美博物館收藏的死海卷軸碎片，竟全都是假的

A thorough investigation of one of the world's most valuable collections of Dead Sea Scroll fragments has revealed a shocking truth: not one of the collection's 16 fragments analysed is authentic.

對全世界最有價值的收藏品之一——死海卷軸碎片徹底進行調(diào)查之后，結(jié)果令人震驚：藏品的16個碎片中沒有一個是真的。

The Dead Sea Scrolls, a trove of religious manuscripts containing the oldest known foundations of the Old Testament, date as far back as the third century BCE. The vast majority of these ancient, weathered texts are displayed in Jerusalem, but many more fragments circulate on the private market, where they are coveted by cashed-up collectors and museums.

死海古卷是一堆宗教手稿，包含舊約最古老的基礎(chǔ)內(nèi)容，可以追溯到公元前三世紀。這些古老的飽經(jīng)風霜的文本中絕大多數(shù)在耶路撒冷展出，但有更多的碎片在自由市場上流通，富有的收藏家和博物館都對它們垂涎三尺。

 

 

Unfortunately, many researchers in the field of biblical archaeology suspect that some of these supposed relics – especially a mysterious body of fragments that only turned up late in the day, in 2002 – are cunningly crafted forgeries that can fool even experts.

不幸的是，很多圣經(jīng)考古學領(lǐng)域的研究人員懷疑這些所謂的文物中有一些是巧奪天工的贗品，甚至連專家都看不出來，尤其是在2002年的一天很晚才出現(xiàn)的一個神秘碎片。

That bleak view was seemingly confirmed in late 2018, when the US$500 million Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC revealed that at least five of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments in its collection on display were actually fakes.

這種悲觀看法似乎在2018年末得到了證實，當時耗資5億美元建成的華盛頓特區(qū)的圣經(jīng)博物館透露，這些展出的死海卷軸碎片中至少有5塊真的是贗品。

Since then, the museum has engaged further scientific help to ascertain whether the rest of its scroll fragments (rumoured to have cost millions to acquire) are the real deal. It turns out, rather embarrassingly, they are not.

從那以后，這家博物館一直在進一步利用科學方法來查明剩余的卷軸碎片(據(jù)傳是花了幾百萬收購來的)是否是真的。結(jié)果很令人尷尬，都是假的。

"After an exhaustive review of all the imaging and scientific analysis results, it is evident that none of the textual fragments in Museum of the Bible's Dead Sea Scroll collection are authentic," says art fraud investigator Colette Loll, the founder and director of Art Fraud Insights.

Art Fraud Insights創(chuàng)始人兼負責人、藝術(shù)欺詐調(diào)查員Colette Loll說：“經(jīng)過對所有成像和科學分析結(jié)果的詳盡回顧，證實了圣經(jīng)博物館的死海古卷的文本碎片都是假的。”