Italian Man Jailed for Fake Roman Amphitheatre

A man has been jailed in Italy for fraud after charging tourists €40 to visit a fake Roman amphitheatre he built himself twenty years ago, Euronews reports.

Franco Malosso "von Rosenfranz," 69, claimed to have discovered the site — known as the Berico Maritime Amphitheatre, in the northeastern city of Vicenza — after a landslide in 2005.

According to Italy's Corriere della Sera, Malosso told visitors the site was one of the world's "oldest and largest amphitheatres" and dated back to AD 393. He claimed that Julius Caesar had visited it on his return to Rome from Egypt with Cleopatra, and that Shakespeare's Juliet Capulet had lived in an old church there.

Malosso, who described himself as a "philanthropist, entrepreneur and orchestra conductor," even persuaded local authorities to include the site in Vicenza's EU-funded tourism guide and online app.

Suspicions began to emerge in 2016. Archaeologists called in to investigate by Italy's Carabinieri military police discovered that the "ancient" structure contained fibreglass, papier-mâché columns, rendered blocks and plaster statues dating from the early 2000s. Satellite images showed that Malosso had first levelled a hill, then built the bogus monument on the cleared ground.

Further historical detective work established that Julius Caesar lived roughly 400 years before the date on which the building was supposedly constructed. And as most English literature students will attest, the setting of Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET is not Vicenza but Verona.

Malosso has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison for illegal construction, art forgery and creating works without authorisation. He was also fined €3,000. Arcugnano council has filed a €560,000 damages claim against him to recoup its losses.

Photo: via Google Maps