Overview
- Franco Malosso, who promoted the site as a 1,700-year-old Roman amphitheater, was convicted of illegal building and falsifying cultural goods and sentenced to two years and four months in prison with fines and €560,000 in damages.
- Archaeologists commissioned by the Carabinieri concluded the site was built from modern materials including papier-mâché, fiberglass, concrete and modern plaster figures and not from antiquity.
- The structure covered about 5,000 square metres near Arcugnano and drew paying visitors for years after Malosso claimed it was unearthed in 2005; the municipality first raised doubts with a 2016 complaint.
- Investigators used on-site study and satellite imagery that reportedly show earthworks and an artificially constructed arena, while the site had appeared in an EU-funded tourism guide and the regional tourism app.
- Local officials must now enforce a long-standing court demolition order and review how tourist listings and heritage claims are vetted to prevent similar fraud and protect visitors and public funds.