"In 1925, Victor Lustig presented six metal dealers with the opportunity of a lifetime: they were offered a chance to buy the Eiffel Tower!!!"Seven Amazing Hoaxes: Sale of the Eiffel Tower
via www.weirdworm.com
In 1925, Victor Lustig [a con man posing as a government official] presented six metal dealers with the opportunity of a lifetime: they were offered a chance to buy the Eiffel Tower.Read more from Seven Amazing Hoaxes
The eventual buyer was Andre Poisson, who felt he could finally become a big-wig in the scrap dealing world if he owned pieces of the Eiffel tower.
Lustig swore him to secrecy until after he found a way to publicly announce the tower’s sale.
Andre Poisson agreed, but not before handing Lustig a briefcase full of money.
By the time Victor Lustig skipped the country, Andre Poisson put two and two together and realized he’d been duped but was too embarrassed by his loss to go to the police.
In fact, Lustig was never arrested for posing as a government official or trying to sell a French landmark.
When he was eventually arrested in 1935 it was for an unrelated counterfeiting scheme.
He attempted to sell the tower a second time but was unsuccessful, a failure that surely haunted him to his money-filled grave.
