What do we think the estimated ratio of fake shutters to real shutters is in the world?
Is there any other thing in the world where the fakes happily outnumbered the reals?
Is there any other thing in the world where the fakes happily outnumbered the reals?
Lots of things.
Nonavian dinosaurs. Pockets on formalwear. Grassroots activist groups. Mona Lisas. Bombs smuggled into airports. At one time, Saddam Husseins (come to think of it, that's possibly true now for much the same reason as nonavian dinosaurs.) Pieces of the true cross. ...
I guess fake indignation generally outperforms the authentic version too.
In between was the Protestant Reformation and centuries of incredibly bloody religious wars in which many of the belligerents were opposed to the idea of relics and vigorously sought to destroy them. The English Civil War is believed to have resulted in the destruction of 97% of religious art in the country[1], and England got off relatively lightly compared to much of Europe. The Thirty Years War killed a third of Germany's population.
Those wars between different Christian denominations would have destroyed many relics. Ottoman conquests and subsequent conversions to Islam would have taken care of more.
[1] https://hyperallergic.com/256802/how-a-rare-judas-painting-s...