Police have arrested seven people suspected of creating thousands of fake Greek and Estruscan artefacts. Mainly from the Lazio region of Italy, the gang devised a system to invalidate dating tests using a hospital x-ray machine. Ceramics can be dated using thermoluminescent tests. Thermoluminescence is the faint light given off by ceramics fired at a high temperature. The brighter the light is the older the piece is. When ceramics are exposed to radiation, dating tests become invalidated as the radiation interferes with the results.
 
Two homes were raided by police, one belonging to archaeologist Edoardo David. An expert in ceramics, David has allegedly been amalgamating ground up old ceramics with new clay to produce fake artefacts.