A report finds that a majority of the oldest artifacts part of the permanent collection of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco are either forgeries or not up to national museum standards.
The report concludes that only 83 of the 2,000 artifacts from the museum's pre-Hispanic or pre-Columbian era could be authenticated.
The museum board told the San Francisco Chronicle that it was shocked by the low number. This is the first in a series of authentication studies done on the museum's more than 16,000 artifacts, so the number of forged pieces is expected to climb.
The $80,000 report was conducted as a Smithsonian Institution requirement. The Mexican Museum was accepted as a Smithsonian affiliate in 2012, raising the bar on the quality of artifacts that can be displayed.
