The Museum of the Bible announced Friday that an extensive independent investigation into the 16 fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls housed in the Washington, D.C.-based museum concluded that the fragments, believed by experts and museum leadership to be authentic, were in fact, forgeries.
According to National Geographic, the modern forgeries initially duped outside collectors, leading biblical scholars and the museum’s CEO, Harry Hargrave.
After five of the museum’s fragments were found to be forgeries in 2018, however, museum leadership decided to enlist the help of art fraud investigator Colette Loll and her company, Art Fraud Insights.
Loll assembled a team of five experts in February 2019, and with complete autonomy, they conducted thorough physical and chemical investigations on all 16 fragments.
Loll told Nat Geo that she insisted on independence during the investigation and the museum was more than willing to oblige.
“Honestly, I’ve never worked with a museum that was so up-front,” Loll shared.
The museum’s willingness and eagerness to find the truth led to several key discoveries that debunked the fragments’ authenticity.
According to Nat Geo, the first red flag was raised, when on further inspection, it was found that 15 of the MOTB fragments were made of leather instead of tanned or lightly tanned parchment like the authentic fragments…
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