The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, but what many people don’t know is that it has been the subject of several bizarre and unsuccessful attempts at sale. One of the most famous of these attempts occurred in the 1920s when a group of con men attempted to convince unsuspecting investors that they had purchased the tower and were selling shares in it.
The scheme was led by a man named Victor Lustig, a notorious con artist who had already made a name for himself by selling fake money-making machines and swindling wealthy individuals out of their fortunes. Lustig arrived in Paris in 1925 and immediately began planning his next scam. He came up with the idea of selling the Eiffel Tower to scrap metal dealers and set about finding a group of investors who would be willing to buy it.
Lustig knew that the scheme was unlikely to succeed unless he could convince the investors that the sale was legitimate, so he went to great lengths to create an air of authenticity around the deal. He forged official-looking documents, rented a fancy hotel room for the meetings, and even hired an accomplice to pose as a government official and vouch for the sale. In the end, Lustig was able to convince several scrap metal dealers to buy shares in the tower, and he pocketed the money before making a hasty escape.
Although Lustig’s scheme was eventually exposed, he was able to evade authorities and continue scamming people for several more years before he was finally caught and imprisoned. The Eiffel Tower sale remains one of the most audacious scams in history, and it serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and gullibility.
The Eiffel Tower has been a symbol of Paris and a global icon for over a century, and its value is impossible to measure in monetary terms. However, the attempted sale of the tower in the 1920s highlights the lengths that some people will go to in order to make a quick buck, even if it means resorting to deceit and fraud. The Eiffel Tower sale serves as a reminder that we must always be vigilant against those who seek to exploit our trust and our desire for easy wealth and that we must remain skeptical of deals that seem too good to be true.