Many museum curators and antiquity collectors are unwilling to believe they have been swindled by a forger.
 

Fraud In Other Words™
Professional Jargon and Uncensored Street Slang
by Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA

 

Museum Fraud
A scam in which original pieces of art or artifacts are authenticated by several experts and then sold to a museum. Fake art is substituted for the original pieces during transport to the museum or a special collection showing. Fake art also may be substituted after the art has been on display for a while. It may be several years before the switch is detected. Also, an original masterpiece may be stolen and then copied by experts. The forgery is returned to the museum through channels for the finder’s fee and insurance reward. The original is sold to a private collector for a hefty fee.
Clive Cussler, Sahara, Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Image: ARTnews, June 2005.

 

Balderdash
Nonsense. A bluff or a lie. Twaddle. Silly, idle, or boring talk or writing. Senseless. Phony.

 

Swag
Goods or property obtained by forcible or illicit means. Loot. Stolen money. Plunder. Contraband articles. Any articles forbidden to prisoners.

 

Psychological Warp
A collector addiction. A private collector may get their high from possessing something so one else can own it. The collector may stash their illegal acquisitions in a secret vault where they sit and view it once a day, or maybe once every ten years. They are addicted to owning something, even if none of it is on public display.
Photo: Art vault at the Gatineau Preservation Centre in Ottawa, Canada, www.collectionscanada.ca/preservation/130202_e.html.

 

Antiquity Fraud
Because many collectors have an insatiable lust for antiquities, they are prime candidates for rip-offs. Their inexhaustible demand creates a lucrative trade in forgeries and stolen pieces. Without proper archaeological study, copied artifacts can pass undetected. Every curator or collector is unwilling to believe that he has been swindled by a forger. Few scholars have the guts to admit that the pieces that they are examining are suspect. Forged antiquities may include untranslated clay tablets, jewelry, textiles, glass, pottery, gold and silver coins, military belt buckles, skulls, and mummified bodies. Dealers and buyers involved in antiquity fraud rarely do jail time because they claim they didn’t know the pieces were stolen or forged.
Clive Cussler, Sahara, Simon and Schuster, 1992.
Photo: Karin Laub, "Israeli Police Indict Four on Charges of Running Huge Antiquities-fraud Ring," The Canadian Press, 2004,
www.cp.org/english/online/full/science/041229/g122904A.html.

 

Tomb Looters
Art thieves who sell through an underground network of crooked dealers, who put up the money and supervise the sales from a distance, acting through a number of agents without revealing their identity. Unlike drug dealers, tomb looters rarely deal with their clients on a face-to-face basis.
Clive Cussler, Sahara, Simon & Schuster, July 1993.

 

Deep Background
A tip, which could be a fact or a rumor or a suspicion. An information leak given to an investigator or to the news media. An off-the-record statement by a source, who does not want their identity documented or disclosed.

 

Funny Money
Currency, notes, or coins that are considered peculiar because they are counterfeit or come from dubious sources. Funny money is a derogatory term that is sometimes used to imply that foreign money is not real, or has less worth than domestic money.

 

Mickey Mouse Money
Another term for unfamiliar currency or funny money.

 

Mickey Mouse Bookkeeping
An Australian term for fiddling the books for a company to outwit the Inland Revenue authorities.

 

Sanitize
To edit out the parts of a document or statement that might be damaging or sensitive in nature. To censor. Make less offensive. To rewrite an audit report or an investigative report and intentionally omit details, red flags, or important information.

 

Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA, teaches fraud examination at the Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Arizona. He publishes the book and online editions of “Fraud In Other Words.” His Web site is www.larry-adams.com. His e-mail address is fraudwritr@aol.com.

 

ã Copyright 1994 Larry C. Adams. All rights reserved.
“Fraud In Other Words” is a trademark of Larry C. Adams.
 

Fraud In Other Words - Order the book online
 Magazine Article Archive
Fraud Dictionary
Free update service