Fakers, Forgers and Phoneys: Famous Scams and Scamps

Description

In Fakes, Forgers and Phoneys, Magnus Magnusson masterfully explores the shadowy world of deception and counterfeiting. Through the 16 case studies in this intriguing anthology, the author reveals:* how a house-painter-cum art-restorer fooled the art world and become a national TV celebrity in 1979;* the person who fabricated the ‘missing link’ human skull that was discovered in a gravel pit at Piltdown in Essex in 1912;* how a mystery man known by the unlikely name of George Psalmanazar fooled the London literary world in 1704 with his lurid accounts of cannibalism and polygamy in his native island of Formosa (Taiwan);* how an obese cockney adventurer resident in Australia succeeded in passing himself off as a slim young English aristocrat who had disappeared ten years earlier in 1854 (‘The Tichborne Claimant’); and* how a suave London conman inveigled a struggling artist to become involved in the greatest British art scam of the twentieth century. Fakes, Forgers and Phoneys is the essential guide to the most ingenious art and literary forgeries, archaeological frauds, imposters and hoaxers in the world.