11 March 1947)
He was a famous con artist from Austria-Hungary,
who started his criminal career at the beginning of the 20th century and arranged scams throughout Europe and the USA. Victor Lustig was born in a rich family, received a good education and was fluent in five languages. He use d all his skills to start a criminal life as a professional fraudster.
As a good psychologist, he brought his fraudulent skills to perfection. So he managed to deceive even Al Capone himself. But the scam with the sale of the Eiffel Tower at auction brought him the most fame. Moreover, he repeated this trick twice.
However, aristocratic manners and excellent skills did not save him from prison, where he died of pneumonia, remaining known in history as «the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice».