If we’re wondering if Jimmy’s up to a little casual forgery, you should know in High School he had a thriving business making fake IDs so his buddies could buy beer. Better Call Saul s2e9: Nailed, Saul, AMC 2016
What you gonna do? So, what the fuck, Ray? Nine months to go and you call Keegan? Why would you do that? That’s such a wicked price to pay. The Forger 2014 starring John Travolta & Christopher Plummer & Abigail Spencer & Jennifer Ehle & Tye Sheridan & Anson Mount & Victor Gojcaj et al, director Philip Martin
I might surprise you. Give me a chance. ibid. father to son
A heist: a bit of a forging. Gambit 2012 starring Colin Firth & Cameron Diaz & Alan Rickman & Tom Courtenay & Stanley Tucci & Cloris Leachman & Togo Igawa et al, director Michael Hoffman, opening scene
An optimist is simply a man who hasn’t heard the news. ibid. sidekick
No-one wants to be fooled. People are fooled by art much more than we know. The director at the Metropolitan museum was once asked, How many fakes do you think could possibly be on the walls? To which he responded, I have no idea. It’s embarrassing. Worse than that, I think, is that they don’t want to own up. Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art, Freedman, Netflix 2021
‘I Am the Central Victim’: Art Dealer Ann Freedman on Selling $63 Million in Fake Paintings. ibid. online article James Panero 27th August 2013
It started with the news of Knoedler closing. And that was shocking because Knoedler was very old-guard institution in the art world. And nobody really knew the details of that until you know, news started leaking out about this forgery scandal. ibid. M H Miler, The New York Times
A con that went on for nearly twenty years. ibid. Patricia Cohen, The New York Times
None of the works Rosales brought to the gallery were in the catalogues raisonnés of the artists. ibid. Luke Nikas, Freeman’s lawyer
‘A 75-year-old artist [Pei-Shen Qian] who went from selling his paintings for a couple of hundred dollars to selling them for millions.’ ibid. television presenter
‘I firmly refute the accusations that I misled anyone concerning this transaction. I believed in the authenticity of the Pollock at the time [of sale] and continue to do so.’ Ann Freedman, The Financial Times 9 December 2011, cited ibid.
The calm of Salt Lake City Utah was rocked today by two booby-trap bombs that left two people dead … Murder Among the Mormons I, newscaster, Netflix 2021
A morning that brought fear and death. The first explosion ripped through a downtown office building, killing one man. The second explosion outside a holiday home claimed another life … ibid.
There was dark talk involving religious documents, hired professional killers … ibid.
The bombing’s impact has drawn the Church into an uncomfortable spotlight. ibid.
Salt Lake City 1980: At that time I was introduced to Mark Hofmann. And I was very excited to meet Mark. He was in the Mormon document world, he was a rock star. ibid. Shannon Flynn, rare document dealer
The Anthon Transcript discovery was widely publicized and brought Mark Hofmann into contact with top leaders in the Mormon Church. ibid. reporter
I’d never seen anybody come up with the material that Mark was coming up with. ibid. Brent Ashworth, historical document collector
He takes out from his briefcase the Salamander letter. ibid. Flynn
It just changed everything. Instead of God and angels, now it’s salamanders and magic. ibid. Sandra Tannner
The McLellin Collection was potentially devastating. ibid. Flynn
Last year Hofmann sold a document known as the White Salamander letter to the men who were the apparent targets of the first attack. Murder Among the Mormons II
For more than three hours officers sifted through boxes and collected evidence they hope to use in their case against Hofmann. ibid. news
The FBI has reportedly concluded there is no reason to believe the Salamander letter is a phony. ibid.
Every single document that Hofmann had handled had that cracked ink. ibid. document verification dude
It’s the biggest forgery case to ever occur. Period. Murder Among the Mormons III, observer
After Mark’s confessions, the Parole Board decides he will serve his entire life in prison. ibid. caption
Conmen: the most devious of all criminals. Charming, cruel and calculating, they betray trust and devastate lives yet remain a complete enigma. Conman Case Files s1e1: John Myatt & John Drewe, 2007
The 20th century’s biggest art fraud: a struggling artist was drawn into a con which would make millions, with the artist and conman secretly working together for almost a decade. ibid.
Drewe: his masterstroke was the infiltration of the British art archives. ibid.
‘We reckon he’d done about 200.’ ibid.
The art world and the police were gathering evidence. ibid.
It was one of the great discoveries of the last century. Sixty-two volumes of the hand-written personal diaries of one the most infamous and reviled men in modern history: Adolf Hitler. History’s Greatest Hoaxes s1e3: Hitler’s Diaries
Rupert Murdoch paid a cool $500,000 for the rights to publish them in the Sunday Times. ibid.
Having already put in place a deal to buy the Hitler diaries [Magnus] Linklater was tasked with trying to authenticate their contents and validate Murdoch’s proposed purchase. ibid.
The Sunday Times was still not completely sure that the diaries weren’t fakes so they asked revered Cambridge historian Hugh Trevor-Roper … started to have serious doubts. ibid.
An ancient burial box inscribed with the named James: Son of Joseph Brother of Jesus … Who was his brother James? From doubter to leader – but why has James been lost to history? Jesus Code: The Secret Brother of Jesus, Discovery 2016
Oded Golan is found guilty on two charges relating to the trade in antiquities; but when it comes to the charges of forgery he is found not guilty. ibid.
I couldn’t believe it. Are you kidding? It’s not the same script. There’s not even a complete script design ... This thing is obviously a fake. Dr Rochelle Altman, forensic document analyst
In 1980 archaeologists investigated an apparently unremarkable tomb under a building site outside Jerusalem. They found a number of ancient bone boxes or ossuaries and a series of names that sparked a sensational claim: that this unremarkable tomb could contain the remains of Jesus Christ, his family, and shocking evidence he wasn’t resurrected. But married? And that he even had a son. Lost Tomb of Jesus? Discovery 2007
‘Jesus, Son of Joseph’: this find sparked an international archaeological drama. ibid.
It was the names apparently etched on the bone-boxes inside that captivated those who formulated the sensational Jesus tomb theory. As well as the ‘Jesus, son of Joseph’ translation there were several other interpretations of names that led to the stunning suggestion Talpiut could be the family tomb of Jesus Christ. There was Maria in Hebrew, a form of Mary; another name was interpreted as Mariamne, written in Greek – perhaps another form of Mary. There was also a Jose in Hebrew, a nickname for Joseph. ibid.
But recently an ossuary appeared on the Israeli antiquities market bearing the inscription ‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus’ ... But subsequent investigations have cast grave doubts over the so-called James ossuary. ibid.
Even if the flawed translations are right, the apparently impressive cluster of names is actually statistically unremarkable. All of these names were common at the time. ibid.
The Talpiut tomb is buried beneath this concrete slab in a suburb on the edge of Jerusalem. ibid.
If a crucified man was buried at Talpiut, the signs would have been hard to miss. ibid.
I’m a born Catholic. But I would not like to be excluded from Heaven on a technicality. My name is Giovanni di Stefano. I’m a lawyer. Best known as the Devil’s advocate. I have defended the indefensible, from Saddam Hussein to Charles Manson. Devil’s Advocate: The Mostly True Story of Giovanni di Stefano, Sky Documentaries 2022
His client list runs as a Who’s Who for the criminal world. ibid. QC
The case of John Palmer. Goldfinger … ‘Giovanni got a £33 million confiscation order set aside for a notorious criminal.’ ibid.
R v Hoogstraten … ‘His conviction quashed.’ ibid.
‘His motivation was to stick two fingers up to the legal establishment.’ ibid.
MGM: I got away with $249 million. ibid. Giovanni
‘He said, I’m in Iraq. I’m representing Saddam Hussein.’ ibid. other client
May 2006: ‘I was handling a file that contained an allegation brought against Giovanni di Stefano … of stealing the bail security.’ ibid.
‘Was he allowed to practise here? I don’t think he was legally allowed to practise law, was he, in this country?’ ibid. QC