THE MAN WHO SOLD THE EIFFEL TOWER — TWICE!

Victor Lustig [’vɪktə ’lʌstɪɡ] was one of the greatest conmen in history. He was so clever that he managed to sell the Eiffel [ˌaɪf(ə)l] Tower — not once, but twice!

In 1925, Lustig arrived in Paris and read a newspaper article about the Eiffel Tower needing repairs. This gave him an idea. He created fake government documents and invited wealthy businessmen to a secret meeting. There, he told them that the French government wanted to sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal because it was too expensive to maintain.

One businessman, André Poisson, believed Lustig’s story and paid a large sum of money to “buy” the tower. By the time Poisson realized he had been tricked, Lustig had already escaped to Austria. But Lustig wasn’t done. A few months later, he returned to Paris and repeated the same trick on another group of businessmen. This time, however, one of them became suspicious and reported Lustig to the police.

Lustig fled to the United States, where he continued his career as a conman. He even tricked Al Capone, one of the most dangerous gangsters of the time. However, in 1935, the FBI finally caught him, and he spent the rest of his life in prison.

Victor Lustig’s story is a reminder that even the smartest people can fall for a clever trick. And he remains the only man in history who successfully “sold” the Eiffel Tower — twice!

1. conman [’kɒnmæn] — мошенник, аферист;

2. scrap metal [skræp_’metl] — металлолом;

3. maintain [meɪn’teɪn] — содержать, поддерживать;

4. suspicious [sə’spɪʃəs] — подозрительный;

5. escape [ɪs’keɪp] — сбежать.

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