In 1925, a man ‘sold’ the Eiffel Tower and vanished with the money

A con artist named Victor Lustig famously ‘sold’ the Eiffel Tower for scrap in 1925. He convinced scrap metal dealers the monument was being dismantled due to high maintenance costs. Lustig used forged documents and official appearances to execute his elaborate deception. After his initial success, he attempted the same scam again in Paris. His criminal career eventually ended with his arrest and imprisonment in the United States.