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    Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land
    Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land
    Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land
    Ebook345 pages6 hours

    Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land

    By Nina Burleigh

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In 2002, an ancient limestone box called the James Ossuary was trumpeted on the world's front pages as the first material evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ. Today it is exhibit number one in a forgery trial involving millions of dollars worth of high-end, Biblical era relics, some of which literally re-wrote Near Eastern history and which could lead to the incarceration of some very wealthy men and embarrass major international institutions, including the British Museum and Sotheby's.

    Set in Israel, with its 30,000 archaeological digs crammed with biblical-era artifacts, and full of colorful characters—scholars, evangelicals, detectives, and millionaire collectors—Unholy Business tells the incredibly story of what the Israeli authorities have called "the fraud of the century." It takes readers into the murky world of Holy Land relic dealing, from the back alleys of Jerusalem's Old City to New York's Fifth Avenue, and reveals biblical archaeology as it is pulled apart by religious believers on one side and scientists on the other.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061980909
    Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land
    Author

    Nina Burleigh

    Nina Burleigh is the national politics correspondent at Newsweek, an award-winning journalist, and the author of six books. Her most recent book, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, was a New York Times bestseller. Originally from the Midwest, she has lived in and reported from France, Italy, and the Middle East. She lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for Unholy Business

    3.5/5

    28 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a slow burner. The biggest potential surprise in the book: is this a true icon? is answered on the first page and, it is only in the final chapter and the epilogue that one gets the point.This is a pre-cursor to the Trump years. It is all about people with too much invested in the truth of the icon for fact to get in the way. With a religious icon, this does not simply include the purchaser and the vendor but, all the religious zealots for whom a solid item confirming the god's existence becomes more important than the faith based belief previously extolled.
    • 4/5
      If you've read Brother of Jesus, this is a good book to follow up with: balance to provide perspective on a hot Judeo Christian topic. Christians are distressingly gullible sometimes, so when we are presented with something that looks convincing we fall headlong into deception. And that is not to say that the James Ossuary is a forgery, though Burleigh, for all her "journalistic objectivity" certainly convinced me that she believes it is. Unholy Business is a call to caution and, through a back door, faith. If our faith can be bolstered by things, it can also be shaken by them. There is nothing wrong with allowing our understanding to be enlightened by objects of associative value, but to give them power over our belief is a major mistake. Burleigh tells how the contraversy over Golan's artifacts became religious battles over religious territory and face saving nightmares.I love the cautionary quote given by one archaeologist. The science of archeaology has a soft underbelly of subjectivity, and there is no ultimate scientific proof that an object is or is not authentic. In an age where scientific proof and legal proof are already finding their mutual footing, Burleigh brings two other kinds of proof into the mix, investigative, journalistic proof and spiritual truth. It is safe to say that none of the purveyors of these various faces of truth are without prejudice or agenda. Yet, as represented here, their convergence is less satisfying than each has the capacity to be on its own. I feel safe in saying that there is hope in this kind of interdisciplinary investigation, but only when they are actually pursued in an effort of inquiry rather than defensiveness. Each representative has a tree to plant and is in search of fertilizer. Our goal can be, in the spirit of Stephen Hawkins, to find the unifying theme, the One truth that all can go to for validation. It is only as we shy away from our security blankets that we can reach for security in Him.
    • 3/5
      I knew archaeological forgeries were a huge industry and an enormous problem. I think, after reading this book, I understand a little better the scope of things. It's not just people in a back room putting these things together, but well-connected business men who can afford the best workers and the best DEFENSE to cover up what they're doing! Burleigh's book focuses particularly on the James Ossuary and several inscriptions (I think the Jehoash inscription?) that were "found" around the same time, and she even managed to somehow catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a forgery manufacturing studio. Yikes. The key element under discussion here - whether even the author realized it or not - is the issue of unprovenanced artifacts. Should they be studied and placed on display, or is it too risky? Do these items simply encourage illegal trade, site raiding, and forgeries? Some say yes, some say no. It's a tricky situation. Either way, the book was entertaining and certainly informative. Worth the time if this is an area of interest to you.
    • 3/5
      While you think an archeologist or a religious historian should have written this book, it wasn't. Burleigh who is a reporter wrote it. And the book reads like a compilation of her notes. The author also seemed too be trying to write two different types of books at the same time. She would have done herself a favor by breaking out the two separate subjects, performed more research and written two. The books should have been broken into one on the theft and selling of minor antiquities in Israel and the Palestinian areas, which is a thriving business. The street vendors sell them, but you will not know if you are buying a genuine artifact, which is quite possible, or a replica that is almost prefect down to ever detail. And the second book, the reason most people I am sure will buy it, covers the three recently exposed forgeries of the James Ossuary, the Jehoash Tablet, and an ornamental pomegranate thought to come from that same temple. In each case, the forgery technique was the same. Legitimate but unimportant artifacts from the proper era had inscriptions added that made them historically significant and those inscriptions were then altered to look ancient. These subjects are covered in the last part of the book. If you are truly interested in the subject of these artifacts, this is not the book for you. But if you are a tourist or plan to be one, and think you will be able to buy an artifact as a souvenir you should read this book; for she has filled this book on tour of ancient artifacts and their black-market fraud. The book at first glance has a good layout and the title does tell you what is covered. Though I must admit I think she is honest in her writing for she lets us readers know what she has no background what so ever in religion. Yet she has taken it upon her self to assume too understand the complex dynamics that make up a city rich in history, culture and turmoil as Jerusalem. She is woefully ignorant on the subject she is writing about and contradicts known proven findings archeology with generalized statements. Her writing leads me to the conclusion that she has decided that religion is basically superstition. And all that she is riding is based on the basic fundamental belief. Another reviewer stated very accurately what here on Amazon my exact feelings on this book; "My initial annoyance and disappointment with "Unholy Business" was ultimately tempered when I realized that I was not reading a scholarly work on archaeology, history, linguistics or even criminal forensics, but a kind of breezy and highly personalized travelogue." It does not take long to reach this realization and it was a great disappointment to me. For this is a subject and area I am very interested in. I think the two quotes at the front of her book summarize her feelings on this subject. The first is that we as civilization, civilized people deceive those who are to be deceived in order to make a living. And the other is that there are two kinds of people, "those who want to know and those who want to believe." One good thing, the book is a fast read.
    • 3/5
      Unholy Business has a great tale at its heart – the tale of a forgery on an epic scale. The 2002 unveiling of an ossuary (basically a small stone casket) with the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” caused a sensation in the field of Biblical archaeology – and an even bigger sensation in the religious community that follows the field closely. For them, it was a physical, tangible evidence of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.Except it wasn’t. As eventually emerged, the ossuary was a fake – a real ossuary (they’re so common in Jerusalem, they’re commonly used as garden planters, as Burleigh informs us several times), but with a faked inscription to link it to Biblical characters.The tale, however, probably isn’t enough to sustain an entire book – and the trial of the alleged forger was still ongoing at the book’s close, so there isn’t much by way of resolution.Burleigh makes up for this by providing a vivid background portrait of the sketchy world of Middle Eastern antiquities – the collectors, dealers, scholars and, yes, forgers, who devote themselves to the largely lost world that emerges in small pieces from the ground. This ground, as everyone knows, is very much contested, most especially in Jerusalem, which is holy ground for three major religions.This is fascinating stuff; unfortunately it sometimes gets confusing to figure out which or whose trail we are supposed to be following, and why. If the book has a hero it’s Amir Ganor, a detective in charge of the Israel Antiquities Authority Theft-Prevention Unit – but he spends most of the book working on cases other than the James Ossuary, and the discovery of a bunch of forgery tools and altered objects in the suspect’s property feels anticlimactic. If it’s got a villain, I guess it’s that suspect though one never gets a great feel for him, what exactly he did and most importantly, why.Burleigh’s a good writer with a nice touch; she’s working with very sensitive subject matter and she manages to make her subjects appear as human beings without coming off as patronizing or as a scold. That’s important in an area where so many invest so much faith in the history that is revealed through ancient relics.
    • 3/5
      "Unholy Business" deals with some fascinating material, and the author explains clearly the intricacies of the Biblical artifact business. Unfortunately, the organization of the book leaves something to be desired: rather than settling on two or three viewpoints through which to tell her story, the author jumps from person to person, leading not only to some confusion, but to the lack of a compelling narrative. Also, by choosing to write her book while the trial which is its climax is still unfinished, the author has left the book itself feeling unresolved. While "Unholy Business" is worth reading, the definitive popular book on the matter of the James ossuary and the related forgeries has yet to be written.
    • 3/5
      Though Unholy Business has the potential to be a riveting read, it falls far short with its disjointed approach to storytelling. The author bounces back and forth through time and introduces a dizzying array of similarly named characters in the process. In the beginning, I found myself flipping back to previous chapters just to track the chain of events and people involved. The complicated story of this massive fraud often seemed to take a back seat to the author's opinion of the reasons behind the fraud which made for a much less compelling narrative. I was disappointed that this book focused so much on personalities rather than on the facts of the case. I also thought the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying. A more scholarly approach to this interesting case would have made for a much more satisfying read.

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    Unholy Business - Nina Burleigh

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