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First post of 2025
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Brigído Lara was a man arrested for smuggling historical artifacts out of Mexico. He proved his innocence by showing that he was a forger:
In July 1974, Mexican police arrested a group of what appeared to be antique smugglers, with Brígido Lara among them. An antiquities expert declared Lara's forgeries genuine. While serving his prison sentence, Lara requested fresh clay, and to prove his innocence, he created just the items he was accused of smuggling. The same antique expert declared them genuine as well. Lara was released in January 1975.
This is similar to the story of von Meegeren who was jailed for collaborating with the Nazis by helping them get priceless arts and then turned into a national hero when he similarly proved that he was a forger and had hoodwinked Herman Göring (so that he went from villain to hero).
However, the story of Lara is more interesting because it seems that most artifacts that were thought to come from the Totonac culture may have been forgeries of his. Some pieces he claims are his may be true artifacts.I failed to post 30 times on Substack in 2024, but I am re-upping my bet for 2025. I did walk 5 million steps, though.
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