Robert Deutsch is an Israeli antiquities dealer, archaeologist, epigrapher, and numismatist.
He participated in the Tell Megiddo archaeological expedition from 1992 to 2004 and was also a lecturer in epigraphy at the University of Haifa from 1997 to 2004.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) claimed that the four were part of a forgery ring that had been operating for more than 20 years, misleading collectors of biblical artifacts and museums worldwide into purchasing apparently biblically-significant artifacts that were really modern-day forgeries.
However, the judge on the case said that the outcome did not represent a comment on the true authenticity of the objects,[6] and the IAA continued to maintain that the artifacts part of the trial were "unequivocally established" as forgeries by experts.
[7] Following his acquittal, Deutsch sued the IAA, its director Shuka Dorfman, the head of the IAA's anti-theft unit Amir Ganor, the Jerusalem District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney.