Italian con artist jailed for building ‘world’s oldest and largest amphitheatre’ 20-years ago

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. Franco Malosso 'von Rosenfranz', 69, claimed to have discovered the site, known as the Berico Maritime Amphitheatre in the north-eastern city of Vicenza, after a landslide in 2005. According to Italy's Correiere 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 famous ficitional character Juliet Capulet had lived in an old church there. In addition, Malosso described himself as a "philantropist, entrepreneur and orchestra conductor" and managed to persuade local authorities to include the in Vicenza's EU-funded tourism guide and online app.

Historical claims contradicted by the facts

But suspicions about his far-fetched tale began to emerge in 2016. Archaeologists called in to investigate by Italy’s Carabinieri military police discovered the "ancient" structure contained fibreglass, papier-mâché columns, rendered blocks and plaster statues dating from the early 2000s. Satellite images also showed that Malosso had first levelled a hill and then built the bogus ancient monument on the cleared area. Other historical detective work determined that Italy's most famous ancient ruler Julius Caesar lived around 400 years before the date on which the building was supposedly constructed. Furthermore, as most English literature students will attest, the setting associated Shakespeare's romantic tragedy is not Vicenza but Verona.

Crime and punishment

Malosso has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison for illegal construction, art forgery and creating works without authorisation. He's also been fined €3,000. Meanwhile, Arcugnano council has filed a €560,000-euro damages claim against him to recoup the losses it says it suffered.