April
02
/ 2015
A painting that was considered a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art may have been faked in the 1870s by an archaeologist excavating the pharaonic family tomb in which the painting was found. Live Science reports that the painting “Meidum Geese” was supposedly discovered by Luigi Vassalli in 1871. Another Italian archaeologist, Francesco Tiradritti, intends to publish a paper next week exposing the painting as a likely fake, Live Science says. The painting was in an underground tomb or mastaba near the Meidum Pyramid, built by Pharaoh Snefru, who reigned from 2610 to 2590 BC. The painting was in the tomb of Snefru’s son, Nefermaat, in a chapel possibly devoted to Nefermaat’s wife, Atet. Vassalli removed the painting, now in Cairo’s
