The art is fake, the exhibit is real

NEW YORK (AP) - July 17, 2008

The Brooklyn Museum is planning an exhibit of 30 Coptic sculptures next year including 10 confirmed fakes.

Questions have been raised for years about the pieces' authenticity and scientific testing finally exposed the forgeries.

But museum officials say the sculptures are popular with the public, so they're going back on display.

Edna Russmann, a museum curator, hopes the exhibit will be educational.

She says visitors will see the good and bad, and gain a better appreciation of real Coptic art.

The authentic works date back to early Christians in Egypt from around the fifth to seventh centuries.

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