Word: forgers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Meegeren was the 20th Century's most ambitious forger, and for a time its most successful. In ten years at his odd calling, he had fooled some of Europe's smartest experts and made close to $3,000,000 by painting and then "discovering" half a dozen "Vermeers" and a couple of "Pieter de Hoochs" besides. When he was convicted three years ago (TIME, Nov. 24, 1947), Van Meegeren told a reporter that he was "sure about one thing: if I die in jail they will just forget all about it. My paintings will become original Vermeers once...
...cops first told Clifford Shephard that he was "the phantom forger" the day after they fingerprinted and mugged him. A slow-moving, heavy-jawed and trusting fellow, Shephard patiently smiled at their accusations, told them they'd find they were making a mistake. He was just a middle-aged salesman who lived in Scotch Plains, N.J., he explained, and, as a matter of fact, had just taken on a new line of liquid run-stopper for ladies' stockings...
Months later, when Shephard was reduced to selling rugs made by the blind because nobody else would trust his con's record, he got a wire from the Burns people. A check-passer of his general description, Edward Sullivan, the "phantom forger," had been picked up, they said. Shephard made his way to Wisconsin, where Sullivan had been sentenced, came face to face with a man of his same general build and coloring, his same long face and heavy jaw-but by'no means a twin in looks. The real "phantom" looked at photostats of the checks which...
Ever since, the argument has raged: Does the 14 ft. 3 in.-long cloth really bear the front & back imprint of Christ's naked body, as though it had enveloped Him lengthwise, or is it the work of a clever forger? Points mentioned in favor of the shroud's authenticity...
...cross by his hands must periodically writhe upward on the crossbar in order to breathe. The shroud's pattern shows trickles of blood from the wrists at angles of both 65 and go degrees - a fact which could be explained by such writhing, but which a forger would be unlikely to allow...