He [Stephen Jory] flooded England with five billion pounds’ worth of fake money. He was the most amazing counterfeiter authorities had ever seen. Masterminds e40: Making Millions
1993: Police were shocked to discover massive amounts of fake money spreading throughout the country. ibid.
A master forger’s [Ely Sakhai] ingenious crimes spanned three continents. Masquerading as a respected dealer he cons the art world’s elite. Masterminds e51: The Art of Double Dealing
The mastermind behind the greatest forgery scheme in US history was a respected New York art dealer. Ely Sakhai had found a way to fool the art experts and make himself millions. ibid.
‘He became the largest purveyor of counterfeit memorabilia in the country.’ Masterminds s56: Foul Ball
In 1996 the Chicago FBI discovered that Michael Jordan’s autograph was being forged … Thousands of Jordan’ forgeries had flooded the market. ibid.
Wayne Bray built the biggest sports memorabilia forgery operation in US history. ibid.
A high school student nearly crippled the nation’s economy … ‘He [Wesley Webber] was Canada’s most notorious counterfeiter.’ Masterminds e59: Money Maker
In the late 1990s Windsor Ontario was hit with a flood of extraordinary counterfeit hundred dollar bills. ibid.
As Weber’s fortune grows so does his greed and it soon threatens to bring him down. ibid.
When a forgery is passed off as the real thing there are fortunes to be made and lost. For nearly a decade two Englishmen did just that. Between them they produced hundreds of modern masterpieces and plundered major art archives to fake their provenance. Their activities literally changed our history. It was one of the greatest frauds the art world has ever seen. Art of the Heist s1e4: The Forger and the Conman
John Myatt had been to art school but this was the start of a new career. ibid.
Drewe became a lucrative client and Myatt began to like him. ibid.
John Myatt had allowed himself to be trapped by John Drewe. ibid.
Drewe was presenting himself as a patron of the arts. ibid.
How many other fakes were there? And by how many artists? ibid.
As many as two hundred of them were now in circulation. ibid.
John Myatt finally decided he had had enough. ibid.
The eight years of frauds and fakes was about to come to an end. ibid.
John Myatt pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison. John Drewe maintained his innocence throughout but was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. ibid.
Of the 200 or so Myatt fakes only 72 have ever been found. ibid.
So with scissors and paste I created $78,000,000 out of thin air. This was forgery pure and simple. And there was no going back. Rogue Trader 1999 starring Ewan McGregor & Anna Friel & Tim McInnerny & Nigel Lindsay & John Standing & Lee Ross & Yves Beneyton & Betsy Brantley & Caroline Langrishe & Ivan Heng et al, director James Dearden
1953 ... Scientists are about to expose the most audacious fraud in the history of archaeology ... In November 1912 a startling discovery was announced of the remains of what was claimed to be the earliest known human being. The finds were made in a gravel pit in the village of Piltdown in Sussex. Days that Shook the World: Dinosaurs and Duplicity, BBC 2004
Since the 1950s several of Charles Dawson’s earlier archaeological finds have also been re-examined and proven to be forgeries. ibid.
The most daring fraud in the history of science. ibid.
April 1983 The Sunday Times London: Hugh Trevor-Roper is Britain’s most celebrated historian. Days that Shook the World: Diaries of Adolf Hitler
The newspaper’s presses downstairs will be printing the biggest scoop the paper has ever had: the publication of the diaries of Adolf Hitler written across the whole period of the Fuhrer’s reign. ibid.
Trevor-Roper is the leading authority on Hitler and the Third Reich. ibid.
The new owner of Times Newspapers Rupert Murdoch entered a bidding war to buy the rights to the diaries. ibid.
Nazi memorabilia ... the number of forgeries is vast and uncontrolled. ibid.
No surviving Nazi had ever mentioned Hitler keeping a diary. ibid.
He [Trevor-Roper] decides to make a clean break and tell the world his fears. ibid.
The paper in the diaries was laced with a chemical whitener that had not existed before 1955 ... The ink was not more than twelve months old. ibid.
The Shroud is considered so sacred that it is kept under top security in a sealed box in Turin Cathedral ... The linen cloth is fourteen feet long. The first certain record of it dates from the Middle Ages when it belonged to a crusading knight. Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious Universe
In 1978 the Church allowed an international team of scientists to study the Shroud at close quarters. To reveal its underside the Sisters of St Joseph snipped it from its backing. With sticky tape the scientists lifted tiny fibres from the blood-like stains. A few precious samples were sent to Dr Walter McCrone. ibid.
Ten years later the Church agreed to the ultimate test. Carbon 14 dating would at last establish when the cloth was made ... Samples were sent to laboratories in three different countries. Their verdict was unanimous: the Shroud is medieval. ibid.
In 1389 the Bishop d’Arcis writes a letter to Pope Clement complaining about this false relic of the Shroud that’s being displayed at a neighbouring church. Professor Larissa Tracy, Longwood University
Anatomically, it’s [Shroud] not correct. The arms are just too long. The fingers are too long. The head and face are not in proportion to the rest of the body. It’s different from front to back. Dr Emily Craig, forensic anthropologist
If you look at the Shroud of Turin as it appears to the naked eye you see a negative image of a human being. And if you take another photograph of that, you produce a positive image of that human being, which means the Shroud is acting as a negative. And that in itself is a very good clue that it was made photographically. Professor Nicholas Allen, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
If there is silver bound in the linen at a molecular level it would be the final support for the photographic hypothesis. Professor Nicholas Allen
I saw this image coming down – it was half of Leonardo and half of Mona Lisa ... The proportions that Leonardo wrote about were used in creating this Shroud’s face. Lillian F Schwartz, School of Visual Arts New York & OSU
The image on the Turin Shroud has baffled the world’s top scientists for decades. Despite thousands of tests researchers couldn’t identify how it was made. The Da Vinci Shroud: Revealed, Channel 5 2009
When a flat cloth wraps a three-dimensional object like a human head the image transferred to the cloth is always distorted. The ears are so widely spaced that the face looks bloated and inhuman. Very different from the image on the Shroud. ibid.
At some point over the decades the Shroud underwent a seemingly miraculous transformation. When it reappeared it was no longer seen as an obvious fake, a bad painting, the Turin Shroud was praised as a true holy relic. Even the Pope declared it genuine. ibid.
In the 15th century Leonardo produced work for many of Italy’s rich families. In Florence’s Royal Library there’s evidence that connects him directly to the owners of the Shroud – the Savoys. ibid.
Although the cloth can be carbon-dated it’s impossible for scientists to date the actual image itself. It could have been created any time after 1260. ibid.
Although the camera wasn’t invented until the nineteenth century its forerunner – an optical device called a camera obscurer – had been around since 400 B.C. To test his theory Allen sets out to recreate the Shroud image by building a camera obscurer. Allen hangs a life-size model of a human body outside a building. Inside, he has blacked out a room, and in the wall he has placed a round crystal lens. Allen then stretches a length of cloth over a frame. The cloth has been soaked in silver sulphate which makes it light sensitive just like photographic film. All the materials he uses were available in fifteenth century Italy, the time when Da Vinci was at the height of his creative powers. Once the lens is uncovered, light streams into the room and projects a photographically perfect upside-down image of the body on to the linen. This is the same principle as a film camera. Only here the image is projected on to light-sensitive cloth. ibid.
Amazingly the two faces [Mona Lisa and Shroud] lined up perfectly ... Schwartz’s discovery is further proof that Da Vinci must have had a hand in the creation of this enduring image of Christ. ibid.
It’s the connection we’ve always been looking for: to prove a connection between Leonardo and the Shroud. Clive Prince, co-author The Turin Shroud – How Leonardo Da Vinci Fooled History
We are looking at a photograph of a crucified man. Leonardo took a body from one of the stock of bodies he dissected for his anatomical research, and he truly crucified it. Lynn Picknett, co-author The Turin Shroud - How Leonardo Da Vinci Fooled History