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Professor Salvatore Casillo... is the mastermind behind the Museo del Falso, an institution studying and exhibiting fakes and counterfeit objects that are part of daily life. The museum was opened [in 1991] with funds from the city, the University of Salerno and a local savings bank, and since then has featured exhibitions on counterfeit silver, detergents and, most recently, food.

A professor of industrial sociology who focused on entrepreneurship, Casillo came across hundreds of examples of entrepreneurs who went into illegal business, sometimes with brilliant ideas "that made you wonder what they could accomplish in legitimate business," he said.

Together with colleagues who are psychologists, anthropologists and legal experts — all of whom had come across the trend in their own research — he founded a study center and the museum, which was formerly a depot for the city sanitation department.