Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Golden Fleece
Golden Fleece Photo: @Flipjemuseum/Twitter
Art
Cultural Heritage Agency
Flipje en Streekmuseum
Tiel
Golden Fleece
Claes Vijg
Alexandra van Steen
Thedingsweert
Friday, February 15, 2019 - 10:10
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Heavily secured gold pendant in Tiel museum a fake

The so-called Golden Fleece in the Flipje en Streekmuseum in Tiel is a fake. The 'golden pendant', said to belong to Tiel knight Claes Vijg, does not date from 1559 nor is it made of gold. It's a bad copy made of brass with a thin layer of gold paint, museum director Alexandra van Steen discovered, De Gelderlander reports.

"During an inspection round I noticed that there was a residue on the Golden Fleece", she said to the newspaper. That wouldn't happen to a precious metal like gold. Closer inspection showed that the pendant is too light to be made of gold. The Cultural Heritage Agency investigated the composition and came to the conclusion that it was made of brass, with a thin layer of gold paint.

The pendant has been on loan to the museum from an American collector since 2013, and has been hanging in the museum under heavy security since March 2014. The piece was found in the ground around farm Thedingsweert in Tiel in the 1970's and has since been insured for 100 thousand euros.

Further investigation revealed that the Golden Fleece in the Streekmuseum was actually made by Bijouterie Du Spectacle - a company in Paris that makes film and theater props - in the 1950's. The pendant will stay in the museum for the time being. "But whether the real Golden Fleece of Vijgh still exists and where it is, that is still a mystery", Van Steen said to the newspaper. 

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Supermarket starts petition to lower VAT rate on fruit & veg
  • Amsterdam tenants' rent lowered over lead in drinking water
  • "Peepshow on wheels" sex workers' plea to reopen
  • 5,048: Most new coronavirus infections in over a month
  • Five Rotterdam cops reprimanded for racism in WhatsApp group
  • Tickets for festival experiments sell out within an hour

Top Stories

  • 5,048: Most new coronavirus infections in over a month
  • Dutch less satisfied with life in Covid pandemic
  • Pandemic hit NS harder than expected
  • Amsterdam limits access to Vondelpark after massive party
  • Nearly 50K more Covid vaccines administered; Infection average rises again
  • €600 million in cocaine headed to one Dutch address caught in busts

© 2012-2021 NLTimes.nl, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact