The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

Victor Lustig was born on January 4, 1890, in the former Bohemia (Austro-Hungarian Empire), now the Czech Republic. Raised in the upper bourgeoisie, a brilliant student, educated in the best schools, fluent in several languages, he had everything to become a great lawyer.

Suddenly he moved to Paris with a fixed idea in mind: to make a fortune by any means. And he became one of the greatest con artists in history, a thief, a trickster, and an exceptional liar.

After World War I, Lustig went to the U.S. to apply his refined scams of seduction and elegance.

With various fake names and using his European charm, Victor deceived and stole from famous figures like Al Capone and others with great style and precision. Card games, money-making machines, real estate, horse betting, everything was an excuse to pull off a good scam.

With his pockets full, he returned to Paris in 1925. "Monsieur Comte Lustig," as he liked to be called, after squandering his fortune in bars, restaurants, and luxury shops, sought a new idea for his next scam.

The light he needed he found in an article about the difficulty the city of Paris was having with the maintenance and conservation costs of the Eiffel Tower. The journalist concluded his text by suggesting that in this case, it would be better to sell it.

Lustig and an American accomplice, Dan Collins, planned one of the most sensational scams in the history of criminology, the sale of the Eiffel Tower.

With fake identities and documents, the Prime Minister of France and President Gaston Doumergue authorized the two accomplices to sell the 7,000 tons of iron, through a secret auction, to the top five scrap metal dealers in France.

To lend more credibility to the negotiations, they rented a suite at the majestic Crillon Hotel and, after an engaging speech to the interested parties, concluded the ruse by taking everyone in luxurious limousines for a technical visit to the tower because one of them would soon be the new owner. They were so convincing that, at the time of the visit, even the tower's staff believed they were genuine representatives of the government.

A few days later, Lustig received an offer from André Poisson. Seeing the naivety of this man, he audaciously asked for an extra commission to help him win the competition (common among politicians even back then). And it was the assurance that confirmed he was dealing with a serious person. The poor man discovered he had been deceived when he went to the city hall looking for project sheets to begin the dismantling and recovery operation of the tower's iron.

After the scam, Lustig and Collins hid in Vienna. When they realized that the "sale" had not been reported in the newspapers, they returned to Paris to attempt the same scam on the second interested party on the list. This one, less naive, reported them to the police. Lustig and Collins escaped by taking the first ship to the United States.

In 1935, after a series of cons, Lustig was arrested in New York. One day before his trial, he managed to escape with a rope made from several bedsheets. Captured a few days later, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Alcatraz Island.

He died on March 11, 1947, of pneumonia.

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