Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art law
news

Su-suit-io: Alamo experts sue authors of a book suggesting they sold phoney artefacts from the battle to British pop star Phil Collins

The authors of the book imply that antiquities dealer Alexander McDuffie and historian Joseph Musso faked inscriptions and fraudulently authenticated artefacts that were set for a revamped Alamo site

Daniel Cassady
23 June 2022
Share
British rock star and Texan history enthusiast Phil Collins speaks at the Alamo in 2014 © San Antonio Express-News/ZUMAPRESS.com

British rock star and Texan history enthusiast Phil Collins speaks at the Alamo in 2014 © San Antonio Express-News/ZUMAPRESS.com

A defamation lawsuit brought by two experts in the history of the Battle of the Alamo claims that the authors of the book Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth dragged their names through the mud by implying fraudulent authentications, phony inscriptions and bloated prices. One purported victim of the alleged fraud is Phil Collins, the British rock drummer and singer/songwriter who once fronted the band Genesis.

The story begins with antiquities dealer Alexander McDuffie and historian and artist Joseph Musso, who were working to authenticate possible artefacts from the battle that would go on display following a proposed redevelopment of the Alamo site in San Antonio, Texas. According to the complaint, “plans included a visitor center which would house a collection of artefacts assembled by musician Phil Collins, who had become an avid collector of Alamo memorabilia and even financed a dig for historical artifacts under a building around the corner from the Alamo.”

In the late 2010s Chris Tomlinson, a columnist for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News, along with Vanity Fair correspondent Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford planned to co-author Forget the Alamo, with Tomlinson taking a lead role in researching a chapter about the planned redevelopment. While reporting on the chapter, Tomlinson approached McDuffie for information about a planned museum, the new visitors centre and the trade of authenticating and selling antiquities.

Before the book was published an excerpt appeared in Texas Monthly (also a named defendant in the suit, along with the publisher of the book, Penguin Random House). The article implied that McDuffie and Musso assembled bogus artefacts for the museum and may have sold fraudulently authenticated artefacts to Collins for his collection, which the musician planned to donate to the new visitor centre.

McDuffie contacted Texas Monthly editor Dan Goodgame after the excerpt was published claiming that the article was full of “misrepresentations and misquotes” and asked that corrections or retractions be made. According to the complaint, Goodgame compiled a list of corrections to be published along with the article, which was to be the magazine’s cover story, but McDuffie told him the list “did not even come close to erasing the impressions the article had created, nor did they correct all of the factual errors.”

The book was published on 8 June 2021 and a paperback edition followed on 7 June 2022, one day before the lawsuit was filed. Both McDuffie and Musso say the article and subsequent book destroyed their reputations, with McDuffie’s business taking a crushing blow. Alex McDuffie Antiques brought in around $150,000 in annual sales before the article and book were published. After publication that number dropped to $9,800, which forced McDuffie to drop his prices and forgo any profits from sales, and the proposed redevelopment of the site was put on hold, costing him the position of founding historian and curator of the planned Battle for Texas museum.

According to the Alamo’s website Phil Collins donated his “priceless collection of Alamo and Texana artifacts”, which consists of hundreds of items, to the Alamo’s guardian the Texas General Land Office. Collins’s passion for the Alamo began after seeing the Disney film of Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. “When other children were out playing cops and robbers or other childhood games, Collins says that he was re-enacting the Battle of the Alamo,” the website reads.

Prior to the pandemic, the Alamo was the most-visited landmark in Texas, with 1.6 million visitors every year.

Art lawHeritageTexasPhil Collins
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

American Museumsnews
6 January 2023

Genesis of Phil Collins’s collection of Alamo artefacts questioned ahead of museum opening

A new public exhibition hall is mired in controversy over the provenance of the musician’s collection of relics related to the Alamo in Texas

Gabriella Angeleti
Repatriationnews
19 January 2022

Indigenous man allegedly fired for refusing to discard bones and artefacts unearthed at Texas construction site

The San Antonio-based chef and site manager was dismissed after being instructed to destroy the discoveries to avoid delaying the renovation of a restaurant

Gabriella Angeleti
Conservation & Preservationnews
26 May 2021

Woolworth Building in San Antonio, a landmark in civil rights history, is spared from demolition

Former 1921 dime store, which peacefully desegregated its lunch counter in 1960, will house an Alamo museum

Nancy Kenney