How Odessans Hohmans cheated the Louvre for 200,000 francs, and why even experts believed them

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1896, the collection of the Parisian Louvre was replenished with a unique exhibit. For the crown of the Scythian leader Saitofernes, according to the sellers found during the excavation of the royal tomb, the museum paid an incredible amount - 200 thousand francs. For a while, the golden tiara was one of the main museum pieces, until, thanks to an accident, it became clear that it was just a skillfully executed falsification of the handiwork of a self-taught master from Odessa.

Merchants Hohmans in search of a gold mine and forgery of antiquities

Before the main scam of their lives, the Odessa brothers Shepsel and Leiba Gokhman traded in antiques. Living near the ruins of ancient Greek Olbia, they were related to the excavations there. The brothers offered the found archaeological values to the owners of private collections. But at some point, the flow of finds began to decline, and then the Gokhmans thought about making fakes of antiquity.

Recently, the main trophies of archaeologists have been fragments of stone slabs with texts in Greek. The enterprising brothers undertook to counterfeit them. Material for the manufacture of "ancient" slabs was brought from the Crimea, and hired craftsmen were engaged in engraving. They managed to exactly copy the ancient Greek font and writing style. They did not even disdain to compose texts on their own. Once such an initiative almost played a cruel joke with the counterfeiters. The buyer of the next masterpiece noticed an error in the inscription. But the Hohmans were not at a loss, saying that the ancient Greek scribes could well have been mistaken. This experience was taken into account by the masters of forgeries, and later the slabs were produced with greater grammatical care. Soon, the brothers even managed to mislead one of the Odessa archaeological museums, where the fakes were sold.

Heading to work big and the first solid deal

After successes in the "tile" business, the swindlers decided to go in for precious fakes. The Gohmans acted cunningly and carefully. They ordered semi-antique items to their fellow jewelers, who usually did not even suspect that they were making a rarity, and the finished works were sold as genuine antiquities through intermediaries.

The hohmans recruited accomplices among the peasants, who contacted buyers, and described in detail the places of the finds. And once the brothers' agents even planted another fake in the grave, on which archaeologists were working. Therefore, the buyer could not be suspicious. The first major victim of fraudsters is also known. It was the Nikolaev collector Frischen, who believed in the story of the peasants who came to him. The latter convinced the man that, while digging up a vegetable garden, they found an ancient crown and a dagger under the ground, setting a price of 10 thousand rubles for the find. It was too late when the gullible buyer found out that he had been conducted. The money was paid, and the agents were gone.

At gunpoint - Louvre or shiny fake tiara scam

Shepsel and Leiba, not wanting to stop there, decided to sell their "values" abroad. They conceived to make such an exhibit, for which the best European museums will stand in line. This is how the golden tiara appeared, which, according to the legend presented, the Greeks brought as a gift to the Scythian king Saitafernus for protection from nomadic raids.

For such an important mission, the famous Odessa self-taught jeweler Israel Rukhomovsky was attracted. The skilled craftsman did a great job. For greater persuasiveness, he even engraved an inscription in ancient Greek on the product, informing that the tiara was a gift to the great leader of the Scythians. There was little to do - to find a solvent buyer with a high-profile international name.

For the first attempt at a deal, the Gohmans chose the Vienna Imperial Museum. The Austrians were seriously interested in the crown, but they did not find the required amount. The Vienna Museum offered to either drop the price or sell the exhibit in installments. But the brothers needed everything at once, and they undertook to negotiate with the Louvre. After examining the tiara, Parisian experts concluded that the find was genuine and of great historical value. In the spring of 1896, the Louvre donated 200,000 francs to the Hochmans. Some collectors even then suspected that something was unclean with the Louvre's new clothes and even demanded additional expertise. But they were refused, and rumors of a possible deception died down.

Establishment of the fact of deception and the continuation of dubious business

The scam was exposed by chance. When the French painter and sculptor Ellen Mayens was accused of forging famous paintings, he frivolously retorted that forgeries were exhibited even in the Louvre. Wanting to traditionally gather hype around him, the shocking master said that he made a model of the Louvre tiara and supervised its production. A second exposing letter appeared in "Le Matin" by the Odessa jeweler Solomon Lifshits, who arrived in Paris a couple of years ago. He said that the author of the tiara is his Odessa colleague Israel Rukhumovsky.

According to Lifshits, the jeweler, making the future exhibit, had no idea about the planned scam, and received a pittance for his work - 1,800 rubles. Warnings from Russian historians and archaeologists began to surface in the press, who unanimously called the tiara a fake, which the Louvre did not attach importance to.

Journalists rushed to Odessa in search of a brilliant master who unwittingly deceived eminent European experts. Rukhumovsky, who previously made his living by copying antique jewelry for private orders, became famous. The investigation of the case with the crown of Cytofern lasted about two months, as a result of which the commission made disappointing conclusions: the tiara is a fake, made by a modern Odessa author on the order of a certain Gokhman. The brothers Shepsel and Leiba did not answer for their deception. There was no direct evidence of them, and they certainly did not want to cooperate with the investigation. The matter was hushed up, and each remained with his own. And if the elder brother gave up the antique business, the younger Gokhman continued to cheat museum organizations for a long time.

Unfortunately, the Gohman brothers weren't the only major con artists of the day. Everyone suffered from crooks and swindlers, including the common people. Not once or twice in Russia at that time there were MMM pyramids.