum of Tine Arts contains an
interesting account Of the manner IN
which the spurious Tanagra figures were
built up The report forms part OF the
twenty-ffth annual report Of the trus-
tees Of the museum and the part relating
to Tanagra frauds is as follows:
During the autumn the unhappy discov-
cry was made that a number of our terra
Gotta statuettes were either wholly or
partly spurious Although numerically
these formed but a small proportion Of
our collection of terra cottas. they were
among the most graceful and attractive
possessed by Sh6 museum, and some OF
them had been popular favorites IN our
showcases for over twenty years II vas
perhaps for this reason that the an
nouncement of the discovery and Of the
fact they had been Withdrawn from eXhi-
bitiou, attracted the attention Of newspa-
peTs in various parts of the country, and
was reported even in the London press
As some of the accounts then published
were not without exasgeratiOn, 1t may be
well to recapituIate the facts here, by
way Of record
The specimens condemned were mainly
among those in the case labeled From
TanaEra-' in the recent arrangement OF
the collection. In this case We're only
those of the fine and later Tanagra types,
the archaic TanIgra figures being in an
other case, which contains archaic figures
from various sources In the flanagan
case were tventy-eight statuettes, TWEEN
ty-three Of which were given to the mu-
scum in one lot in 1873, and the other FIVE
at various times since Of these five ore
was found to be wholly modern, although
an excellent imitation: two We're 50 eE-
tensiveIy restored as to be Of little val
ne in collection which pretended to in
ClUde only originals, and two were gen
uine. OF the other twenty-three only one
was found to be wholly genuine Conse-
Quently out of the twenty-eight figures in
the case only three are now on exhibition
OF the rejected figures a considerable
number were, as ! have since learned,
largely the work of q Greek who fire.
| quented the excavations of the cemetery
at Tanagra, which were made in the ear
" seventies, and there collected quaint
ties of the fragments that had been taken
out of the graves and carried them home,
and pieced them together as best he
might, making as. many whole figures as
possible out Of them. The pieces which
he thus put together did not always be-
long to the same figure; heads were fire.
quently supplied from others, and made
to fit by filing, scraping, or cutting, or
else by filing out the shoulders with clay
or plaster. so that the lines should coin
eide; and missing parts Of the body,
sometimes quite extensive, were supplied
| in the same materials.
Even when figures were fairly complete,
although IN fragments, he injured their
value by c0ncealtng the cracks, nlilnB
them over, 50 that It IS now impossible
to tell Just how far his own work WAS
carried, without entirely removing the
outer coat Of color and dirt. In regard
to the heads, the removal Of the modern
paint from one example showed that the
head itself was genuine, though cOInpoS-
ed Of small fragments. but the face was
so much injured as to be no longer at
tractive. He had therefore covered II with
plaster. in which he modelled an entirely
new set of features There appear TO be
other instances of a like treatment, but
the extent to which il was carried can be
determined only by wholly removing the
/ colors-
Having built up his figures in this man
ner, he gave them the appearance of being
intact by applying to the whole surface a
mixture Of color and dirt. initiating traces
of the pink. blue, and other shades which
/ are frequently found on the genuine eX-
! amples. and making these traces more or
/ less extensive, as suited his fancy The
! dirt completed the effect Of genuineneSS.
/ and thus hi. wares were sent to market.
| Therefore, whatever genuine fragments
! these figures may contain, their external
/ appearance is wholly false and, to an
( swer a question which has often been ask
! ed, if we were to remove all the modern
cOlOrs, the restored. and Tnisa pplied heads,
( the plaster hlhngS, and the parts which
/ do not belong together, what remained
would, I fear, make bat sorry showing
/ when placed on exhibition The investi-
cation was carried to this radical extent
J on only a few specimens On the others
Z the outer coating was removed sufficient
1 ~ to prove that it was modern through
/ out, and that the figure underneath was
| either wholly modern or patched together
! in the manner described.
The results of this examination having
/ been reported to your committee. l was
instructed to withdraw from exhibition all
the StatuetteS which were Of doubtful au-
thenticity- This has been done and the
| case has consequently an empty and mel
ancHoIy aspect at present but the three
figures which remain can be yOuched for
and 1t is to be hoped that their numbers
may soon be increased with specimens
that are equally above suspicion