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Alamo Experts Sue Over Book’s Claim Phil Collins Was Sold Bogus Artifacts

The Genesis frontman donated much of his collection to a museum at the battle site in 2014.

Fans of Genesis, historical warfare, and alleged fraudsters alike rejoice: this one has something for everyone. Two experts involved in selling a number of Alamo artifacts to British pop star Phil Collins have sued the co-authors of a book that accused the pair of fraudulent authentication. Antiquities dealer Alexander McDuffie and historian Joseph Musso contend that their reputations were destroyed by Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, published last June. An excerpt of the book “devastated” McDuffie, the suit states, as it claimed he and Musso helped assemble what they knew were phony artifacts both for Collins and the Battle for Texas museum. “The Collins collection contains more questionable pieces with more than questionable provenance by far than any collection I’m aware of,” one historian said in the excerpt. Collins donated much of his enormous collection to Texas in 2014, where it has alternately languished in storage and been put on temporary display while the state wrestles with local activists, scholars, and museum leaders over a proposed redevelopment of the site.