Ossuary owner speaks out
TEL AVIV-The owner of the James Ossuary, Oded Golan, says he's not a forger. Golan defended his reputation in a telephone interview from his home in Tel Aviv July 31, saying, "I've never faked anything. I've never forged anything. I've never offered anything that I thought is fake to anyone in the world.
"And I think the Israel Antiquities Authority knows it."
Less than a week after being released from a Jerusalem jail, Golan's feelings were still smarting from what he says was his first experience behind bars. But it was the sting of accusations of forgery and dealing in fake antiquities, along with allegations Israeli authorities found forgery equipment in his home, which prompted his strongest response.
"It's nonsense," he said. "That's all I can tell you for the time being."
The man widely reputed to be one of Israel's foremost antiquities collectors has lived through a remarkable year.
Last October a media frenzy followed an announcement by one of the world's leading experts on ancient inscriptions. French palaeographer Andre Lemaire discovered an inscription on an ancient limestone burial box which translated as "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
The box was analyzed, tested and pronounced authentic. Scientists dated the relic to 63 A.D. Mathematicians calculated it not only plausible, but perhaps even probable that the ancient artifact once held the bones of James the Just, one of the founders of the early Church, and the brother of Christ.
Insurers estimated the box's value at approximately $2 million.
While there were prominent, vocal sceptics among the world's scholarly community, others hailed Golan's artefact as possibly the earliest known archaeological link to Jesus.
Flown to Toronto for exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum, the ossuary arrived badly damaged. It was repaired in time to be viewed by thousands of biblical scholars from around the globe, gathered in the city for conventions.
Golan held court before a crowd of about 300 people assembled at Toronto's Metropolitan Hotel November 22 for a meeting of the Biblical Archaeology Society.
During a 90-minute talk, he told anecdotes and presented a slide show of some of the more than 3,000 items in his collection. His pictures showed a modest home; every wall lined with shelves and display cases; every nook and cranny stuffed with ancient artifacts amassed over a lifetime.
Before the ossuary was returned to Israel-and directly into the care of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), according to Golan-the collector's name was linked to another stunning archaeological find: a dark grey sandstone tablet apparently bearing 2,800-year-old instructions in ancient Phoencian script to repair the Jewish temple.
A 14-member committee was appointed by the IAA to investigate both relics.
On June 18, they announced the Phoenician inscription was a hoax. As for the bone box, it is indeed ancient, they say, but the inscription was added in modern times.
Safe and sound
When Golan finally received his ossuary back from the IAA in July, he confesses he didn't know quite what to do with it. He wanted to consult other experts to attempt to understand the IAA's finding, but until then, there was the problem of where to put the bone box for safekeeping.
"I consulted a place-to store it," he says, "but they wanted a lot of money.
"They sent me a proposal. It's a place where you can store expensive pictures and things like that; paintings. But I didn't even have time to think about it."
He did determine it would have to be a place no thief would think to look for something of value.
The place he ultimately chose lead to widespread criticism, howls of derision and further accusations that in reality, he knew the ossuary held little value.
He put it in a washroom.
Golan defends his actions, saying it isn't a washroom any more, it hasn't been used for that purpose in 30 years, there is no longer any water there and it is in fact "very, very safe."
He stresses he wrapped the ancient box in layers of bubble wrap and "textiles," then set it on a wooden board, before resting the board on the closed seat lid of a toilet in the small, locked room on the roof of his building.
"I put it there because it's the safest place in the building," he says. "It's the only place in the whole building which has never been [broken into]."
Police and IAA authorities raided Golan's home July 21. He says he took them to the ossuary's hiding place, and describes what happened next as a "complete manipulation."
"What [the IAA] did-they took all the bubble [wrap] out. They took the textiles out. And then they brought [the ossuary] back into the room naked. I mean the ossuary itself was naked. And they took a photograph from the top of it."
The photograph of the "naked," lidless box perched in its inauspicious location was featured prominently in the Israeli media.
Golan was taken into police custody. During a court appearance the following day, investigators reportedly displayed items said to be advanced tools for making forgeries, found on Golan's premises.
Golan insists they were nothing of the sort. "I can assure you 100 per cent that none of them is a tool with which you can make any inscription. None of them. There is no relation at all. There is nothing which may be related to [forging] ancient inscriptions."
The collector spent four days in jail before being released. No charges have been laid, but the investigation is continuing.
Golan says while he's hoping the case does not go to court, it could only be positive if it does.
"If they go [to court] I think that will be very good for me," he says.
"I am 100 per cent sure when scholars will have to appear in front of a court, and say exactly what happened, and when even the people of the Israel Antiquities Authority ?will have to do it?it will change the picture completely.
"I am quite sure about it."
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