Demi Lovato’s Egyptian Artifacts Could Be Fake, Experts Say

Demi Lovato recently unboxed a set of Egyptian antiquities and cuneiform tablets bought online. However, expert observers weighed in on the prized items and said the singer could have bought fakes.

“OK, I’m so excited, some really incredible things came in the mail today,” Lovato gushed in an Instagram story Tuesday showing off their newly-acquired ancient artifacts. “These are ancient Egyptian artifacts and I got them from Museum Surplus. These are my certificates of authenticity.”

Lovato showed an array of objects that included small clay Egyptian tablets, eye of Horus amulets and funerary figurines or Ushabti that were placed in the tomb of Egyptian elites to serve as servants should the deceased be called for manual labor in the afterlife.

“Some of these pieces are literally thousands of years old,” Lovato continued. “Like, what? My mind is literally blowing right now, and I’m so excited.”

Art Crime professor at the City University of New York Erin L. Thompson tweeted Lovato’s Instagram story and wrote, “Is now my time to shine on @TMZ for pointing out that Demi Lovato is showing off getting extremely bad fake Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern antiquities on their Instagram stories?”

Peter Campbell, archaeologist and lecturer in Cultural Heritage under Threat at Cranfield University in England also believed Lovato received forged items.

“All of Heritage/Art Crime Twitter is coming out for this,” he said, retweeting Thompson’s post.

“This paperwork does not look like any provenance paperwork I have seen before and lacks all the critical data. I would advise any buyer to conduct due diligence before purchasing ancient objects, something that this paperwork does not fulfil on its own,” Campbell tweeted.

“When I first saw the certificates, I thought it was a joke because they contain none of the critical information like ownership history, export permits or find spot,” Campbell told The Hollywood Reporter.

Thompson also echoed Campbell’s statement regarding the missing information that would validate the items’ authenticity and said, “There’s no indication of provenance of where Museum Surplus got these before offering them for sale,” she said. “There’s no way that these would be accepted by a museum. There’s no way that any sophisticated collector who wanted to make sure that they had value and could resell the things would accept or buy those either, because you don’t want to buy a problem. You don’t want to buy something that Egypt could confiscate or that you can’t sell because other people are worried about it.”