History
Famous Counterfeit Schemes & Forgeries
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Updated:3/7/2026
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Scheme / Forgery↕ | Year↕ | Forger↕ | What Was Faked↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Hitler Diaries | 1983 | Konrad Kujau | 60 volumes of Adolf Hitler's personal diaries | Stern magazine paid $6M, world's media fooled, exposed within weeks by forensic ink analysis, massive scandal |
Han van Meegeren's Vermeers | 1937-1945 | Han van Meegeren | Paintings by Johannes Vermeer | Dutch artist forged Vermeers so well he sold one to Hermann Göring, confessed to avoid treason charge, national hero |
Frank Abagnale Jr. | 1964-1969 | Frank Abagnale Jr. | Checks, identities (pilot, doctor, lawyer) | Impersonated Pan Am pilot, passed $2.5M in bad checks, escaped custody twice, 'Catch Me If You Can' movie |
Piltdown Man | 1912 | Unknown (possibly Charles Dawson) | Missing link human skull fossil | Fake skull fragments fooled scientists for 41 years, 'discovered' evolutionary missing link, exposed 1953 |
Operation Bernhard | 1942-1945 | Nazi SS (concentration camp prisoners) | British £5, £10, £20, £50 banknotes | Largest counterfeiting operation in history, prisoners forced to forge £132M, aimed to crash British economy |
Elmyr de Hory's Art Forgeries | 1946-1968 | Elmyr de Hory | Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani paintings | Sold 1,000+ forged paintings to galleries worldwide, Orson Welles made documentary 'F for Fake' about him |
Mark Hofmann's Mormon Forgeries | 1980-1985 | Mark Hofmann | Historical Mormon documents | Forged letters that threatened LDS Church history, committed two pipe bomb murders when scheme unraveled |
Beltracchi Art Forgeries | 1990s-2010 | Wolfgang Beltracchi | Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, other modernists | Earned $45M+ selling forged paintings, used period-correct materials, caught by wrong titanium white pigment |
Clifford Irving's Howard Hughes Autobiography | 1971-1972 | Clifford Irving | Authorized autobiography of Howard Hughes | McGraw-Hill paid $765K for fake Hughes memoir, Hughes himself phoned in to deny it, Irving went to prison |
Superdollar (North Korean $100 Bills) | 1989-present | North Korean government (alleged) | US $100 bills ('supernotes') | Near-perfect counterfeits detectable only by Secret Service, allegedly state-sponsored, forced US to redesign $100 bill |
John Drewe & John Myatt Art Fraud | 1986-1995 | John Myatt (painter), John Drewe (mastermind) | 200+ paintings: Giacometti, Braque, Chagall | Drewe infiltrated museum archives to plant fake provenance records, most damaging art fraud in 20th century UK |
Shaun Greenhalgh's Forgeries | 1989-2006 | Shaun Greenhalgh (Bolton, England) | Egyptian statues, Gauguin ceramics, L.S. Lowry paintings | Self-taught forger in a garden shed, fooled British Museum and Christie's, caught by misspelling on an Assyrian relief |
Wine Counterfeiting (Rudy Kurniawan) | 2002-2012 | Rudy Kurniawan | Rare Burgundy and Bordeaux wines | Sold $35M+ in fake vintage wines, mixed cheap wine and re-labeled bottles, 'Sour Grapes' documentary |
Spanish Prisoner / Nigerian 419 Scam | 16th century-present | Various confidence tricksters | Promise of treasure/inheritance for upfront fee | Oldest known advance-fee fraud (Spanish origin), evolved into Nigerian prince emails, still takes billions annually |
Michelangelo's Sleeping Cupid Forgery | 1496 | Michelangelo Buonarroti | Ancient Roman sculpture | Young Michelangelo aged a sculpture to sell as Roman antique, when exposed it boosted his fame, forgery launched his career |
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