Italian guide convicted for 20 years of leading tours in papier-mâché Colosseum

For two decades, a tour guide in Italy deceived tourists by leading them through a papier-mâché amphitheater, which he falsely presented as an ancient Roman relic. The guide, Franco Malosso von Rosenfranz from Vicenza, has now been convicted for his elaborate deception.

Malosso constructed the "Berico Amphitheater" and claimed it was an archaeological site where artifacts from the Neolithic, Greek, and Roman eras were discovered. He charged visitors 40 euros for each tour, pocketing the profits from his fraudulent enterprise.

Suspicion about the structure's authenticity arose in 2016 when archaeologists, alerted by the military police, examined the site. Their investigation revealed the amphitheater was a modern construction, built in the early 2000s using materials like plaster statues, fiberglass, papier-mâché, and stucco blocks, then artificially aged to create a facade of antiquity.

An Italian court upheld the conviction against Malosso on charges including illegal construction, art forgery, and operating without necessary permits. He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison and fined 3,000 euros. Furthermore, he has been ordered to dismantle all structures to restore the site to its original condition and faces claims of approximately 560,000 euros in damages from the municipality of Arcugnano.