HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The following
outline Outline or outlining may refer to: * Outline (list), a document summary, in hierarchical list format * Code folding, a method of hiding or collapsing code or text to see content in outline form * Outline drawing, a sketch depicting the outer edge ...
is provided as an overview of and topical guide to forgery:
Forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...
– process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to
deceive Deception or falsehood is an act or statement that misleads, hides the truth, or promotes a belief, concept, or idea that is not true. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda and sleight o ...
.


Types of forgery

*
Archaeological forgery Archaeological forgery is the manufacture of supposedly ancient items that are sold to the antiquities market and may even end up in the collections of museums. It is related to art forgery. A string of archaeological forgeries have usually fo ...
*
Art forgery Art forgery is the creating and selling of works of art which are falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged art ...
*
Black propaganda Black propaganda is a form of propaganda intended to create the impression that it was created by those it is supposed to discredit. Black propaganda contrasts with gray propaganda, which does not identify its source, as well as white propagan ...
— false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side * Counterfeiting **
Counterfeit money Counterfeit money is currency produced without the legal sanction of a state or government, usually in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency and so as to deceive its recipient. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or fo ...
— types of counterfeit coin include the cliché forgery, the
fourrée A fourrée is a coin, most often a counterfeit, that is made from a base metal core that has been plated with a precious metal to look like its solid metal counterpart; the term is derived from the French for "stuffed." The term is normally appli ...
and the
slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
**
Counterfeit consumer goods Counterfeit consumer goods (or counterfeit and fraudulent, suspect items - CFSI) are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another's brand name without the brand owner's authorization. Sellers of such goods may infringe on eith ...
** Counterfeit medication ** Counterfeit watches ** Unapproved aircraft parts **
Watered stock Watered stock is an asset with an artificially- inflated value. The term most commonly refers to a form of securities fraud in which a company issues stock to someone before receiving at least the par value in payment.Dodd, David L. ''Stock Waterin ...
*
False documents A false document is a technique by which an author aims to increase verisimilitude in a work of fiction by inventing and inserting or mentioning documents that appear to be factual. The goal of a false document is to convince an audience that what ...
*
Forgery as covert operation Forgery is used by some governments and non-state actors as a tool of covert operation, disinformation and black propaganda. Letters, currency, speeches, documents, and literature are all falsified as a means to subvert a government's political, ...
*
Identity document forgery Identity document forgery is the process by which identity documents issued by governing bodies are copied and/or modified by persons not authorized to create such documents or engage in such modifications, for the purpose of deceiving those w ...
**
Fake passport A fake passport is a counterfeit of a passport (or other travel document) issued by a nation or authorised agency. Such counterfeits are copies of genuine passports, or illicitly modified genuine passports made by unauthorized persons, sometime ...
*
Literary forgery Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir ...
**
Fake memoirs Fake memoirs form a category of literary forgery in which a wholly or partially fabricated autobiography, memoir or journal of an individual is presented as fact. In some cases, the purported author of the work is also a fabrication. In recent ye ...
** Pseudopigraphy — the false attribution of a work, not always as an act of forgery * Musical forgery — music allegedly written by composers of past eras, but actually composed later by someone else * Philatelic forgery — fake stamps produced to defraud stamp collectors *
Signature forgery Signature forgery refers to the act of falsely replicating another person's signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or e ...


Legality of forgery


Kenya

*
Forgery of Foreign Bills Act 1803 The Forgery of Foreign Bills Act 1803 (43 Geo 3 c 139) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Prior to its repeal in 2013, it created offences of forgery of foreign instruments in Scotland. Preamble The preamble read: Section 1 ...
*
Forgery Act 1830 The Forgery Act 1830 (11 Geo 4 & 1 Will 4 c 66) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It consolidated into one Act all legislation imposing the death penalty for forgery (except for counterfeiting coins). (It did not apply to Scotl ...
*
Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act 1832 The Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act 1832 (2&3 Will.4 c. 123) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It abolished the death penalty for all offences of forgery, except for forging wills and c ...
*
Forgery Act 1837 The Forgery Act 1837 (7 Will 4 & 1 Vict c 84) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Acts for the Mitigation of the Criminal Law (chapters 84 to 91) passed during the session 7 Will 4 & 1 Vict. The whole Act was r ...
*
Forgery Act 1861 The Forgery Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c 98) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to forgery from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the ...
* Forgery Act 1870 *
Forgery Act 1913 The Forgery Act 1913 ( 3 & 4 Geo. 5. c. 27) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided a definition of forgery and created several offences of forgery and uttering, while repealing numerous other offences of forgery, thereby ...
*
Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 The Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 (c 45) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes it illegal to make fake versions of many things, including legal documents, contracts, audio and visual recordings, and money of the Uni ...


International

*
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral agreement, multilateral treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement that did not enter into force. The agreement aims t ...
* Council of Europe Convention on the Counterfeiting of Medical Products


Related offences

*
Phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...
— impersonating a reputable organization via electronic media, which often involves creating a replica of a trustworthy website *
Uttering Uttering is a crime involving a person with the intent to defraud that knowingly sells, publishes or passes a forged or counterfeited document. More specifically, forgery creates a falsified document and uttering is the act of knowingly passing ...
— knowingly passing on a forgery with the intent to defraud


Detection and prevention of forgery


Anti-counterfeiting agencies and organisations

* Authentics Foundation — an international
non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
that raises public awareness of counterfeits * Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group — an international group of central banks that investigates emerging threats to the security of banknotes * Counterfeit Coin Bulletin — a now-defunct publication of the
American Numismatic Association The American Numismatic Association (ANA) is an organization founded in 1891 by George Francis Heath. Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it was formed to advance the knowledge of numismatics (the study of coins) along educational, histori ...
* Alliance Against Counterfeit Spirits — the trade association for the worldwide spirit industry's protection against counterfeit produce *
Philatelic Foundation The Philatelic Foundation is a philatelic organization granted a charter in 1945 by the University of the State of New York as a Nonprofit Educational Institution. Location The Philatelic Foundation is located at 341 West 38th Street, 5th Floor, ...
— a major source of authentication of rare and valuable postage stamps *
United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...
— the agency responsible for the prevention and investigation of counterfeit U.S. currency * Verified-Accredited Wholesale Distributors — a program that offers accreditation to wholesale pharmaceutical distribution facilities


Tools and techniques

*
Authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicati ...
— the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a single piece of data claimed true by an entity. *
Counterfeit banknote detection pen A counterfeit banknote detection pen is a pen used to apply an iodine-based ink to banknotes in an attempt to determine their authenticity. Background Counterfeit banknote detection pens are used to detect counterfeit Swiss franc, euro and Unite ...
— uses an iodine-based ink that reacts with the starch found in counterfeit banknotes *
EURion constellation The EURion constellation (also known as Omron rings or doughnuts) is a pattern of symbols incorporated into a number of secure documents such as banknotes and ownership title certificates designs worldwide since about 1996. It is added to help ...
— a pattern of symbols incorporated into banknote designs, which can be detected by imaging software *
Geometric lathe A geometric lathe was used for making ornamental patterns on the plates used in printing bank notes and postage stamps. It is sometimes called a guilloché lathe. It was developed early in the nineteenth century when efforts were introduced to com ...
— a 19th-century lathe used for making ornamental patterns on the plates used in printing banknotes and stamps *
Microprinting Microprinting is the production of recognizable patterns or characters in a printed medium at a scale that requires magnification to read with the naked eye. To the unaided eye, the text may appear as a solid line. Attempts to reproduce by meth ...
— very small text hidden on banknotes or cheques, that is difficult to accurately reproduce *
Optical variable device An optical variable device or optically variable device (OVD) is an iridescent or non-iridescent security feature that exhibits different information, such as movement or colour changes, depending on the viewing and/or lighting conditions. The par ...
— an iridescent image that cannot be photocopied or scanned *
Optically variable ink Optically variable ink (OVI) also called color shifting ink is an anti- counterfeiting measure used on many major modern banknotes, as well as on other official documents ( professional licenses, for example). The ink displays two distinct colo ...
— ink that appears to change color depending on the angle it is viewed from *
Philatelic expertisation Philatelic expertisation is the process whereby an authority is asked to give an opinion whether a philatelic item is genuine and whether it has been repaired or altered in any way. Forging and faking, regumming and reperforating of stamps is ...
— the process whereby an expert is asked to give an opinion whether a philatelic item is genuine * Questioned document examination — a forensic science discipline that attempts to answer questions about disputed documents *
Security printing Security printing is the field of the printing industry that deals with the printing of items such as banknotes, cheques, passports, tamper-evident labels, security tapes, product authentication, stock certificates, postage stamps and identity ...
— the field of the printing industry that deals with the printing of items such as banknotes and identity documents *
Security thread A security thread is a security feature of many banknotes to protect against counterfeiting, consisting of a thin ribbon that is threaded through the note's paper. Usually, the ribbon runs vertically, and is "woven" into the paper, so that it a ...
— a thin ribbon threaded through a banknote, that appears as a solid line when held up to the light *
Taggant A taggant is any chemical or physical marker added to materials to allow various forms of testing. Physical taggants can take many different forms but are typically microscopic in size, included at low levels, and simple to detect. They can be u ...
— a radio frequency microchip that can be tracked and identified *
Watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...
— a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness when viewed


Examples of forgery


Archaeological forgery

* Acámbaro figures — over 32,000 ceramic figurines which appear to provide evidence for the co-existence of dinosaurs and humans *
Archaeoraptor "Archaeoraptor" is the informal generic name for a fossil chimera from China in an article published in ''National Geographic'' magazine in 1999. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a " missing link" between birds and terrestrial therop ...
— the supposed "missing link" between birds and tetrapod dinosaurs; constructed by rearranging pieces of genuine fossils *
AVM Runestone The AVM Runestone, also known as the Berg-AVM Runestone, is a hoax created in 1985 by students carving runes into a boulder near Kensington, Minnesota, not far from where the Kensington Runestone was found in 1898. In 2001, a carving expert and her ...
— a student prank that was believed to be an ancient Norse runestone *
Beringer's Lying Stones Beringer's Lying Stones (german: Lügensteine) are pieces of limestone which were carved into the shape of various fictitious animals and "discovered" in 1725 by Professor Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer (1667–1740), Dean of the Faculty of Me ...
— fake fossils that were planted as an 18th-century prank * Brandenburg stone — a stone slab bearing markings which appear to be letters of an unknown alphabet *
Calaveras Skull The Calaveras Skull (also known as The Pliocene Skull) was a human skull found by miners in Calaveras County, California, which was purported to prove that humans were in North America as early as the Pliocene, and used to support the idea the h ...
— a human skull that was thought to prove the existence of Pliocene-age man in North America *
Cardiff Giant The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous archaeological hoaxes in American history. It was a , 3,000 pound purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869, by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardi ...
— a ten-foot-tall "petrified man" carved out of gypsum * Chiemsee Cauldron — a golden cauldron found at the bottom of a lake *
Crystal skull Crystal skulls are human skull hardstone carvings made of clear or milky white quartz (also called "rock crystal"), claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders; however, these claims have been refuted for all of th ...
— a series of artifacts crafted from quartz, often attributed to Aztec or Mayan civilizations *
Drake's Plate of Brass The so-called Drake's Plate of Brass is a forgery that purports to be the brass plaque that Francis Drake posted upon landing in Northern California in 1579. The hoax was successful for 40 years, despite early doubts. After the plate came to ...
— supposedly a brass plaque planted by Francis Drake upon arrival in America, but a practical joke that spun out of control * Grave Creek Stone — a small sandstone disk inscribed with twenty-five pseudo-alphabetical characters * Holly Oak gorget — a mammoth engraved upon a shell pendant * Ica stones — a collection of andesite stones that depict dinosaurs co-existing with humans *
Japanese Paleolithic hoax The consisted of a number of lower and middle paleolithic finds in Japan discovered by amateur archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura, which were later all discovered to have been faked. The incident became one of the biggest scandals in archaeological ...
— many paleolithic finds manufactured by amateur archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura to bolster his reputation * Kafkania pebble — a small rounded pebble bearing what could be an early example of Greek syllabic writing *
Kinderhook plates The Kinderhook plates are a set of six small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with unusual engravings, created as a hoax in 1843, surreptitiously buried and then dug up at an Native American mound near Kinderhook, Illinois, Kinderhook, Illinois, Unit ...
— six bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings; Latter-Day Saints founder Joseph Smith allegedly attempted to translate them *
Lead Books of Sacromonte The Lead Books of Sacromonte ( es, Los Libros Plúmbeos del Sacromonte) are a series of texts inscribed on circular lead leaves, now considered to be 16th century forgeries. History The Lead Books were discovered in the caves of Sacromonte, a ...
— a series of texts inscribed on circular lead leaves, denounced as heretical forgeries by the Vatican in 1682; modern scholars concur with this analysis *
Lenape Stone The Lenape Stone is a piece of slate found in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1872, which appears to depict Native Americans hunting a woolly mammoth. This image, however, seems to have been carved some time after the stone was broken into two; fo ...
— an engraving that appears to show Native Americans hunting a woolly mammoth *
Michigan relics The Michigan Relics (also known as the Scotford Frauds or Soper Frauds) are a series of alleged ancient artifacts that were "discovered" during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They were presented by some to be evidence that people o ...
— artifacts that appear to prove that East Europeans lived in Michigan in ancient times; a money-making scam * The inscription at
Pedra da Gávea Pedra da Gávea is a monolithic mountain in Tijuca Forest, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Composed of granite and gneiss, its elevation is , making it one of the highest mountains in the world that ends directly in the ocean. Trails on the mountain wer ...
— allegedly carved by Phoenicians, who were not thought to have had the naval capacity to travel across the ocean to Brazil * Persian Princess — the mummified body of a "Persian princess"; the corpse of a woman who was murdered around 1996 *
Piltdown Man The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...
— the jaw of an orangutan attached to the skull of a human, hailed as the missing link between humans and apes * Sherborne Bone — a bone with a horse's head engraved on it, now known to be a schoolboy prank * Solid Muldoon — a "petrified human" made out of the mortar, rock dust, clay, plaster, ground bones, blood, and meat * Spirit Pond runestones — small stones bearing runic inscriptions, ostensibly of pre-Columbian origin * Tiara of Saitaferne — a tiara exhibited at the Louvre Museum as belonging to a Scythian king, until this statement was disputed by the goldsmith who created it *
Vinland map The Vinland Map was claimed to be a 15th-century mappa mundi with unique information about Norse exploration of North America but is now known to be a 20th-century forgery. The map first came to light in 1957 and was acquired by Yale University. I ...
— an allegedly 15th-century map of the world, which would have been be the earliest map to depict America (or "Vinland")


Art forgery

*
Amarna Princess The ''Amarna Princess'', sometimes referred to as the "Bolton Amarna Princess," is a statue forged by British art forger Shaun Greenhalgh and sold by his father George Sr. to Bolton Museum for £440,000 in 2003. Based on the Amarna art-style of ...
— a statue created by Shaun Greenhalgh in the ancient Egyptian style, and sold to Bolton Museum for £439,767 * Black Admiral — a Revolutionary War-era painting of a black man in a naval uniform * Bust of Flora — a bust of the Roman goddess Flora, previously believed to be a work by Leonardo da Vinci, now attributed to Richard Cockle Lucas. * Camille Corot forgeries — thousands of imitation Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings *
Eadred Reliquary The Eadred Reliquary was one of the wide-ranging art forgeries produced by Shaun Greenhalgh and his family, of Bolton, Greater Manchester. In 1989, Shaun Greenhalgh's father, George, tried to sell to Manchester University a supposed 10th-century ...
— a silver vessel created by Shaun Greenhalgh, containing a piece of wood which he claimed was a fragment of the True Cross *
Etruscan terracotta warriors The Etruscan terracotta warriors are three statues that resemble the work of the ancient Etruscans, but are in fact art forgery, art forgeries. The statues, created by Italian brothers Pio and Alfonso Riccardi and three of their six sons, were bou ...
— three terracotta warriors created by Italian forgers and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art *
The Faun ''The Faun'' is a sculpture by British forger Shaun Greenhalgh. He successfully passed it off as a work by Paul Gauguin, selling it at Sotheby's for £20,700 in 1994. Three years later, in 1997, it was bought by the Art Institute of Chicago for a ...
— a sculpture created by Shaun Greenhalgh and sold as a work by Paul Gauguin *
Flower portrait The ''Flower portrait'' is the name of one of the painted portraits of William Shakespeare. A 2005 investigation of the portrait led to the conclusion that it was a forged artwork painted in the 19th century. The name originates with the painting ...
— a portrait of William Shakespeare, probably painted in the 19th century * Michelangelo's Cupid — a sleeping Cupid sculpture that was created, artificially aged and sold by Renaissance artist Michelangelo * Risley Park Lanx — the replica of a genuine Roman artifact, "discovered" by the Greenhalgh family and put on display at the British Museum * Rospigliosi Cup — a gold and enamel cup thought to have been crafted by Italian goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, but now considered a 19th-century forgery * The works of the
Spanish Forger The Spanish Forger (french: Le Faussaire espagnol) is the name given to an unidentified individual who, in the late 19th to early 20th century, created a large number of forgeries of medieval miniatures. Technique and materials The Spanish Fo ...
— an unidentified 19th-century artist who created over 200 medieval miniatures, which are still highly valued by collectors


Black propaganda

* The Franklin Prophecy — an anti-Semitic speech falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, arguing against the admittance of Jewish immigrants to the newly formed United States *
Morey letter The Morey letter was a forged letter that appeared during the 1880 United States presidential election. It was purportedly from James A. Garfield, the Republican presidential candidate, and suggested that Garfield was in favor of Chinese immigratio ...
— a letter published during the 1880 US presidential elections, suggesting that James A. Garfield was in favor of Chinese immigration * '' Our Race Will Rule Undisputed Over The World'' — a speech given by the non-existent Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovich, outlining Jewish plans for world domination * A Protocol of 1919 — a document supposedly found among the belongings of a Jew killed in battle, outlining Jewish plans for world domination *
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...
— a lengthy text, originating in Russia and widely publicized by the Nazi party, outlining Jewish plans for world domination * '' A Radical Program for the Twentieth Century'' — a text supposedly written by a British Jewish Communist, cited as proof that the civil rights movement in America was a foreign Communist plot *
Tanaka Memorial The is an alleged Japanese strategic planning document from 1927 in which Prime Minister Baron Tanaka Giichi laid out for Emperor Hirohito a strategy to take over the world. The authenticity of the document was long accepted and it is still quot ...
— an alleged Japanese strategic planning document, advising Emperor Hirohito on how to conquer the world


Counterfeiting

*
2012 Pakistan fake medicine crisis During late January 2012, a fake medicine crisis at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) hospital in the Lahore region of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan, claimed the lives of over 100 heart patients. According to various reports, the incid ...
— a batch of counterfeit medicine that killed over 100 heart patients at a hospital in Punjab *
Counterfeit United States currency Counterfeiting of the currency of the United States is widely attempted. According to the United States Department of Treasury, an estimated $70 million in counterfeit bills are in circulation, or approximately 1 note in counterfeits for e ...
— some notable examples of counterfeit operations *
Fake Indian Currency Note Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) is a term used by officials and media to refer to Counterfeit money, counterfeit currency notes circulated in the Indian economy. In 2012, while responding to a question in parliament, the Finance Minister, P. C ...
— fake currency in circulation in the Indian economy *
Operation Bernhard Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early ...
— a Nazi plot to destabilize the British economy by dropping counterfeit notes out of aircraft *
Superdollar A superdollar (also known as a superbill or supernote) is a very high quality counterfeit United States one hundred-dollar bill, alleged by the U.S. government to have been made by unknown organizations or governments. In 2011, government sources ...
— a very high-quality counterfeit the United States hundred dollar bill *
Partnair Flight 394 Partnair Flight 394 was a chartered flight that crashed on 8 September 1989 off the coast of Denmark, north of Hirtshals. All fifty passengers and five crew members on board the aircraft died, making this the deadliest disaster in Danish aviati ...
— a chartered flight that crashed in 1989, killing all 55 people on board; it was caused by counterfeit aircraft parts * Unauthorized Apple Stores in China — twenty-two unauthorized Apple Stores discovered in Kunming


Forged documents

*
Canuck letter The Canuck letter was a forged letter to the editor of the ''New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester Union Leader'', published February 24, 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary of the 1972 United States presidential election. It implie ...
— a letter implying that a Democratic presidential candidate was prejudiced against French-Canadians *
Casket letters The Casket letters were eight letters and some sonnets said to have been written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Earl of Bothwell, between January and April 1567. They were produced as evidence against Queen Mary by the Scottish lords who opposed ...
— letters and sonnets supposedly written by Mary, Queen of Scots, implicating her in the murder of her husband *
Donation of Constantine The ''Donation of Constantine'' ( ) is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in ...
— a decree issued by emperor Constantine I, granting authority over Rome and part of the Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester I and his successors * ''
Dossiers Secrets The ''Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau'' ("Secret Files of Henri Lobineau"), supposedly compiled by Philippe Toscan du Plantier, is a 27-page document which was deposited in the Bibliothèque nationale de France on 27 April 1967. The document purpo ...
'' — documents, planted in the National Library of France, that were used as the basis for a series of BBC documentaries * Habbush letter — a letter linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks *
Killian documents The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate or Rathergate) involved six documents containing false allegations about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. D ...
— memos critical of President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard *
Larmenius Charter The ''Larmenius Charter'' or ''Carta Transmissionis'' ("Charter of Transmission") is a coded Latin manuscript purportedly created by Johannes Marcus Larmenius (Fr.: Jean-Marc Larmenius) in February 1324, detailing the transfer of leadership of the ...
— a Latin manuscript listing twenty-two successive Grand Masters of the Knights Templar *
Lindsay pamphlet scandal The Lindsay pamphlet scandal was an Australian electoral scandal in which Liberal Party volunteers distributed fake election pamphlets, claiming to be from an Islamic organisation that was later found not to exist, that claimed the Labor Party ...
— pamphlets distributed by the Australian Liberal Party, claiming an alliance between the Labor Party and an Islamic organization * Mustafa-letter — a letter used by Norway's Liberal Party to prove that the country was in danger of being overrun with Muslims *
Niger uranium forgeries The Niger uranium forgeries were forged documents initially released in 2001 by SISMI (the former military intelligence agency of Italy), which seem to depict an attempt made by Saddam Hussein in Iraq to purchase yellowcake uranium powder from N ...
— documents implying that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium powder, allegedly to build weapons of mass destruction * ''
Oath of a Freeman The “Oath of a Freeman” was a loyalty pledge required of all new members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. Printed as a broadside by Stephen Daye in 1639, it is the first document from a printing press known to have been produced ...
'' — a copy of the loyalty oath drawn up by 17th-century Pilgrims *
Privilegium Maius The ''Privilegium maius'' (german: Großer Freiheitsbrief 'greater privilege') was a medieval document forged in 1358 or 1359 at the behest of Duke Rudolf IV of Austria (1358–65) of the House of Habsburg, claiming the family has the right to ru ...
— a medieval manuscript boosting the legitimacy and influence of the House of Habsburg *
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals Pseudo-Isidore is the conventional name for the unknown Carolingian-era author (or authors) behind an extensive corpus of influential forgery, forgeries. Pseudo-Isidore's main object was to provide accused bishops with an array of legal protectio ...
— letters and canons purportedly authored by early popes, including a collection authored by "
Benedict Levita Benedict Levita (of Mainz), or Benedict the Deacon, is the pseudonym attached to a forged collection of capitularies that appeared in the ninth century. The collection belongs to the group of pseudo-Isidorian forgeries that includes the false dec ...
". *
William Lynch speech The William Lynch speech, also known as the Willie Lynch letter, is an address purportedly delivered by a William Lynch (or Willie Lynch) to an audience on the bank of the James River in Virginia in 1712 regarding control of slaves within the col ...
— a speech by an 18th-century slave owner, who claims to have discovered the secret of controlling slaves by pitting them against each other *
Zeno map Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...
— a map of the North Atlantic containing many non-existent islands * Zinoviev letter — a directive from Moscow to Britain's Communist Party, calling for intensified communist agitation; the letter contributed to the downfall of Prime Minister MacDonald


Literary forgery

* '' The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ'' — a religious text supposedly transcribed from the Akashic records * The Archko Volume — a series of supposedly contemporary reports relating to the life and death of Jesus * Autobiography of Howard Hughes — an "autobiography" of reclusive eccentric Howard Hughes, written without his knowledge or consent *
Book of Jasher Sefer haYashar is a reference to the Five Books of Moses, Joshua 10:13, see Targum Jonathan, "sifra d'oriaitho"; named on behalf of the Patriarchs who were call "Yesharim", see Numbers 23:10. Sefer haYashar (Hebrew language, Hebrew ספר הישר ...
— an alternative account of the Old Testament narrative *
Book of Veles The Book of Veles (also: Veles Book, Vles book, ''Vles kniga'', Vlesbook, Isenbeck's Planks, , , , , , ) is a literary forgery purporting to be a text of ancient Slavic religion and history supposedly written on wooden planks. It contains reli ...
— a set of Slavic texts written on wooden planks * '' Centrum Naturae Concentratum'' — a 17th-century alchemical text * ''
Christine Christine may refer to: People * Christine (name), a female given name Film * ''Christine'' (1958 film), based on Schnitzler's play ''Liebelei'' * ''Christine'' (1983 film), based on King's novel of the same name * ''Christine'' (1987 fil ...
'' — a compilation of letters purportedly written by an English girl studying in Germany in 1914, before the outbreak of war *
Chronicle of Huru The ''Chronicle of Huru'' ( ro, Cronica lui Huru) was a forged narrative, first published in 1856–1857; it claimed to be an official chronicle of the medieval Moldavian court and to shed light on Romanian presence in Moldavia from Roman Dacia a ...
— supposedly an official chronicle of the medieval Moldavian court * '' Chronicon of Pseudo-Dexter'' — a 15th-century account of the Church's activities in Spain, attributed to Flavius Dexter * ''
De Situ Britanniae ''The Description of Britain'', also known by its Latin name ' ("On the Situation of Britain"), was a literary forgery perpetrated by Charles Bertram on the historians of England. It purported to be a 15th-century manuscript by the English monk R ...
'' — an 18th-century forgery represented as a Roman account of ancient Britain * ''
Epistle to the Alexandrians The Epistle to the Alexandrians is a pseudepigraphical Epistle attributed to Paul the Apostle that is mentioned in the Muratorian fragment, one of the earliest lists of the canonical texts of the New Testament. The anonymous author of the Muratoria ...
'' — an unknown text derided as a forgery in a 7th-century manuscript * ''
Epistle to the Laodiceans The Epistle to the Laodiceans is a letter of Paul the Apostle, the original existence of which is inferred from an instruction to the congregation in Colossae to send their letter to the believing community in Laodicea, and likewise obtain a cop ...
'' — a lost letter of Saint Paul, often "rediscovered" by forgers * '' Essene Gospel of Peace'' — a text which claims, among other things, that Jesus was a vegetarian * ''
Gospel of Josephus The Gospel of Josephus was a Modern pseudepigrapha, modern pseudepigraph created by Luigi Moccia to raise publicity for a novel Moccia had written. The manuscript was written by Moccia in Greek language, Greek, but was proven to be a hoax based on ...
'' — a forgery created to raise publicity for a novel * '' Historias de la Conquista del Mayab'' — a Mexican manuscript supposedly written by an 18th-century monk * History of the Captivity in Babylon — an ostensibly Old Testament text elaborating on the Book of Jeremiah *
Hitler Diaries The Hitler Diaries (german: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche ...
— a set of volumes purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, serialized in the German magazine ''Stern'' and the British ''Sunday Times'' *
Ireland Shakespeare forgeries The Ireland Shakespeare forgeries were a cause célèbre in 1790s London, when author and engraver Samuel Ireland announced the discovery of a treasure-trove of Shakespearean manuscripts by his son William Henry Ireland. Among them were the manu ...
— forged correspondence between Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and a "lost play" entitled ''
Vortigern and Rowena ''Vortigern and Rowena'', or ''Vortigern, an Historical Play'', is a play that was touted as a newly discovered work by William Shakespeare when it first appeared in 1796. It was eventually revealed to be a Shakespeare hoax, the product of promi ...
'' *
Jack the Ripper Diary James Maybrick (25 October 1838 – 11 May 1889) was a Liverpool cotton merchant. After his death, his wife, Florence Maybrick, was convicted of murdering him by poisoning in a sensational trial. The "Aigburth Poisoning" case was widely report ...
— the forged diary of Victorian merchant James Maybrick, apparently revealing him to be Jack the Ripper * Letter of Benan — the letter of an Egyptian physician describing his encounters with Jesus * Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend — a letter in support of Zionism, attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. * ''
The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles The ''Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles'', also known as the Sonnini Manuscript, is a short text purporting to be the translation of a manuscript containing the 29th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, detailing Paul the Apostle's journey ...
'' — the "missing" 29th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles * ''
Memoirs Of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy To The Middle East ''Memoirs of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy to the Middle East'' or ''Confessions of a British Spy'' is a document purporting to be the account by an 18th-century British agent, Hempher, of his instrumental role in founding the conservative Islami ...
'' — a document purporting to be the account of an 18th-century secret agent, describing his role in founding the Islamic reform movement of Wahhabism *
Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora The Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora manuscripts ( cs, Rukopis královédvorský, RK, and ''Rukopis zelenohorský, RZ'', german: Königinhofer Handschrift and ''Grünberger Handschrift'') are literary hoaxes purporting to be epic Slavic manuscri ...
— fraudulent Slavic manuscripts created in the early 19th century * Minuscule 2427 — a minuscule manuscript of the Gospel of Mark *
Mussolini diaries The Mussolini diaries are several forged diaries of Italy's former fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The two best known cases of forged Mussolini diaries are those of 1957 and 2007, but other forgeries have also been discovered. 1957 claim During ...
— several forged diaries supposedly written by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini * '' My Sister and I'' — an autobiographical work attributed to the philosopher Nietzsche, containing a probably fictional account of his incestuous relationship with his sister * '' Oahspe: A New Bible'' — a New Age bible written by an American dentist *
Ossianic poems Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...
— a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, attributed to the legendary Ossian *
Roxburghe Ballads In 1847 John Payne Collier (1789–1883) printed ''A Book of Roxburghe Ballads''. It consisted of 1,341 broadside ballads from the seventeenth century, mostly English, originally collected by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (16 ...
— over a thousand 17th-century ballads published by John Payne Collier, some of which he had written himself * Salamander Letter — a document that offers an alternative account of Joseph Smith's finding of the Book of Mormon. *
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses The ''Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses'' is an 18th- or 19th-century magical text allegedly written by Moses, and passed down as hidden (or lost) books of the Hebrew Bible. Self-described as "the wonderful arts of the old Hebrews, taken fro ...
— a magical text supposedly written by Moses, providing instructions on how to perform the miracles portrayed in the Bible *
The Songs of Bilitis ''The Songs of Bilitis'' (; french: Les Chansons de Bilitis) is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, ...
— a collection of erotic poetry allegedly found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus *
Supplements to the Satyricon Petronius's ''Satyricon'', the only extant realistic Classical Latin novel (probably written c. AD 60), survives in a very fragmentary form. Many readers have wondered how the story would begin and end. Between 1629 and the present several author ...
— several forged versions of the Latin novel ''Satyricon'' * Talmud Jmmanuel — a supposedly ancient Aramaic text suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for the Bible *
The Zohar The ''Zohar'' ( he, , ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five ...
— a primary text of medieval Kabbalah, written by a 16th-century Spanish Rabbi but attributed to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, an ancient sage of the Second Temple period


Musical forgery

* Adélaïde Concerto — a violin concerto attributed to Mozart


Philatelic forgery

*
Russian philatelic forgeries Russian stamps have been extensively forged. Both rare and common stamps have been forged and certain stamps, for instance those of the ''Army of the North'', are more common forged than genuine.Tyler, Varro E. ''Focus on Forgeries: A Guide to Forge ...
— some examples of notable Russian stamp forgeries * Stock Exchange forgery 1872–73 — a fraud perpetrated by telegraph clerks at the London Stock Exchange *
Turner Collection of Forgeries The Turner Collection of Forgeries is a collection of forgeries of postage stamps of the world to about 1900 that forms part of the British Library Philatelic Collections. It was formed by S.R. Turner and donated in 1973.
— a collection of forged postage stamps on display at the British Library


Forgery controversies

The authenticity of certain documents and artifacts has not yet been determined and is still the subject of debate. * ''
Augustan History The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...
'' — a collection of biographies of Roman emperors *
Bat Creek inscription The Bat Creek inscription is an inscribed stone tablet found by John W. Emmert on February 14, 1889. Emmert claimed to have found the tablet in Tipton Mound 3 during an excavation of Hopewell mounds in Loudon County, Tennessee. This excavation was ...
— an inscription on a stone allegedly found in a Native American burial mound *
Isleworth Mona Lisa The ''Isleworth Mona Lisa'' is an early sixteenth-century oil on canvas painting depicting the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's ''Mona Lisa'', though with the subject ( Lisa del Giocondo) depicted as being a younger age. The painting is thou ...
— a close imitation of da Vinci's Mona Lisa, sometimes attributed in part to da Vinci *
James Ossuary The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription meaning "James (Jacob), son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attracted scholarly at ...
— a chalk box used to contain the bones of the dead, bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" *
Jehoash Inscription The Jehoash Inscription is the name of a controversial artifact rumored to have surfaced in a construction site or Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. The inscription describes repairs made to the temple in Jerusalem by Jehoash, ...
— an inscription confirming the Biblical account of the repairs made to the temple in Jerusalem by Jehoash * Jordan Lead Codices — a series of ring-bound books of lead and copper, that are said to pre-date the writings of St. Paul *
Kensington Runestone The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with so ...
— a slab of greywacke covered in Scandinavian runes, found in North America and supposedly carved in the 14th century * Letter of Lentulus — an epistle allegedly written by a Roman Consul, giving a physical description of Jesus * Majestic 12 documents — supposedly leaked papers relating to the formation, in 1947, of a secret committee of US officials to investigate the Roswell incident * Mar Saba letter — an epistle, attributed to Clement of Alexandria, discussing the Secret Gospel of Mark * Newark Holy Stones — a set of artifacts allegedly discovered among a group of ancient Indian burial grounds *
Old High German lullaby The discovery of an Old High German lullaby (') was announced in 1859 by Georg Zappert (1806–1859) of Vienna, a private scholar and collector of medieval literature. Ostensibly a 10th-century poem full of surviving pre-Christian mythology, i ...
— a supposedly 10th-century poem containing numerous references to Germanic mythology *
Prophecy of the Popes The Prophecy of the Popes ( la, Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus, "Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs") is a series of 112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin which purport to predict ...
— a series of 112 short cryptic phrases which purport to predict future Roman Catholic Popes *
Shroud of Turin The Shroud of Turin ( it, Sindone di Torino), also known as the Holy Shroud ( it, Sacra Sindone, links=no or ), is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and bel ...
— a linen cloth that is said to be the burial shroud of Jesus, and bears the image of a man who appears to have suffered injuries consistent with crucifixion * Sinaia lead plates — a set of lead plates written in an unknown language *
Sisson documents The Sisson Documents () are a set of 68 Russian-language documents obtained in 1918 by Edgar Sisson, the Petrograd representative of the United States Committee on Public Information. Published as ''The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy'', they purported ...
— sixty-eight Russian documents which claim that Trotsky and Lenin were German agents attempting to bring about Russia's withdrawal from World War I * Stalin's alleged speech of 19 August 1939 — a speech supposedly given by Joseph Stalin in which he stated that the approaching war would benefit the Soviet Union *
Titulus Crucis The Titulus Crucis (Latin for "Title of the Cross") is a piece of wood kept in the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome which is claimed to be the (title panel) of the True Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is venerated by s ...
— a piece of wood, ostensibly a fragment of the True Cross upon which Jesus was crucified *
US Army Field Manual 30-31B ''U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B'' is a document claiming to be a classified appendix to a U.S. Army Field Manual that describes top secret counterinsurgency tactics. In particular, it identifies a "strategy of tension" involving violent attacks w ...
— a text purporting to be a classified appendix of a US Army Field Manual which describes top-secret counter-insurgency tactics Some documents and artifacts were previously thought to be forgeries, but have subsequently been determined to be genuine. * '' Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil'' — an oil painting by Monet * Glozel artifacts — over three thousand artifacts dating back to the Neolithic era, discovered in a small French hamlet *
Lady of Elche The ''Lady of Elche'' (in Spanish, ''Dama de Elche'' in Valencian, ''Dama d'Elx'') is a limestone bust that was discovered in 1897, at ''La Alcudia'', an archaeological site on a private estate two kilometers south of Elche, Spain. It is curren ...
— a stone bust believed to have been carved by the Iberians *
Praeneste fibula , native_name_lang = la , image = Praeneste fibula.JPG , image_size = , alt = , image2 = , image2_size = , alt2 = , image_caption = , material = Gold , s ...
— a golden brooch bearing an inscription in Old Latin


Notable forgers


Archaeological forgers

* Charles Dawson (1864–1916) — "discoverer" of the
Piltdown Man The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...
*
Shinichi Fujimura is a Japanese archaeologist who claimed he had found a large number of stone artifacts dating back to the Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic periods. These objects were later revealed to be forgeries. Success Fujimura was born in Kami, ...
(born 1950) *
Oded Golan Oded Golan ( he, עודד גולן) (born 1951 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli engineer, entrepreneur, and antiquities collector. He owns one of the largest collections of Biblical archaeology in the world. Golan was accused by the Israel Antiquitie ...
(born 1951) — accused of forging the
James Ossuary The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription meaning "James (Jacob), son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attracted scholarly at ...
, among other things; he was acquitted of these charges in March 2012 *
Islam Akhun Islam Akhun was a Uyghur con-man from Khotan who forged numerous manuscripts and printed documents and sold them as ancient Silk Road manuscripts. Since the accidental discovery of the Bower Manuscript in 1889 such texts had become much sought a ...
* Brigido Lara *
Moses Shapira Moses Wilhelm Shapira ( he, מוזס וילהלם שפירא; 1830 – March 9, 1884) was a Jerusalem antiquities dealer and purveyor of allegedly forged Semitic artifacts – the most high profile of which was the Shapira Scroll. The shame bro ...
(1830–1884)


Art forgers

*
Giovanni Bastianini Giovanni Bastianini (17 September 1830 – 29 June 1868) was an Italian sculptor who began his career as a stonecutter in the quarries at Fiesole, and was sent by Francesco Inghirami to study in Florence, first with Pio Fedi and then with Girolam ...
(1830–1868) * William Blundell (born 1947) *
Chang Dai-chien Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian (; 10 May 1899 – 2 April 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a '' guohua'' (traditionalist) painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned ...
(1899–1983) *
Yves Chaudron Yves Chaudron was a supposed French master art forger who is alleged to have copied images of Leonardo da Vinci's ''Mona Lisa'' as part of Eduardo de Valfierno's famous 1911 ''Mona Lisa'' painting theft. In reality he may be a fictional charac ...
*
Alceo Dossena Alceo Dossena (1878–1937) was an Italian sculptor. His dealers marketed his creations as originals by other sculptors. Biography Dossena was born in 1878 in Cremona, Italy. He was a talented stonemason and sculptor, and was so skilled at dupl ...
(1878–1937) *
John Drewe John Drewe (born 1948) is a British purveyor of art forgeries who commissioned artist John Myatt to paint them. Drewe earned about £1.8 million executing these art crimes. Early life Drewe was born John Cockett in 1948 in Sussex, England. ...
(born 1948) * Kenneth Fetterman *
Alfredo Fioravanti Alfredo Adolfo Fioravanti (1886–1963) was an Italian sculptor, who was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", ...
(1886–1963) *
Shaun Greenhalgh Shaun Greenhalgh (born 1961) is a British artist and former art forger. Over a seventeen-year period, between 1989 and 2006, he produced a large number of forgeries. With the assistance of his brother and elderly parents, who fronted the sal ...
(born 1961) — described by the Metropolitan Police as "the most diverse art forger known in history" *
Guy Hain Guy Hain is a French art forger who produced number of fake bronze sculptures. Guy Hain began as a seller of veterinary products. In his job he met a number of veterinarians who had antique bronze sculptures of animals and developed an interest i ...
*
Eric Hebborn Eric Hebborn (20 March 1934 – 11 January 1996) was an English painter, draughtsman, art forger and later an author. Early life Eric Hebborn was born in South Kensington, London in 1934. His mother was born in Brighton and his father in Oxfor ...
(1934–1996) *
Elmyr de Hory Elmyr de Hory (born Elemér Albert Hoffmann; April 14, 1906 – December 11, 1976) was a Hungarian-born painter and art forger, who is said to have sold over a thousand art forgeries to reputable art galleries all over the world. His forgeries g ...
(1905–1976) — subject of the Orson Welles documentary ''
F for Fake ''F for Fake'' (french: link=no, Vérités et mensonges, es, link=no, Fraude, "Truths and lies") is a 1973 docudrama film co-written, directed by, and starring Orson Welles who worked on the film alongside François Reichenbach, Oja Kodar, and ...
'' *
Geert Jan Jansen Geert Jan Jansen (born 1943) is a Dutch painter and art forger, who was arrested in 1994. Geert Jan Jansen was born in Waalre in the Netherlands. His engineer father was fond of art and Jansen became an art student. He befriended a US art dealer ...
(born 1943) *
Tom Keating Thomas Patrick Keating (1 March 1917 – 12 February 1984) was an English art restorer and famous art forger who claimed to have faked more than 2,000 paintings by over 100 different artists. The total estimated of the profits of his forgeries ...
(1917–1984) *
Konrad Kujau Konrad Paul Kujau (27 June 1938 – 12 September 2000) was a German illustrator and forger. He became famous in 1983 as the creator of the so-called Hitler Diaries, for which he received DM 2.5 million (€2,421,020 in 2020 terms, adjusted for ...
(1938–2000) — the author of the
Hitler Diaries The Hitler Diaries (german: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche ...
* Mark A. Landis (born 1955) *
Lothar Malskat Lothar Malskat (May 3, 1913 – February 10, 1988) was a German painter and art restorer who repainted medieval frescoes of the Marienkirche in Lübeck, critically damaged during WWII. Life and career Malskat was a painter from Königsber ...
(1913–1988) *
Han van Meegeren Henricus Antonius "Han" van Meegeren (; 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. Van Meegeren became a national hero after World War II when ...
(1889–1947) — estimated to have earned the equivalent of over thirty million dollars for his forgeries *
Jacques van Meegeren Jacques Henri Emil van Meegeren (26 August 1912 – 26 October 1977) was a Dutch illustrator and painter. He is also considered to be a forger of the work of his father, Han van Meegeren, convicted of forging old masters and fraud. He was, ho ...
(1912–1977) *
John Myatt John Myatt, (born 1945), is a British artist convicted of art forgery who, with John Drewe, perpetrated what has been described as "the biggest art fraud of the 20th century". After his conviction, Myatt was able to continue profiting from his f ...
(born 1945) * Sámuel Literáti Nemes (1796–1842) *
Edmé Samson Edmé Samson (b Paris, 1810; d Paris, 1891), founder of the porcelain firm Samson, Edmé et Cie (commonly known as Samson Ceramics), was a famous copyist (and perhaps art forgery, forger) of porcelain and pottery. The firm produced high-quality co ...
(1810–1891) * Ely Sakhai (born 1952) * Jean-Pierre Schecroun *
Émile Schuffenecker Claude-Émile Schuffenecker (8 December 1851 – 31 July 1934) was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van ...
(1851–1934) * Karl Sim (born 1923) * David Stein (1935–1999) *
Tony Tetro Anthony Gene Tetro (born 1950), known as Tony Tetro, is an art forger known for his perfectionism in copies of artwork produced in the 1970s and 1980s. Tetro never received formal art lessons, but learned from books, by painting and experimentation. ...
(born 1950) * Robert Thwaites * Franz Tieze (1842–1932) * William J. Toye (born 1931) * Eduardo de Valfierno — allegedly masterminded the 1911 theft of the ''Mona Lisa'' * Kenneth Walton (born 1967) — author of the memoir '' Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay'' * E. M. Washington (born 1962) * Theo van Wijngaarden (1874–1952)


Counterfeiters

*
Philip Alston Philip Geoffrey Alston is an Australian international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Globa ...
(c. 1740 – after 1799) * Anatasios Arnaouti (born 1967) * Trevor Ashmore * Robert Baudin (1918–1983) * Charles Black (1928–2012) *
William Booth William Booth (10 April 182920 August 1912) was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first " General" (1878–1912). His 1890 book In Darkest England and The Way Out o ...
(c. 1776 – 1812) *
Mary Butterworth Mary Peck Butterworth (July 27, 1686 – February 7, 1775) was a counterfeiter in colonial America. Biography Born to Joseph and Martha Peck in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Mary married John Butterworth, son of a British captain in 1710. Mary alle ...
(1686–1775) *
William Chaloner William Chaloner (1650 – 22 March 1699) was a serial counterfeit coiner and confidence trickster, who was imprisoned in Newgate Prison several times and eventually proven guilty of high treason by Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Royal Mint. ...
(c. 1665 – 1699) *
Louis Colavecchio Louis B. Colavecchio (January 1, 1942 – July 6, 2020) was an American casino counterfeiter known as "The Coin". While residing in Rhode Island, Colavecchio defrauded several Atlantic City and Connecticut casinos until his arrest and initial con ...
* The
Cragg Vale Coiners The Cragg Vale Coiners, sometimes the Yorkshire Coiners, were a band of counterfeiters in England, based in Cragg Vale, near Hebden Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. They produced fake gold coins in the late 18th century to supplement small i ...
*
Thomas Dangerfield Thomas Dangerfield (c. 165022 June 1685) was an English conspirator, who became one of the principal informers in the Popish Plot. His violent death at the hands of the barrister Robert Francis was clearly a homicide, although whether th ...
(c. 1650 – 1685) *
Mike DeBardeleben James Mitchell "Mike" DeBardeleben Jr. (March 20, 1940 – January 26, 2011) was an American convicted kidnapper, rapist, counterfeiter, and suspected serial killer who became known as the "mall passer" due to his practice of passing coun ...
(1940–2011) *
John Duff John Francis Duff (January 17, 1895 – January 8, 1958) was a Canadian racecar driver who won many races and has been inducted in the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. He was one of only two Canadians who raced and won on England’s famous Br ...
(c. 1759 – 1799) * Edward Emery (died c. 1850) *
David Farnsworth David Farnsworth was a Colonial-era American Loyalist. He was a British agent during the American Revolutionary War. George Washington had him hanged for his involvement in a plot to destroy the American economy by placing counterfeit money i ...
* Bernhard Krüger (1904–1989) — director of the Nazi counterfeiting plot codenamed
Operation Bernhard Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early ...
*
Ignazio Lupo Ignazio Lupo (; March 21, 1877 – January 13, 1947), also known as Ignazio Saietta and Lupo the Wolf, was a Sicilian American Black Hand leader in New York City during the early 1900s. His business was centered in Little Italy, Manhattan, w ...
(1877–1947) * Catherine Murphy (died 1789) — the last woman to be executed by burning. * Emanuel Ninger (1845–1927) *
Bernard von NotHaus Bernard von NotHaus is the creator of the Liberty Dollar and co-founder of the Royal Hawaiian Mint Company, in Hawaii. He is also the founder of the Cannabis Spiritual Center, an educational institution that supports the use of marijuana in spir ...
— inventor of the Liberty Dollar * Salomon Smolianoff (1899–1976) — WWII concentration camp detainee and key figure in
Operation Bernhard Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early ...
*
Samuel C. Upham Samuel Curtis Upham (February 2, 1819 – June 29, 1885) was an American journalist, lyricist, merchant, bookkeeper, clerk, navy officer, prospector, and counterfeiter, during the later part of the 19th century, sometimes, known as "Honest S ...
(1819–1885) * Arthur Williams


Document forgers

*
Frank Abagnale Frank William Abagnale Jr. (; born April 27, 1948) is an American author and convicted felon. Abagnale targeted individuals and small businesses yet gained notoriety in the late 1970s by claiming a diverse range of victimless workplace frauds, m ...
(born 1948) — subject of the film ''
Catch Me If You Can ''Catch Me If You Can'' is a 2002 American Biographical film, biographical crime film, crime Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin ...
'' *
Charles Bertram Charles Julius Bertram (1723–1765) was an English expatriate in Denmark who "discovered"—and presumably wrote—'' The Description of Britain'' ( la, De Situ Britanniae), an 18th-century literary forgery purporting to be a mediaeval work on ...
(1723–1765) — author of ''
De Situ Britanniae ''The Description of Britain'', also known by its Latin name ' ("On the Situation of Britain"), was a literary forgery perpetrated by Charles Bertram on the historians of England. It purported to be a 15th-century manuscript by the English monk R ...
'' * Joseph Cosey (1887 – c. 1950) * Przybysław Dyjamentowski (1694–1774) * Michael John Hamdani * Adolfo Kaminsky (born 1925) * Jean LaBanta (born c. 1879) *
Maharaja Nandakumar Maharaja Nandakumar (also known as Nuncomar) (1705 – died 5 August 1775), was an Indian tax collector for various regions in what is modern-day West Bengal. Nanda Kumar was born at Bhadrapur, which is now in Birbhum. He was the first Indian to b ...
(died 1775) *
Richard Pigott Richard Pigott (1835 – 1 March 1889) was an Irish journalist, best known for his forging of evidence that Charles Stewart Parnell of the Irish National Land League had been sympathetic to the perpetrators of the Phoenix Park Murders. Par ...
(1835–1889) *
Piligrim Piligrim (Pilgrim of Passau, Pilegrinus, Peregrinus) (died 20 May 991) was Bishop of Passau. Piligrim was ambitious, but also concerned with the Christianization of Hungary. He was educated at the Benedictine Niederaltaich Abbey, and was made bi ...
(died 991) * James Reavis (1843–1914) *
Alves dos Reis Artur Virgílio Alves Reis (Lisbon, 8 September 1896 – 9 July 1955) was a Portuguese criminal who perpetrated one of the largest frauds in history, against the Bank of Portugal in 1925, often called the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis. Early li ...
(1898–1955) *
Scott Reuben Scott S. Reuben (born 1958) is an American anesthesiologist who falsified data heralding the benefits of the Pfizer pain medication Celebrex while downplaying its negative side effects. He was Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at T ...
(born 1958) *
William Roupell William Roupell (7 April 1831 – 25 March 1909) was Liberal Party Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom for Lambeth from 1857 until his resignation on 4 February 1862. A forger and a fraudster, he was ruined in the Roupell case. Early lif ...
(1831–1909) *
William Wynne Ryland William Wynne Ryland (1732 or July 173829 August 1783) was an English engraver, who pioneered stipple engraving and was executed for forgery. Life and work Ryland was born in London, the eldest of seven sons of Edward Ryland (died 1771), an ...
(c. 1738 – 1783) * Michael Sabo *
Alexander Howland Smith Alexander Howland Smith (16 March 1859 – 3 May 1913), also known as the "Antique Smith", was a Scotland, Scottish document forgery, forger in the 1880s. His forgeries still surface today. Methods Howland Smith began his forging career in th ...
(fl. 1886) * Robert Spring (1813–1876) *
Adolf Ludvig Stierneld Adolf Ludvig Stierneld, Baron Stierneld (1 September 1755 – 31 July 1835) was a Swedish nobleman, courtier and collector of historical documents. Recent historical research has revealed him to be one of best and most prolific document forgers ...
(1755–1835) *
Brita Tott Brita Olovsdotter Tott (or ''Thott'') (in Swedish) or Birgitte Olufsdatter Thott (in Danish), ( fl. 3 March 1498) was a Danish and Swedish noble, landowner and royal county administrator She was judged for treason and for the forgery of seals. ...
(fl. 1498) *
Lucio Urtubia Lucio Urtubia Jiménez (1931–2020) was a Spanish anarchist known for his practice of expropriative anarchism through forgery. At times compared to Robin Hood, Urtubia carried out bank robberies and forgeries throughout the 1960s and 1970s. ...
(born 1931) *
Denis Vrain-Lucas Denis Vrain-Lucas (1818–1882) was a French forger who sold counterfeit letters and other documents to French manuscript collectors. He even wrote purported letters from biblical figures in French. Vrain-Lucas was trained as a law clerk, but b ...
(1818–1880) * Henry Woodhouse (1884–1970)


Literary forgers

*
Annio da Viterbo Annius of Viterbo ( la, Joannes Annius Viterb(i)ensis; 5 January 143713 November 1502) was an Italian Dominican friar, scholar, and historian, born Giovanni Nanni in Viterbo. He is now remembered for his fabrications. He entered the Dominican Or ...
(c. 1432 – 1502) *
Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (20 October 1873 – 8 January 1944) was a British oriental scholar, Sinologist, and linguist whose books exerted a powerful influence on the Western view of the last decades of the Qing Dynasty (1644� ...
(1873–1944) *
Adémar de Chabannes Adémar de Chabannes (988/989 – 1034; also Adhémar de Chabannes) was a French/Frankish monk, active as a composer, scribe, historian, poet, grammarian and literary forger. He was associated with the Abbey of Saint Martial, Limoges, where he ...
(c. 988 – 1034) *
Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Althoug ...
(1752–1770) *
Mark Hofmann Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to ...
(born 1954) — forger of several documents relating to the
Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...
, including the Salamander letter *
William Henry Ireland William Henry Ireland (1775–1835) was an English forger of would-be Shakespearean documents and plays. He is less well known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories. Although he was apparently christened William-Henry, he was known ...
(1775–1835) — author of the
Ireland Shakespeare forgeries The Ireland Shakespeare forgeries were a cause célèbre in 1790s London, when author and engraver Samuel Ireland announced the discovery of a treasure-trove of Shakespearean manuscripts by his son William Henry Ireland. Among them were the manu ...
and the pseudepigraphical play ''
Vortigern and Rowena ''Vortigern and Rowena'', or ''Vortigern, an Historical Play'', is a play that was touted as a newly discovered work by William Shakespeare when it first appeared in 1796. It was eventually revealed to be a Shakespeare hoax, the product of promi ...
'' *
Clifford Irving Clifford Michael Irving (November 5, 1930 – December 19, 2017) was an American novelist and investigative reporter. Although he published 20 novels, he is best known for an "autobiography" allegedly written as told to Irving by billionaire ...
(1930–2017) * William Lauder (c. 1680 – 1771) *
James Macpherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...
(1736–1796) — the supposed "translator" of the
Ossianic poems Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...
*
Iolo Morganwg Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedi ...
(1747–1826) * François Nodot (c. 1650 – 1710) * Francesco Maria Pratilli (1689–1763) *
Constantine Simonides Constantine Simonides (1820–1867) was a palaeographer and dealer of icons, known as a man of extensive learning, with significant knowledge of manuscripts and miraculous calligraphy. He was one of the most versatile forgers of the nineteenth centu ...
(1820–1867) * Clotilde de Surville (fl. 1421) * Charles Weisberg (died 1945)


Musical forgers

*
Henri Casadesus Henri-Gustave Casadesus (30 September 1879, Paris – 31 May 1947, Paris) was a violist, viola d'amore player, composer, and music publisher. Early life Casadesus received his early musical instruction with Albert Lavignac and studied viola with ...
(1879–1947) *
Marius Casadesus Marius Casadesus (24 October 1892 – 13 October 1981) was a French violinist and composer. He was the brother of Henri Casadesus, uncle of the famed pianist Robert Casadesus, and grand-uncle to Jean Casadesus. Marius Casadesus achieved perhaps h ...
(1892–1981) — creator of the Adélaïde Concerto *
François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie univer ...
(1784–1871) *
Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...
(1875–1962) *
Winfried Michel Winfried Michel (born 1948 in Fulda) is a German recorder player, composer, and editor of music. Michel studied with Ingetraud Drescher, Nikolaus Delius, and Frans Brüggen. He is lecturer for the recorder at the Staatliche Hochschule Münste ...
(born 1948) *
David Popper David Popper (June 16, 1843 – August 7, 1913) was a Bohemian cellist and composer. Some other sources list his date of birth as December 9, 1843. Life Popper was born in Prague, and studied music at the Prague Conservatory. His family was J ...
(1843–1913) *
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk Roman Turovsky-Savchuk (Ukrainian: Роман Туровський-Савчук) is an American artist-painter, photographer and videoinstallation artist, as well as a lutenist-composer,
(born 1961) * Vladimir Vavilov (1925–1973) * Voller Brothers (1885-1927)


Signature forgers

* Henry Fauntleroy (1784–1824) * James Townsend Saward (1799 – after 1857)


Stamp forgers

* A. Alisaffi * Bernhardt Assmus (c. 1856 – after 1892) * Rainer Blüm * Delandre (1883–1923) * Georges Fouré (1848–1902) * François Fournier (1846–1917) *
Sigmund Friedl Sigmund Friedl (1851, Lipník nad Bečvou, Moravia – 1914, Vienna) was one of the most famous Austrian philatelists. Toward the end of his life he defrauded stamp collectors by selling them forgeries. Sigmund Friedl's interest in postage stamp ...
(1851–1914) * Julius Goldner (c. 1841 – 1898) * N. Imperato *
Madame Joseph Madame Joseph (c.1900 – after late 1940s)"Madame Joseph - The Origin?" by Brian Cartwright in ''The London Philatelist'', No. 1344, Vol. 116, April 2007, pp. 102–104. Year of birth approximate. was a stamp dealer active in London in the early ...
(c. 1900 – after 1945) * Louis-Henri Mercier (fl. 1890) *
Erasmo Oneglia Erasmo Oneglia (1853–1934) was an Italian printer, born in Turin, who was also a successful stamp forger in the 1890s and early 1900s. Oneglia's first forgeries are believed to have been of the early stamps of Newfoundland and they are included i ...
(1853–1934) *
Adolph Otto Adolph Otto was a printer of Gustrow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin who printed the first stamps of Transvaal of 1870.''Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Southern Africa''. 2nd edition. London: Stanley Gibbons, 2007, p. 62. Later, Otto printed additional ...
(fl. 1870) * Angelo Panelli (c. 1887 – c. 1967) *
Oswald Schroeder Oswald Schroeder (died c. 1920) was a partner in the German printers ''Schroeder & Naumann'' of Leipzig, who in the 1870s and 1880s produced forgeries of classic stamps so good that they found their way into the best collections of the day and in so ...
(died c. 1920) *
Lucian Smeets Dr. Lucian Smeets was a Belgian stamp forger operating around the early 1900s. Smeets used a sophisticated method of taking an original stamp with the correct perforations, paper and watermark for the one he wished to forge, fading out the printi ...
*
Jean de Sperati Giovanni (Jean) de Sperati (14 October 1884 – 28 April 1957) was an Italian stamp forger. Robson Lowe considered him an artist and even professional stamp authenticators of his time attested to the genuineness of his work. Sperati created what ...
(1884–1957) *
Philip Spiro Philip Spiro was the head of the German printing firm of ''Spiro Brothers'' of Hamburg who from 1864 to about 1880 produced around 500 different lithographed reproductions of postage stamps. Tyler, Varro E. (1976) ''Philatelic Forgers: Their Live ...
* Béla Székula (1881–1966) *
Raoul de Thuin Raoul Charles de Thuin (1890–1975)Tyler, Varro E. ''Philatelic Forgers: Their Lives and Works.'' London: Robson Lowe Ltd., 1976, p.49. was a prolific stamp forger and dealer who was originally a citizen of BelgiumChemi, James M., ed. ''The Yuca ...
(1890–1975) *
Harold Treherne Harold Treherne (c. 1884 – after 1908) of Brighton, England, was a stamp forger notable for his forgeries of the stamps of India and Australia who was known as ''The Brighton forger'' and his works as ''Brighton forgeries''.Tyler, Varro E. ''Phi ...
(c. 1884 – after 1908)


Media

* '' The Art of the Faker'' — a book about art forgery by Frank Arnau * '' The Counterfeiters'' — a movie inspired by the Nazi counterfeiting scheme,
Operation Bernhard Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early ...
* ''
F for Fake ''F for Fake'' (french: link=no, Vérités et mensonges, es, link=no, Fraude, "Truths and lies") is a 1973 docudrama film co-written, directed by, and starring Orson Welles who worked on the film alongside François Reichenbach, Oja Kodar, and ...
'' — an Orson Welles documentary about art forger
Elmyr de Hory Elmyr de Hory (born Elemér Albert Hoffmann; April 14, 1906 – December 11, 1976) was a Hungarian-born painter and art forger, who is said to have sold over a thousand art forgeries to reputable art galleries all over the world. His forgeries g ...
* ''
Fake Britain ''Fake Britain'' is a British consumer rights programme, presented by Dominic Littlewood between 2010 and 2012 and again from 2017 to 2019, and by Matt Allwright from 2013 to 2016. The programme is broadcast on weekdays in a daytime slot, with ...
'' — a BBC television series about counterfeiting and its effects on consumers * '' Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay'' — a memoir by art forger Kenneth Walton * ''
Fake or Fortune? ''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...
'' — a BBC television series which examines the provenance of notable artworks * '' Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology'' — a book by Kenneth L. Feder on the topic of pseudoarcheology * '' Pierre Grassou'' — a novel by Honoré de Balzac about a fictional art forger * ''
Selling Hitler ''Selling Hitler'' is a 1991 ITV television comedy-drama mini-series about the Hitler Diaries hoax and was based on Robert Harris's 1986 book ''Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries''. Plot In 1981, Gerd Heidemann ( Jonathan Pryce) ...
'' — an ITV drama-documentary about the
Hitler Diaries The Hitler Diaries (german: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche ...


External links


Sources of information on art forgery
Museum Security Network {{Outline footer *
Forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...
Forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...
Forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...