The following was sent into us by our friend Richard Fiennes Clinton:

There was a story that broke at the end of 2008 about an amazing discovery at the Grange. For those of you unfamiliar with the Grange, it is the historical home located behind the newly renovated and restored Art Gallery of Ontario. It was constructed in 1817 by the Boulton family, who were a prominent clan in early Toronto (York). The Boultons lived in the house for a few generations and "The Grange", as they called their manor, eventually passed to the widow of one of the Boulton men. She remarried, and along with her new husband Goldwin Smith, set the wheels in motion for the house to eventually become an art gallery. Through many transitions over the last century, it evolved into the Art Gallery that we know today.

The "amazing discovery", pieced together from various accounts that I've heard, is more or less as follows. A descendant of Henry Whyte, a long time butler of the Grange, who was living in Boston, came across his ancestor's papers. Having no real interest in them, he sent them up to Toronto where they eventually ended up as a donation to the Grange. They arrived in the midst of the flurry that was the regeneration of the AGO, complete with Frank Gehry's curvy glass installation on the Dundas side of the Art Gallery. When the documents arrived, they turned out to be relatively mundane journals documenting the day to day life below stairs at the Grange. They chronicled how many bottles of wine were consumed and how many dinner parties were thrown. But out fell a map of the property, complete with a number of enigmatic "x" marks. It seemed a mysterious treasure map, and while the modern twenty-first century additions were being constructed, anthropologists and archaeologists apparently went to work, digging up to see what could be found in all those spots marked with an "x".

According to the story, the "x" marks identified the location of a number of strange wax and clay bundles. Another long time employee, Mary O'Shea, had apparently started working at the Grange at the tender age of 17. For about thirty years, it seemed, she would take a number of small items - sugar, spices, a children's doll, a braid of hair, a rabbit's skull, deer bones, and even small quantities of human blood - and then roll them up in spent candle wax and clay and then bury them all over the house and property. One of the prize finds were some letters that had been intended for her family back in Ireland, but had been returned. They were sent back sometime at the end of the 1840s, presumably after Mary O'Shea's family had been wiped out in the Great Irish Potato Famine.

I was intrigued by the story, as many were. Who was Mary O'Shea? Why drove her bizarre compulsion to capture these items and preserve them in wax and clay and then hide them all around the house and grounds? Did she intend for them to be discovered, or did she hope that they would be eternally hidden away? Was Whyte really responsible for the map, and if so, why did he do nothing to bring her strange actions to a close? Most of it might have seemed harmless enough, but some things, especially sugar, were of great financial value.

I went on the first tour of the archaeological dig in mid January, and was amazed! It was like the set of "CSI : Toronto", only set in the mid 1800s. It seemed that one Dr. Chantal Lee, an anthropologist with an organization called "Anthropological Services Ontario" was heading up the dig. The entire thing had been suspended to help celebrate the re opening of the Art Gallery. AND it was great to have an opportunity to see the Grange again. It was closed done, like much of the rest of the AGO during the construction. It seems that there will no longer be admission to the general public, at least after these special tours have ended, as it is to become an exclusive lounge soley for AGO members.

The following two websites gave some introductory information. The first is the website of the "ASO" and the second links to the AGO / Grange itself.

http://www.anthserv.ca/Grange_2008.html
http://www.ago.net/grange-tour

Shortly after my euphoric visit, it came to light that the whole thing was a hoax. The following article appeared in the Toronto Star on Thursday, January 22nd.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/575058

There never was a Mary O'Shea (well, okay, there probably was, but there was never the Mary O'Shea as mentioned in the tour at the Grange). The strange little bundles that were credited to her, the archaeological dig to uncover them, and even, presumably, the diaries themselves were all fabricated. Even Dr. Chantal Lee is a total fabrication. The whole thing is "art", I guess, put on by one Iris Häussler.

I felt upset at being duped by the whole thing. I mean, Chantal Lee's business card has a gmail address. What kind of anthropologist has a gmail address for professional purposes? And reviewing the tour in my mind, I suddenly realized that there were all these little quirky bits of history that I should have been suspicious about.

I actually feel kind of angry about the whole thing - angry at the AGO, angry at the "artist", and angry at the volunteers who conduct the tours, if indeed they realize that they are fooling the masses. If they had advised people from the start, that the whole thing was a set up, I think I'd find it much more acceptable. We'd all know it was fake, but even getting people excited about fake archaeology can point them in the right direction. But I wonder how many people will walk away from this thinking they've been exposed to real history. Will they be angry if they discover it isn't? What if this was their one and only exposure to this kind of thing?

I think what really upsets me the most is that we actually do have enough interesting history in Toronto to promote, without relying on made up crap. Spadina Museum ~ that overshadowed neighbour of Casa Loma ~ has a wonderful gallery on the archaeolgical dig that went on underneath the 1866 house. Fort York has a great archaeological exhibit too. The Parliament buildings that were torched by American soldiers in 1813 lay under the parking lot of a car dealership ... but staring through the chain link fence and imagining what's underneath the asphalt is a more worthwhile and "truthful" historical pursuit than visiting the made up junk at the AGO.

I went on the tour again today, a week after the Toronto Star published their article (mentioned above) revealing the whole thing as a hoax. I had hoped that at the end, there would be a disclaimer, something maybe only slightly apologetic but leading into something encouraging ... "See!! We made this up by archaeology and history CAN be this fun!!" But no. They're still pretending it's real.

My final question is "What's the point?" Are they going to reveal to all us suckers that it's all made up? Are they going to contact everyone who signed in for the tour, and let us know it's a sham? Is this their attempt at "performance art"? Or is it a way to increase tour sales and help pay for Gehry's additions and help get back all that admission money that they lost when they were closed?

Even if it is "art", I'm still angry. I wonder how long it would take them to notice that I'd snuck in, pinched a nice Group of Seven, and replaced it with a crudely drawn replica, rendered in crayon? That'd be a hoax, too ... but what's the difference?