Imaginary events, fake views, decade-old ancient theatres: how fakery is on the rise in tourism
Franco Malosso, 69, who charged visitors up to 40 euros to enter a supposedly 2,000-year-old amphitheatre he had built from scratch in Italy, has been sentenced to 28 months in prison. Taking this extraordinary case as our starting point, we look at the non-existent tourist attractions spreading as a result of AI hallucinations.
A mind-boggling case that had dragged on in Italy for ten years recently came to an end. Franco Malosso, 69, who presented himself as the owner, creator and discoverer of an “ancient” site of some five thousand square metres, was sentenced to 28 months in prison for forging works of art, carrying out unauthorised building work and damaging a protected natural area, and ordered to pay a fine of 3,000 euros and 3,500 euros in legal costs.
Near Arcugnano in the Veneto region of northern Italy, the supposedly 2,000-year-old amphitheatre, known variously as Anfiteatro Berico, Anfiteatro Marittimo Berico and Anfiteatro Porta degli Angeli, was not a Greek structure as Malosso claimed; it did not even date from Roman times. Besides, while Roman remains are common in northern Italy, the ancient Greeks founded colonies only further south.
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