Art forgery is a real menace museums have to contend with. Every now and then, a museum ends up with a fake artifact that can end up being on display for a number of years before they realize it is a fake. For the forgers, the high price tags attached to these fakes are often enough incentives to keep creating forgeries.

Forgers often go to extreme lengths to fool museums into buying their work. Some fakes are so good that historians and archaeologists have a hard time telling them apart from the real thing. Many museums have fallen victim to forgers, including the famous Louvre, which exhibited a fake artwork for several years without realizing it.

10 The Three Etruscan Warriors

In 1933, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka the Met) in New York City added three new pieces of art to its exhibition. They were the sculptures of three warriors from the ancient Etruscan civilization. The seller, an art dealer named Pietro Stettiner, claimed the sculptures were made in the fifth century BC.

Italian archaeologists were the first to raise concerns that the statues could be forgeries. However, the museum curators refused to heed the warning because they believed they had gotten the artworks at a bargain and did not want to lose them to another museum.

Other archaeologists later noted that the statues had unusual shapes and sizes for artworks created at their time. The body parts were also sculpted at unequal proportions, and the entire collection had little damage. The museum only discovered the truth in 1960, when archaeologist Joseph V. Noble recreated sample statues using the same techniques as the Etruscans and determined that the statues in the Met could not have been made by them.

Investigations revealed that Stettiner was part of a larger group of forgers that had conspired to create the statues. The team copied the sculptures from collections held by several museums, including the Met itself. One of the warriors was copied from a picture of a Greek statue in a book from the Berlin Museum.

The head of another warrior was copied from the drawing on a real Etruscan vase held by the Met. The sculptures also had unequal body parts because they were too big for the studio, forcing the forgers to reduce the size of some parts. One of the sculptures was also missing an arm because the forgers couldn’t decide on a pose for said arm.^[1]

9 The Persian Mummy

In 2000, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan almost engaged in a diplomatic row over the mummy and coffin of an unidentified 2,600-year-old princess. The mummy, often referred to as the Persian Mummy, was discovered when Pakistani police officers raided a home in Kharan after receiving a tip-off that the owner was illegally trying to sell antiquities.

The owner was Sardar Wali Reeki, who was trying to sell the mummy to an unidentified buyer for £35 million. Reeki claimed he had found the mummy and coffin after an earthquake. Iran soon claimed ownership of the mummy, considering that Reeki’s village was right at its border. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at the time, later joined the fray to contest ownership of the mummy.

The mummy was sent to Pakistan’s National Museum and put on display. However, several archaeologists discovered that several parts of the coffin were too modern. On top of that, there was no evidence that any of the tribes in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan ever mummified their dead. Further analysis revealed that the mummy was actually the remains of a 21-year-old woman who may well have been a murder victim. It was sent to a morgue, and police arrested Reeki and his family.^[2]

8 Dead Sea Scroll Fragments

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a group of handwritten scrolls containing Jewish religious text. They were written in the rough vicinity of 2,000 years ago and are among the oldest recorded writings of Hebrew biblical passages. Most of the scrolls and fragments are stored at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, while a few are in the hands of private collectors and museums.

This includes the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, which had five fragments of the scrolls on display. However, that changed in 2018, when the fragments were revealed to be forgeries. The ruse was discovered after the museum sent the fragments to Germany for analysis.

The museum sent the scrolls for examination after experts raised the alarm that they may have been fakes. These concerns were first raised months before the museum opened in November 2017. Speculators claim that the museum spent millions of dollars to acquire the fake scroll fragments. However, that remains unconfirmed, considering that the museum is not talking.^[3]

7 Several Artworks At The Brooklyn Museum

In 1932, the Brooklyn Museum received 926 works of art from the estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, who had died a year earlier. The artworks were a mix of paintings, jewelry, woodworks, and pottery from ancient Rome, the Chinese Qing dynasty, and the Renaissance.

Colonel Friedsam gifted the museum the art on the condition that they received permission from his estate before selling or decommissioning any of it. That condition became a problem decades later, when the museum discovered that 229 of the artworks were forgeries.

The Brooklyn Museum could not decommission the art because the last of Colonel Friedsam’s descendants died half a century ago. The museum cannot throw them away, either, because the Association of American Museums has strict rules guiding the storage and disposal of art by member museums.

In 2010, the Brooklyn museum approached a court to allow it to decommission these forgeries. According to the petition submitted to the court, the museum would spend an initial $403,000 to furnish a warehouse to store the artifacts if the court refused its request. Then it would spend another $286,000 per year on rent and workers to care for the artworks.^[4]

6 The Henlein Pocket Watch

Peter Henlein was a locksmith and inventor who lived in Germany between 1485 and 1542. We might not know him, but we all know and use his invention: the watch. Henlein invented the watch when he replaced the heavy weights used in clocks with a lighter mainspring, which allowed him make smaller clocks. Clocks were made by locksmiths and blacksmiths at the time.

One of Henlein’s supposed early creations has been held at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Germany since 1897. The pocket watch resembles a small tin and fits in the palm of one’s hand. However, it became the center of a controversy soon after it was added to the museum’s collection.

Several historians claimed the so-called Henlein watch was a forgery and not an original. This was even though the signature in the inside back cover of the watch proclaimed it to have been made by Peter Henlein in 1510. A 1930 report stated that the signature was added years after the watch was supposedly built.

The experts reached their conclusion after determining that the signature went over—instead of under—the scratch marks inside the back cover. More recent tests revealed that most parts of the watch were manufactured in the 19th century, indicating it could be a forgery. However, other experts suggest the parts were made during an attempt to repair the watch.^[5]

5 Almost Everything At San Francisco’s Mexican Museum

In 2012, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco achieved affiliate status with the Smithsonian Institution. The status allows the museum to borrow and loan artworks from over 200 partner museums and institutions with the affiliate status. However, the Smithsonian requires member museums to authenticate their collections before they can start loaning or borrowing artworks.

In 2017, the Mexican Museum discovered that only 83 of the first 2,000 artworks it evaluated were authentic. This was troubling, considering that the museum has 16,000 artworks in its collection. Experts estimate that half of the museum’s inventory is fake.

Some of the forgeries were deliberately created to be passed off as original, while others were originally intended as decorations. Some weren’t even linked to Mexican culture at all. The huge amount of forgeries is not surprising, considering that the museum received most of its collections from donors and hadn’t bothered to confirm their authenticity.^[6]

4 The Amarna Princess

In 2003, the Bolton, Manchester, city council decided to acquire some new artworks for their local museum. They settled for a supposedly 3,300-year-old statue called the Amarma Princess, which depicts a relative of Pharaoh Tutankhamun of ancient Egypt.

The sellers of the statue claimed it was excavated from an Egyptian site. This claim was backed by the British Museum, which found no signs of foul play after examining the statue. Satisfied, the Bolton city council paid £440,000 for the statue, which went on display at the museum.

A few years later, the Bolton Museum discovered that the British Museum was wrong. The statue was a forgery, the handiwork of Shaun Greenhalgh, an infamous forger who made fake artworks which he sold to museums as originals. In a twist of irony, Greenhalgh lived in Bolton and had created the sculpture there.

His parents, George and Olive Greenhalgh, acted as his salespeople and sold the forgeries to the museums. In 2007, Shaun was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail for his crime. His parents received suspended jail terms for their part.^[7]

3 A Golden Crown At The Louvre

In the 1800s, two men contacted goldsmith Israel Rouchomovsky in today’s Odessa, Ukraine, to commission a Greek-styled gold crown as a gift for an archaeologist friend. In truth, the men had no archaeologist friend and only wanted to sell the crown as an original artwork from ancient Greece.

Schapschelle Hochmann, the more cunning of the duo, claimed the crown was a gift from a Greek king to the king of Scythia sometime in the third century BC. Several British and Austrian museums turned down offers to purchase the crown. However, Hochmann found luck when the Louvre purchased it for 200,000 francs.

Some archaeologists raised concerns that the crown could be fake soon after it went on exhibition at the Louvre. However, no one listened to them because they weren’t French. The Louvre considered their statements an act of jealously since they probably wanted the crown for their own museums.

The archaeologists were proven right in 1903, when a man named Lifschitz, a friend who had seen Rouchomovsky make the crown, informed Rouchomovsky that his work was being exhibited as an original at the Louvre. Rouchomovsky traveled to France with a reproduction to prove he really made the crown.

The revelation was bad news for the Louvre and good news for Rouchomovsky, who hit instant fame. A century later, the Israel Museum borrowed the crown from the Louvre and exhibited it as an original artwork of Rouchomovsky.^[8]

2 Over Half Of The Paintings At Etienne Terrus Museum

The Etienne Terrus Museum is a little-known museum in Elne, France. It belongs to the city of Elne and exhibits the works of Etienne Terrus, a French artist who was born in Elne in 1857. In 2018, the museum added 80 new paintings to its collection. However, things quickly went south when an historian contracted to help arrange the new paintings discovered that around 60 percent of the entire museum’s collection were forgeries.

The historian had no difficulty in determining the artworks to be fakes. His gloved hand wiped the signature off one painting in a single stroke. Several paintings also contained buildings that had not been built at the time Terrus was alive.

Further analysis revealed that 82 of the 140 paintings held at the museum were forgeries.^[9] The city council had purchased most of the paintings between 1990 and 2010. The forgeries were moved to the local police station while police opened an investigation.

1 Everything At The Museum Of Art Fakes

The Museum of Art Fakes is a real museum dedicated to art forgeries. Located in Vienna, Austria, the museum only collects fake artifacts and artworks. Parts of its collections includes pages from a diary supposedly owned by Adolf Hitler. In truth, the diary was forged by one Konrad Kujau.

The museum categorizes its collections into forgeries intended to mimic the style of a more famous artist, forgeries intended to be sold as previously undiscovered artwork of a famous artist, and forgeries intended to be passed off as originals of already famous artworks.

The museum includes a category for artworks it considers replicas. Replicas are made by artists after the death of the original artist. They were often labeled and sold as such, never having been claimed to be originals.

The Museum of Art Fakes also dedicates some exhibition space to infamous forgers like Tom Keating, who created over 2,000 fake artworks during his lifetime. Keating deliberately made errors in his art so that they could be revealed as fake long after he had been paid. He called these deliberate errors “time-bombs.”

The museum also exhibits the work of Edgar Mrugalla, who created over 3,500 fake pieces of art which he sold as originals. Mrugalla’s career as a forger ended after he received a two-year sentence for art forgery. He was only released on the condition that he take on a new career that required him to help authorities reveal fake artworks.^[10]

There is some scientific evidence of true psychic abilities. For example, social psychologist Daryl Bem ran experiments with over 1,000 subjects and found that eight of them showed clear-cut evidence of precognition or premonition.

Etzel Cardena, another parapsychology researcher, found that the Ganzfeld procedure provided evidence of true psychic powers as well. With the Ganzfeld procedure, participants sit in soundproof rooms while blindfolded. They are asked to talk about a film clip they’ve never watched. The snippet is either played in another room at the same time or shown to them afterward.

Then another set of people is asked to use the blindfolded partipants’ descriptions to accurately choose the clip from a group of film excerpts. Some people were able to choose the correct film clip based on the psychic’s description.

However, far more evidence shows that many so-called psychics are utter fakes who scheme to make you believe they have unusual powers. Check out these tricks that fake psychics play on you.

Top 10 Psychic Debunkings

10 They Keep You Talking

One of their biggest tricks is to keep you talking. The longer you chatter, the more information you may give to the fake psychic. They can use this to do your reading.

In the end, you will pay more (and not necessarily just financially). This is especially true for phone psychics as their services are often $3.99/minute or more.^[1]

9 They Ask For Personal Information

After most fake psychics talk to you for a while and make you feel comfortable, they will ask for your name, birth date, and address. They claim that this will help them to give you a proper reading.

In reality, fake psychics use this information to spam you with frightening demands like “you’re in danger, call immediately” or “I see that someone has cursed you, you need to call me now!”^[2]

The purpose is to get you to call about the message or physically come to their place of business. Then they try to keep you there for as long as possible. After all, time is money for them. If they were true psychics, they wouldn’t need any information from you at all.

8 Flattery And False Claims

The whole idea with fake psychics is to keep you coming back for more. One way they do this is by using flattery and false claims. The flattery is supposed to make you trust the psychic as a friend.

Once they feel you are comfortable, then they break out the false claims. For example: “You have a very interesting aura. I’d like to do an in-depth advanced reading on you. How does next Tuesday sound?”

If the psychic can keep you coming back and spending more money on “advanced” readings, they’ve successfully scammed you.^[3]

7 Past Lives As Famous People

Fake psychics may also say that you were a famous person—such as Cleopatra, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, or Helen of Troy—in a past life. Although the idea of having been someone famous in a past life might sound fun and interesting, rarely is such a claim true. Most likely, the psychic in question has told at least 20 other clients the same thing.^[4]

Beware of any psychic claiming that you were an important person in a past life. They are using flattery to keep you on the hook so that they can get more of your money. For the right price, they can help you find out more by regressing you to a past life using hypnosis. They have other ways to exploit this scheme as well.

6 They Make A Claim And Then Wait

A fake psychic will purposely make a generalized claim and then wait. This allows them to read your body language or elicit a response from you that will suggest that they are on the right track. When a psychic says something and then stops speaking while waiting for your response, this should be a red flag to you.^[5]

10 Psychics Who Claim To Communicate With Animals

5 They Give You Information That Might Be True For Anyone

Fake psychics will tell you something that could be true for anyone. For example, they might say, “I see that you’ve suffered a loss recently.”

Most people have experienced some kind of loss, whether it has to do with money, a loved one, a best friend, or a pet. This statement is so vague that it could apply to anyone.^[6]

Fake psychics love to give general and vague information because there’s no way they can lose. This claim could be true for anyone at any time in life, and they are counting on you to take the bait when they use this dirty trick.

4 Positive Claims With Just A Few Negatives

Obviously, it’s in a fake psychic’s best interests to tell you mostly positive information. If it was all bad news, you wouldn’t continue to use their services. However, fake psychics will throw in a few negative claims just to make their reading look genuine.^[7]

For example, they might say, “You recently lost an object that is very important to you.” Again, this could be anything. Maybe a month ago, you lost your car keys or an heirloom diary of an ancestor. The claim is so general that it allows you to mentally plug in anything to make it true. And that’s just what a fake psychic is hoping you will do.

3 They Look You Up Online

Just like everyone else, fake psychics look up people on social media to find out more about them. These days, nearly everyone is online, so finding out personal information about people is not that difficult.^[8]

Many fake psychics look you up online to discover facts that they can use during your reading. So if you’ve been posting on social media about publishing your book, for example, the psychic may say, “I see that you’re going to be a best-selling author.”

The Internet contains a wealth of personal information, and fake psychics use it to do your reading.

2 They Ask You Questions

If someone is a true psychic, they shouldn’t need to quiz you. Instead, they should be able to confidently reveal true information to you.

On the other hand, fake psychics ask a lot of questions. When a new acquaintance does this, you probably don’t think anything about responding with a “yes” or “no” or more information, especially if you’re just getting to know that person.^[9]

Fake psychics use the same technique. They want you to reveal information that they don’t have. If they can get you to give them more information without further thought on your part, they have won. They can then use the information to get more money and time out of you.

1 They Use Props

A real psychic doesn’t need to use “props.” So if you walk into her place of business and she is dressed like a gypsy with lots of bangle bracelets, a scarf on her head, and voluminous skirts, you may have made an appointment with a fake psychic.^[10]

However, these are not the only types of props used by fake psychics. You may see large crystals, books on psychic phenomena and psychic studies, or even natal charts posted on the wall.

Keep in mind, though, that some fake psychics are smart enough to look as normal as possible. After all, they don’t want to scare you away by presenting themselves as stereotypical scam artists. They may just have a table, a couple of chairs, and a deck of tarot cards, for example.

Regardless, props are unnecessary for a true psychic. She should be able to tell you what you need to know without anything other than the power of her mind.

10 Savage Psychic Slayings

About The Author: Regina Paul is an author and artist who lives in Seattle, Washington. Visit her website at https://www.reginapaul.com.

The existence of the paranormal is a controversial subject. There’s been no reputable scientific evidence to support the existence of what we call supernatural, which leaves many people to believe that all allegations of hauntings and paranormal phenomena are fake and even baseless. Staunch believers, however, would disagree. Pointing to evidence they think wasn’t properly investigated, a plethora of personal experiences, and the history of spiritual beliefs all over the world.

While these two crowds are unlikely to agree about this subject, this list sets out to cover ten examples of famous supernatural places that everyone can agree seem fishy at best, be they long-running misconceptions, factually disproven occurrences, or elaborate hoaxes.

Related: Top 10 Fake Spiritualists Who Were Caught In The Act

10 1677 Round Top Road, Harrisville

To many people, 1677 Round Top Road, Harrisville probably doesn’t ring any bells from that description alone. However, the house is very famous, largely due to a popular horror film based on it, but also because of Ed and Lorraine Warren, some of the most well-known—and in some circles most infamous—paranormal investigators of all time.

At first, this home may seem charming but is actually what The Conjuring is directly based on, a house thought to have been infested by the horrifyingly violent demon of an alleged witch named Bathsheba Sherman.

All of this certainly sounds quite scary, that is, until further research into the subject brings up many facts that suggest this story may be more of a dark fairytale. Leaving aside the fact that the Warrens aren’t as reputable as they seemed to begin with, things simply don’t add up. Bathsheba Sherman never lived on the property, only nearby, was never proven to be a witch nor evil, and the idea of her demon infesting the grounds was one thought up and spread by the Warrens, not the original owners, with no solid proof.

Furthermore, the original family lived on the property for a long decade. Their experiences are reported to have many inconsistencies with the Warrens’ account of the story and happenings at the house. And recent owners report no violent or terrifying events at the home, making the whole thing quite questionable.^[1]

9 Native American Burial Grounds

Not one place, but a group of places—or actually no place at all?

The “Indian Burial Ground” trope has been an infamously common element in horror films since its popular introduction attributed to the even more infamous “Amityville Horror,” another upcoming subject on our list. It has even been linked to the source of the haunting in Poltergeist, though definitely incorrect.

The idea is that places built on now destroyed burial grounds of Native American people contain vindictive spirits or even demons, seeking to destroy those who took their land from them and built structures over their dead.

Aside from being a Hollywood trope, the idea has become a popular misconception frequently applied to reality by those who don’t know better, something there are several problems with. Native Americans currently argue that the characterization of their spirits specifically, more so than any other nation or culture, is an incorrect and slightly antagonistic idea. Alongside that common opinion, the main fact is that there’s not really such a thing as an “Indian burial ground.”

Native American culture is diverse and split into many distinct sets of beliefs and practices, with no universal treatment for or concept of the dead. As such, the concept that all of them engaged in spiritual practices to be able to haunt and terrorize modern-day peoples is simply false.^[2]

8 Skinwalker Ranch

As the name of a very specific place UFO- and paranormal-enthusiasts will surely recognize, Skinwalker Ranch is said to be one of the United States’ most paranormally active places. Sightings, stories, and experiences range from allegations of the titular skinwalker, a shapeshifting, animalistic witch from Navajo culture, to ghosts, UFOs, government programs, cattle mutilation, crop circles, and a lot more.

The property—also known as the Sherman Ranch—is located in Utah and has become very infamous among skeptical circles. Even many believers simply find the accounts ridiculous.

To support that conclusion, the ranch was monitored for years. The people who lived there before the Shermans—the family from whom we learned about the property—did so for six decades. During the long time their family called the place home, they reported no unusual phenomena. Skinwalker Ranch was eventually sold to Robert Bigelow, a businessman with a passion for UFO investigations who owned it until 2016. Many people, however, believe the Shermans exploited Bigelow’s believing nature to sell the property using false or embellished claims.^[3]

7 Swamps

Swamps, bogs, marshes—these biomes have always been considered to have a spooky, imposing aura around them. Tales range from creepy ghosts to strange UFO activity from all around the world. However, the most unique example is the phenomenon known as will-o’-the-wisp or ignis fatuus.

Frequently referred to as ghost lights, will-o’-the-wisps have been documented for an extremely long time. They originate from old European folklore, particularly English accounts, though well known across Europe, albeit with different names all describing the same thing.

There are a variety of explanations for them—seeing strange lights in swampy areas at night—but the most well-accepted cause is that they’re a flame-like phosphorescence caused by gases emitting from decaying plants. Interestingly, even though we have scientific explanations, accounts of the occurrence are very rare compared to the numerous accounts from history, leaving scientists to wonder just what might be the reason for that.^[4]

6 Anson Highway

A once-popular topic in paranormal circles, the “Anson Light” captured many people’s imaginations when it was relevant. Described as a strange ghost light off the highway in Anson, Texas, it made news locally and was frequently discussed online.

People simply did not understand why the strange, bright lights kept appearing out in the distance. Some brushed it off as strange but nothing to worry about, while others treated it as a bad omen. The issue was particularly popular in college circles, a scary, local phenomenon that has been around for years or, according to some, decades.

It makes sense, then, that the very mundane explanation comes from a handful of college students. After triangulating the area using iPhones, the local legend of a ghost mother looking for her missing child with a lantern quickly faded, giving rise to the fact that the lights are simply car headlights from a neighboring road.^[5]

5 Devil’s Tramping Ground

An ominous name with an equally ominous backstory, the Devil’s Tramping Ground is an area that’s one of the most famous reportedly haunted places in North Carolina. According to legend, the Devil himself walks around at night just as its eerie name would suggest.

While it may just seem like a random, scary idea from local folklore, there does seem to be some reasoning behind it. The Devil’s Tramping Ground is an area approximately 40 feet across where apparently no plants grow, animals don’t like to go near, and objects move or disappear after they’ve been placed.

The real explanation for all but the poorly documented third claim is simple: salt.

The ground is a natural though gradually receding salt lick, which is now only about 20 feet in diameter, causing some animals to avoid the spot since the naturally high salt content doesn’t allow grass to grow.^[6]

4 Excelsior Hotel

Jefferson’s Excelsior Hotel is something of a local tourist attraction. Many people visit the small establishment due to tales of a terrifying haunting and the fact that Steven Spielberg himself resided in the hotel for a night. Supposedly, it scared him to such an extent that it inspired the film Poltergeist.

The hotel, while imposing and perhaps a little eerie with a lovely vintage style, seems to be just what it’s primarily known as—a tourist attraction.

Steven Spielberg’s tales are purely anecdotal, if not deliberately embellished. However, the hotel seems to enjoy the spotlight and additional revenue, encouraging tourists from other states to come experience the alleged, largely baseless haunting themselves.^[7]

3 Frankenstein Castle

Venturing outside the United States for once, the Frankenstein Castle is one of Germany’s most famous haunted locations. A creepy, rundown castle, the birthplace of one Johann Konrad Dippel, an alleged alchemist and potion maker who ran immoral experiments—according to local lore.

As the name and story may suggest, many people believe that the castle and its creepy alchemist went on to inspire Mary Shelley’s famous novel, Frankenstein, about a similarly mad scientist experimenting on the dead just like Dippel supposedly did.

While the story is compelling, the accounts of Dippel are shaky at best, and the castle only really became a popular spot for paranormal enthusiasts after Shelley’s novel was released and became popular, leaving little room for more than an embellished tale.^[8]

2 Annabelle House

Annabelle the doll has also become a Hollywood star in recent years after her spotlight in The Conjuring universe, getting her own films and a lot of media attention. The doll in the film is based on a very real doll, currently in possession of the previously mentioned Warren family.

The tale in the movie is almost entirely inaccurate, of course, but what’s more damning is that the Warrens’ accounts aren’t a series of verifiable truths either.

The original family did not speak of a horrible haunting, simply scary but not extremely intense experiences that led them to call paranormal investigators. Ed and Lorraine Warren, however, turned the story from a simple haunting to a terrifyingly violent demon infestation, something that seems to be a pattern with them. As it stands, the account of a violent demon comes from them alone, while the original owners never spoke of something so nefarious, only giving the doll to the Warrens at their specific request.^[9]

1 Amityville Horror House

The Amityville Horror is a book written by Jay Anson, an American horror author. The novel aimed to describe the supernatural experiences of the Lutz family but has become incredibly controversial for its widely perceived untruthfulness.

Once considered America’s most famous haunted house, the Lutz family only stayed there for four weeks, describing horrible paranormal events, violent ghosts, or perhaps a demon. The tale was frequently connected to the case of Ronald DeFeo Jr.’s murder of his family, which occurred in the house.

While a horrifying event had certainly occurred, the paranormal accounts have been described by many who knew or were even part of the Lutz family as one thing—a hoax. George Lutz is frequently described as a showman by those who don’t believe his account of the story due to his monetizing of the events, book and movie deals, and seeking widespread publicity. Christopher Quarantino, who lived in the house as a child, claims his stepfather George deliberately amplified the paranormal events for his own gain and feels that their experiences were exploited by him.^[10]

We often hear about famous paintings and other works of art that turned out to be fake. By some estimates, as much as 20% of the art in museums is actually fake. But it also happens the other way around, and a painting that was thought to be a replica or copy turns out to be authentic.

Here are ten famous examples of fakes that turned out to be real.

Related: 10 Fake Artworks And Artifacts Exhibited In Museums

10 Rembrandt’s Self Portrait

Rembrandt is considered by some to be the king of selfies, or self-portraits, having painted nearly 100 over his lifetime. Now it turns out that a self-portrait owned by the National Trust in the United Kingdom, long thought to be a copy, is actually the real thing. Like other works considered to be fake, it had been left in storage for a long time until it caught the interest of an expert. In this case, it was Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering who saw the painting in person in 2013.

After months of testing, analysis, and restoration, experts at the renowned Hamilton Kerr Institute have determined that the work was indeed painted by the Dutch master. Experts removed several layers of yellow varnish, which revealed the original colors and details that are in line with Rembrandt’s painting style. Close analysis also confirmed the signature to have been made at the same time as the painting, a point that had been in doubt before.^[1]

9 Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Young Woman

Another Rembrandt was authenticated during conservation work. The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania has owned the Portrait of a Young Woman since 1961, when it was bequeathed to the museum. Originally thought to be a work by Rembrandt, it was declared a copy in the 1970s, believed to be painted by one of Rembrandt’s assistants. After recent conservation work, it turns out those experts were wrong, and the painting was an original Rembrandt after all.

In 2018, the painting was sent to NYU for conservation and cleaning. During that process, a thick layer of varnish was removed, revealing the original, delicate brushwork and color consistent with the Dutch master’s work. Conservators also used X-ray and new imaging technology to confirm that the painting was a genuine Rembrandt. Outside experts also agreed with NYU that the painting is real. a href=”https://www.npr.org/2020/02/19/807488140/the-rembrandt-that-was-fake-then-real-again” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>^[2]

8 Van Gogh’s Sunset at Montmajour

For nearly 100 years, a Van Gogh collected dust in an attic. Purchased by a Norwegian collector in the early 1900s, it was hidden away when the collector was told that the painting was a fake. The current owners had the painting reviewed by the Van Gogh Museum in 1991 after their purchase and were told then that it was a fake. However, using new technology, the Van Gogh Museum reversed its opinion in 2013.

Experts were able to match the pigments in the paint, as well as the canvas used, to other works by Van Gogh during the same period. The numbering on the back of the canvas also matched an inventory list of Van Gogh’s paintings. And last but not least, Vincent Van Gogh had written to his brother, Theo, about this exact painting. Taken together, the evidence was conclusive that Sunset at Montmajour is a genuine Van Gogh. It was painted in 1888, when Van Gogh lived in Arles, France, during the same period when he created famous works such as Sunflowers.^[3]

7 Botticelli’s Madonna of the Pomegranate

In 2019, experts at the English Heritage declared a painting long thought to be a copy of Botticelli’s Madonna of the Pomegranate to be authentic. The small circular painting shows Mary holding a baby Jesus and a pomegranate, surrounded by angels. It’s a smaller version of Botticelli’s famous Madonna of the Pomegranate on display in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Conservators used several techniques to confirm the authenticity of the painting, including stripping back a thick layer of varnish and dirt, X-rays, and infrared tests. They also noted that the painting was of the right period and painted on a common material from that time. After consulting with experts at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery, the conclusion was that the painting did, in fact, come from Botticelli’s Florence workshop.

Whether the work was painted by Botticelli himself, however, will never be known, as Botticelli employed several assistants to help him with his work, which was in high demand during his lifetime.^[4]

6 Monet’s A Haystack in the Evening Sun

Using new technology, researchers at a university in Finland have been able to confirm the authenticity of a Monet painting. The painting, A Haystack in the Evening Sun, has been owned by Finland’s Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation for more than 60 years. Although the foundation suspected it was a Monet, they couldn’t prove it because the painting lacked a signature. Until the technology caught up.

Researchers at the university used a special device to identify the painting’s elemental composition. They also uncovered Monet’s signature and the date of the painting, 1891, which had been buried beneath a layer of paint. It’s unclear why Monet decided to paint over his signature. But the signature is proof that he painted the work, which now fits into a broader series of “Haystack” paintings. It also makes this painting the first Monet to be held by a public collection in Finland.^[5]

5 Rubens’s Portrait of a Young Girl, possibly Clara Serena Rubens

In 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York sold off a painting, Portrait of a Yong Girl, Possibly Clara Serena Rubens, to raise funds to buy more works of art. They believed the painting to be by a follower of Rubens and not the Flemish master himself. It turns out they may have been wrong about that.

Several prominent Rubens scholars have since confirmed that it’s a real Rubens. This included the director of the Rubenshuis, a museum in Antwerp dedicated to the works of Rubens and his contemporaries, as well as Ruben’s former house and studio. The Rubenshuis is also showing the painting as part of a special exhibit.

However, not all experts are convinced, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and David Jaffe, a Rubens expert and former curator at the National Gallery.^[6]

4 Raphael’s Young Woman

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

For more than 40 years, Raphael’s Young Woman sat in the basement of an Italian palace, thought to be painted by an unknown artist after the great Renaissance painter’s death and practically worthless. Then in 2010, art expert Mario Scalini started sorting through the palace’s extensive art collection and came across the painting, set in a very elaborate and ornate frame.

After a closer inspection, Scalini suspected the painting might have been painted by Raphael himself and sent it off to a research institute in Pisa. There, experts used infrared and ultraviolet technology to “see” through the different layers of paint. They confirmed that the painting was a genuine Raphael.^[7]

3 Constable’s Early The Hay Wain

Art expert Philip Mould was always convinced that an early The Hay Wain painting that he owned had been painted by John Constable. Unable to prove it, however, he sold the painting in 2000 for £35,000.

In 2017, Mould co-hosted BBC’s Fake or Fortune? show, which had the painting analyzed by experts in Los Angeles. Using advanced technology, the experts were able to prove that the painting was a genuine Constable. It was painted around the same time, offering a different view of Willy Lott’s cottage as his famous The Hay Wain, which had been voted one of the most popular paintings in the UK. Experts were also able to trace the provenance of the painting to a sale by the famous painter’s son.

While Mould missed out on a large windfall, he was more than happy to be finally vindicated in his belief.^[8]

2 Three of Turner’s Works

Philip Mould and BBC’s Fake or Fortune? show helped authentic another set of paintings. This time, it was three paintings by famed British landscape artist JMW Turner: The Beacon Light, Off Margate, and Margate Jetty.

In 1951, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies left several paintings by Turner to the National Museum Wales. A few years later, these three paintings were declared to be fakes and removed from display.

The paintings were reexamined in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, with the same conclusion. It wasn’t until the BBC show conducted a new investigation, using technologies developed recently, that the result changed. This time, with the use of modern technology, experts were able to conclude that these paintings were, in fact, by Turner himself. This conclusion was also validated by a more in-depth look at the provenance and history of the paintings, as well as further consultations with Turner experts.^[9]

1 Rodin’s Bust of Napoleon

For years, a bust of Napoleon sat in the corner of a borough council meeting room in New Jersey. It wasn’t until 2014, when they hired a college art history student, Mallory Mortillaro, to archive their artwork, that they discovered that the bust had been made by none other than renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Mortillaro noticed a faint signature on the bust but didn’t have much luck otherwise confirming whether it was real or not. So she contacted the Comité Auguste Rodin in Paris, a group that could determine its authenticity.

Jerome Le Blay, head of the committee and a Rodin expert, was able to confirm that the bust was real after he traveled to New Jersey to view it. They even had a photograph of Rodin with the bust, but the bust had seemingly disappeared until recently. It turns out it had been in a corner in New Jersey all along.^[10]

There’s a saying that goes “fake it till you make it” which basically means if you can’t do something or don’t know something, you can still have success by at least lying about it convincingly. It’s oddly optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. And there are real world examples of it apparently working out. But just as often there are cases of people faking it and not making it at all because they really forgot that “convincingly” part. Let’s take a look at some of the worst examples.

10. There Was Once an Attempt to Pass Of Molasses in Haiti as Crude Oil

The world still runs on fossil fuels, despite how bad they are for the environment and the fact the supply is finite. The world uses over 90 million barrels of crude oil every day. Some predictions suggest we have enough crude oil to meet demands until 2050 and then things start getting tight. So it makes sense that we’d want to make use of any new sources we could find, right?

Back in the 1960s, Egyptian-born businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed had managed to convince some British business associates, and those in Haiti, that he was a sheik from Kuwait. He had been contracted by Haitian President Papa Doc to help rebuild Port-au-Prince and, as part of that effort, he tried to convince the British that Haiti had oil reserves.

The British, before willingly investing in Haiti or its oil, needed it analyzed, so they asked Al-Fayed for a sample. The oil they received was not crude of usable quality or even pool quality because it wasn’t crude at all. They tried to pass off low-grade molasses from French plantations as crude oil. The only thing more remarkable than that weak attempt at fraud was the fact it happened in the 60s and Al-Fayed still went on to have a long and prominent career. His current fortune is estimated at just shy of $2 billion.

9. Zoos Have a Bad Habit of Poorly Faking Animals

Many zoos in the world operate on the idea that they can help educate the public about animals and also engage in conservation and protection. Many species would be far worse off than they are if not for zoo-backed breeding programs. So there’s something to temper the ire of things who feel zoos are exploitative and that the animals should be free in the wild. If not for zoos, many of those animals would no longer exist. But that doesn’t mean every zoo is noble all the time. 

In 2013, a Chinese zoo made headlines when a lion was easily identified as having a serious issue. Namely, it wasn’t a lion at all, but a dog. The fake lion was a Tibetan mastiff with a furry mane-like haircut. Apparently it was one of several dogs in the park being passed off as other animals. The zoo itself said that the real animals were removed for breeding programs and they just put in the substitutes temporarily, as one does.

This is far from the only case of animal swap fraud, too. An Italian circus that claimed to have pandas was caught out with a pair of chow chow dogs that were dyed black and white. 

In Egypt, another zoo was caught trying to pass off a donkey painted black and white as a zebra. Despite the fact that there are pictures of the color smudging on the animal’s face, the director of the zoo refused to admit it was fake.

8. Chinese Media Tried to Pass Off Top Gun as Real Military Footage

The sad truth of the world is that every country needs a military to defend itself because war is a reality and always has been. So many countries take pride in their military might and that includes innovations. New technologies and new weapons to ensure their dominance on the battlefield. 

Oftentimes the military will show off new tech as part of propaganda programs meant to either boost morale at home or maybe even subtly intimidate potential enemies. But it only works if it’s legit. Otherwise, it backfires badly, like it did for China in 2011.

Chinese state media aired footage supposedly of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in an air combat exercise. In reality, they were scenes from Tom Cruise’s Top Gun (the original from 1986). In fairness, decades later those scenes are still amazing. But they’re also not Chinese combat exercises. One source claimed that this happens sometimes if an editor is being lazy or if the footage is just too good not to use, but the channel never made any statement that the footage was taken from a movie and not real. 

7. Russia Has Called Video Game Footage Real More Than Once

You can decide for yourself if this is better or worse than trying to use footage from a movie as combat footage. In 2018, Russia was called out for reporting on the war in Syria using footage not from the actual war and not even from movie war but from virtual war. In covering the story they included a scene from first-person shooter Arma 3.

More embarrassing for Russia is that this was not the first time it happened. In 2017, they posted an image from AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron claiming it was proof that the US was aiding the Islamic State in Syria. In both instances, Russia claimed it was simply a mistake that the footage was included. 

6. A Woman Tried to Use a $1 Million Bill to Shop at Walmart.

There probably aren’t too many people who couldn’t find a good use for a million dollars. Whether you use it to help others or help yourself, there’s always a way to make money do some good. The key to this is making sure it’s real money.

In 2004, a woman in Georgia tried to go shopping at Walmart with a $1,000,000 bill. She attempted to purchase just under $2,000 worth of stuff and fully expected her $998,000 in change. She had two more of the bills on her when police picked her up. 

The woman said her estranged husband, who collects coins, gave her the bills and that you “can’t keep up with the US Treasury,” in regards to why she may have thought they were real. She said she never tried to pass it off as real at all, despite the cashier saying the woman asked for change. She ended up being charged with forgery.

5. A New Hampshire Drive Tried to Pass Off a Cigarette Box as a State Inspection Sticker

In New Hampshire your vehicle needs to pass a state safety and emissions inspection to be legal on the road. You get a sticker to put in your window that proves you’ve been inspected. However, some people either forget to do this or maybe they just don’t pass inspection. It’s unclear which was the case with a driver who tried to pass off a fraud as the real deal back in 2019.

Making a fake sticker may not be that hard to do if you put in some effort but this driver did not. Instead, he wrote some numbers on a box of Camel cigarettes and put that on the car, maybe hoping no one would notice the whole Camel background. 

Regardless of their expectations, police did notice, and the driver was cited for it.

4. Would-Be Pot Dealers Tried to Pretend Vegetables Were Marijuana

Now that marijuana is legal in a number of places you don’t hear quite as much about crimes related to sale and use of it, but they do still happen. It’s unlikely many like this story from 2016 will happen again, but you never know.

In this case, a pair of men selling pot were involved in an assault after their would-be customer realized he wasn’t buying weed from them at all. They were trying to pass off shredded vegetables as marijuana. When the cat, or maybe cabbage, was out of the bag they hit the buyer with a BB gun and stole his money. 

3. Scammers Tried to Commit Insurance Fraud with iPad Made of Ice

Fraud is a dicey game to play and there are many systems in place to detect it at pretty much every level. Committing postal fraud, for instance, is not an easy task at all. And if you were to pull it off, you’d have to do a much better job than the guy who tried to defraud the UK Postal Service in an iPad scam.

The plan was simple and not very good. The scammer filled a box with ice that weighed as much as an iPad. They’d take it to the post office and have it insured as an iPad with the weight of the packaging backing up the claim. Then the ice would melt, and when the empty package was received later, they could claim it was stolen in transit and claim the $4,000 the packages had been insured for.

There were several issues with this scam. First, the guy showed up wet from the already melting ice. He said it was rain, but it wasn’t raining. Then he claimed he couldn’t remember his return address. An hour later, postal employees noticed water pooling around the package and investigated, discovering it was just a box of ice. 

The package was delivered knowing full well what was going on and as soon as an insurance claim was filed, the man and an accomplice were charged with fraud.

2. Chinese Media Posted a Story About Aircraft Carriers That Included Battlestar Galactica Imagery

We already saw Chinese state media play with Top Gun footage claiming it was real, but things didn’t end there. And give that earlier one credit for at least using footage from a highly regarded film that used real pilots and real jets to make convincing action sequences. This story has less going for it.

In 2013, the Japanese language version of a Chinese media site ran a story about trends in the design of aircraft carriers showing off what the future had in store. While the article covered a variety of aspects on technology and advances, the images that were included made use of a design schematic from Battlestar Galactica. Another image was just a concept piece for a floating city by a Dutch designer. There was no reason given this time around or whether or not this was also just chalked up to a mistake.

1. A Man Sold Crack to An Undercover Cop That Turned Out to Be Crushed Pop Tarts

Dealing drugs is a risky business at the best of times, but especially when you get caught up by undercover cops who can use the evidence of the deal to get you prosecuted. So what happens if the evidence isn’t technically of a drug deal?

A North Carolina man was arrested in 2014 after arranging to sell crack to an undercover officer. Instead, he smashed a Pop Tart in a bag and sold that to the cop. The cop tested it and found no traces of drugs but they did arrest him two months after the deal.

Turns out selling fake crack, even if it’s tasty, is still illegal and he was charged with both selling and creating a counterfeit controlled substance. 

As the story goes, in 1787, Catherine the Great embarked on a trip to view her newly conquered land of Crimea. Catherine’s lover, and the guy responsible for bringing Crimea into the Russian Empire, Grigory Potemkin, wanted to impress his mistress. But the land was in poverty and ruin. According to legend, Grigory, not wanting to disappoint Catherine, decided to build attractive-looking, yet fake, villages all along her route.

Grigory ordered freshly painted building facades erected. One herd of animals was transported along the way to make it appear the countryside was teeming with livestock, bags of wheat actually filled with sand were presented, and peasants were told to stand along the road with smiles plastered on their faces.

Supposedly Catherine passed by the show without any idea she was being duped, and the term “Potemkin village” was born. Historians have since debunked the myth as an over-exaggeration. However, the term stuck, and Potemkin villages are what we call these fake cities designed to look like real places.

Let’s take a look at ten of the most fascinating Potemkin villages in history.

10 Kijong-dong

Viewed from afar, the North Korean village of Kijong-dong looks like any other town. Built in the 1950s in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates North from South Korea, it appears to be a regular town filled with well-kept residential buildings. However, a closer look reveals the windows have no glass, lights are on timers, and the only people around are maintenance workers.

The village is a complete fake. Nobody lives there. It exists solely for propaganda. Its purpose is to make North Korea appear to be a charming and prosperous place to live. And if anyone had any doubts, the city blasts anti-Western hype (along with Communist operas and marching music) on speakers loud enough to reach the nearby South Korean town of Daesong-dong. The propaganda is played 20 hours per day in the hope villagers from South Korea will defect to the north. So far, the method hasn’t worked.^[1]

9 Doom Town in Nevada

It’s a good thing Doom Town is a fake place because who would want to live in a city named Doom? In the 1950s, during the Cold War, Nevada was an extremely popular place to test nuclear weapons. It’s estimated the U.S. government tested nearly a thousand atomic weapons in the desert so close to Las Vegas that the mushroom clouds could be spotted from the Vegas strip and became an unlikely tourist attraction for people who were blissfully unaware of radiation poisoning.

To see what would happen to a real town if an atomic bomb were dropped on it, scientists created fake towns to drop the test bombs. They built real houses, furnished them, stocked them with actual food, parked cars along streets, and populated the area with clothed mannequins. The idea was to find out what might survive a nuclear blast. The answer turned out to be… not very much.^[2]

8 WWII Airplane Camoflauge Town

During World War II, the U.S. government created a fake town on the West Coast over the top of a Boeing warplane factory. Boeing Plant 2, otherwise known as Boeing Wonderland, was built to disguise the factory from potential Japanese bombers. The Seattle factory was not the only one. Numerous fake towns were built, including one in Burbank, California, that protected the Lockheed plant.

Because these SoCal plants were near Hollywood and the country was full of patriotism for the war effort, the government had no trouble obtaining the best movie set designers and large-scale painters to create fake houses, sidewalks, fences, trees, and cars. From the sky, it appeared to be a real neighborhood. But in reality, the buildings were four to six feet tall, the trees were made from burlap and chicken wire, and greenery was painted on actual runways. The designers were so detailed they even painted some of the “yards” brown to make it appear the grass hadn’t been watered.^[3]

7 Theresienstadt, Czech Republic

This next entry is a terribly dark and sad one. Theresienstadt was a concentration camp run by the Germans during World War II. Designed to hold Jews as they waited to be deported to other killing centers and forced labor camps, the living conditions were terrible, and the people lived in constant fear of deportation.

Under pressure, the Nazis allowed the International Red Cross to pay a visit to the camp in June 1944. However, similar to Grigory’s legendary fake towns put on for Catherine the Great, a facade was created to disguise the dreadful ghetto conditions that lay underneath. Before the visit, thousands were deported to Auschwitz to reduce overcrowding, houses were painted, and gardens were planted. Once the visit was over, the good times ended, and conditions resumed as they had been.

In perhaps the most deplorable propaganda of all, the Nazis used a film of the dressing up of Theresienstadt to describe it as a “spa town” where elderly Jews could safely “retire.”^[4]

6 Apix, Florida

In the 1950s, the U.S. government researched liquid hydrogen as a means of fueling aircraft. This was during the Cold War with the USSR, and the U.S. wanted to keep their projects top secret, especially from the Soviets. Project Suntan was the code name given for the super secret mission of building a spy plane powered by liquid hydrogen.

But how to hide such a massive project as building liquid hydrogen-operated planes? You guessed it. Build a Potemkin village. The government made up a phony town named Apix, an acronym for “Air Products Incorporated, Experimental,” and chose a remote and swampy area in Palm Beach County. They even gave the town a fake population and plotted the land for residential development. Today, there is little information about the fictional town of Apix, although it occasionally appears on a map. Only a railroad signal box remains with the name Apix on it.^[5]

5 Fake Paris

During World War I, France wanted to create a phony version of Paris to fool German bombers. Paris was a prime target for Germany, and Zeppelins were regularly sent to bomb the city. French officials decided the best defense was to divert the Zeppelin pilots flying overhead at night by offering up a faux city to trick the pilots.

Though radar existed, it wasn’t advanced enough to be useful. All the French had to do was create a pretend city near Paris that looked like the real thing from above. The French designed the phony version just north of the real deal, complete with electric lights, replica buildings, and a train station. There was even a bogus Champs-Elysées.

We will never know if France’s Potemkin village would have worked to save Parisian lives. The war ended before it was complete, and now, only photos remain of the pretend city of lights.^[6]

4 Holland Town in Shanghai

Tourists visiting Shanghai might be surprised to learn there is a replica Dutch town complete with a windmill sitting in the middle of an industrial area in Shanghai. The town was designed to appear as if someone is walking along quaint cobblestone streets in a charming Dutch village—even though it’s located in Shanghai.

Holland Town was part of Shanghai’s One City, Nine Towns initiative. Each town was given a theme and designed to look like a city from a different foreign country. The goal of the project was to develop suburban districts throughout Shanghai to ease overcrowding.

However, these towns did not all prove to be popular living areas for the locals, and tourists visiting Shanghai tended to want to see Asian-themed architecture, restaurants, and attractions, not replicas of cities they may have come from. Only six of the planned villages were built, and like Holland Village, they sat mostly empty, used mainly for couples stopping by for wedding photo shoots. Fortunately, Holland Village has gained some traction and now houses many locals.^[7]

3 Mcity, Ann Arbor, Michigan

How do you test a driverless car? Self-driving cars need to be prepared for all kinds of unpredictable situations, like icy roads, pedestrians crossing the street, and other drivers. Yet, testing autonomous cars in the populated areas they are meant to be driving in could be dangerous. How else do you determine how the cars will perform in real-life situations?

The auto industry has come up with a solution. Build a fake town that recreates a regular American city. Mcity is a testing ground in Michigan used by car companies such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and General Motors to test self-driving cars. It’s a fake city built with real streets, intersections, traffic lights, road signs, parking meters, and even a railroad crossing. And though we know it exists, and we know car companies use it for testing, it’s still pretty secretive as public demonstrations and visits are generally not allowed.^[8]

2 Ertebat Shar, the Fake Afghan Village in California

Fort Irwin is an army base located in the Mojave Desert. It’s a very large army base, about the size of Rhode Island, and it’s where U.S. soldiers spend a 21-day rotation at the National Training Center. While there, soldiers will visit the fake village of Ertebat Shar to get familiar with what it’s like to operate in an Afghan village.

The pretend village is a replica of an Afghan town populated with actors selling fake bread and meat along the streets. The town was designed using satellite imagery of Baghdad to get the accuracy of the width of actual streets. Though it may look real while you’re walking around in it, from above, it’s plain to see the village is an illusion. A view from the sky shows the buildings are facades held up by wooden frames.^[9]

1 Agloe, New York

The final entry is not a replica town or test site, nor does it exist for propaganda. It’s a paper town or trap town, and it was designed by map makers to catch plagiarists in the act of copying maps.

The city of Agloe was invented by map makers from America’s General Drafting Company to catch competitors who copied their maps. The imaginary town later showed up on a map by Rand McNally. Of course, General Drafting cried plagiarism. But McNally declared Agloe must exist, as there was a business located on the spot bearing the name, Agloe.

Sure enough, the Agloe General Store had been built at the fake location of the made-up town. The owner had seen Agloe on the map and decided to set up shop, despite the complete absence of houses or businesses in the area. Hence, a completely fabricated city became somewhat real, at least for a little while.^[10]