{"id":154690,"date":"2023-03-27T16:14:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T16:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=154690"},"modified":"2023-03-31T19:58:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T19:58:34","slug":"the-art-of-the-hoax-famous-historical-pranks-and-frauds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/news\/the-art-of-the-hoax-famous-historical-pranks-and-frauds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of the Hoax: Famous Historical Pranks and Frauds"},"content":{"rendered":" \r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n
<\/p>\n
Delve into the fascinating world of deception and trickery with our exploration of famous historical hoaxes and frauds.<\/span><\/p>\n From the enchanting Cottingley Fairies to the perplexing case of Mary Toft giving birth to rabbits, these tales of cunning and deceit have captivated the public’s imagination for centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n Discover how an alchemist duped a Duke, and how a forged medieval document influenced politics and religion.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, learn about the timeless tradition of April Fools’ Day and its origins in mystery and revelry.<\/span><\/p>\n These extraordinary stories of audacious trickery reveal the human penchant for fooling others and being fooled in return.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1917, young cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths took a series of photographs in Cottingley, near Bradford, featuring what appeared to be fairies.<\/span><\/p>\n The pictures gained widespread recognition and were even declared genuine by experts.<\/span><\/p>\n The duo later confessed in the 1980s that the fairies were drawings by Elsie, held in place with hatpins, but still claimed one photo was real.<\/span><\/p>\n On November 27, 1810, 54 Berners Street, London, became the scene of a grand hoax.<\/span><\/p>\n A steady stream of merchants, tradesmen, and dignitaries flooded the street, all summoned to the residence without the occupant’s knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n Behind the hoax was Theodore Hook, who had bet a friend that he could make any house the most talked-about spot in London.<\/span><\/p>\n In April 1896, the Louvre museum acquired what they believed was a golden, Greco-Scythian crown from the third century BC.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the tiara was a fake, created just a year before using modern tools and soldering. The Louvre still owns the crown but does not display it.<\/span><\/p>\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n In 1555, an alchemist for Duke Cosimo I of Florence created a scheme to convince the Duke he could turn ordinary metals into gold.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\r\n\r\n In 1726, Mary Toft, a woman from Godalming, convinced several doctors that she had given birth to rabbits.<\/span><\/p>\n When the second royal surgeon, Cyriacus Ahlers, grew skeptical, Toft was intensely questioned and eventually confessed to the hoax.<\/span><\/p>\n She was briefly imprisoned and later lived out her days in Godalming, known as the “Rabbit Woman.”<\/span><\/p>\n In 1555, an alchemist for Duke Cosimo I of Florence created a scheme to convince the Duke he could turn ordinary metals into gold.<\/span><\/p>\n After a successful demonstration, the Duke paid a fortune for the recipe, only for the con artist to flee to France without leaving any trace of the mysterious substance.<\/span><\/p>\n This medieval document, supposedly recording a gift of land from Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to Pope Sylvester I, was actually a forgery dating from the eighth century AD.<\/span><\/p>\n The forgery influenced politics and religion in medieval Europe until its true nature was exposed in the 15th century.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":154692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3588],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Cottingley Fairies: Believing in Magic<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Berners Street Hoax: Chaos in London<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Tiara of Saitaferne: A Fraudulent Treasure<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Mary Toft: The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Turning Lead into Gold: The Alchemy Scam<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Donation of Constantine: A Powerful Forgery<\/strong><\/h2>\n