Tag: Forgery

Staggering Rise in Catheter Bills Suggests Medicare Scam

Linda Hennis was checking her Medicare statement in January when she noticed something strange: It said a company she had never heard of had been paid about $12,000 for sending her 2,000 urinary catheters. But she had never needed, or received, any catheters. Ms. Hennis, a retired nurse who lives in a suburb of Chicago, […]

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A.I. Is Endangering Our History

We don’t have to imagine a world where deepfakes can so believably imitate the voices of politicians that they can be used to gin up scandals that could sway elections. It’s already here. Fortunately, there are numerous reasons for optimism about society’s ability to identify fake media and maintain a shared understanding of current events […]

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After Fake Basquiats, Orlando Museum Faces ‘Severe Financial Crisis’

It was just days before Christmas, but Cathryn Mattson, the executive director of the Orlando Museum of Art, sounded anything but festive. During a specially called meeting, she addressed several trustees and influential donors, confronting the fallout from the institution’s last 18 months. “We are in a severe financial crisis,” she explained, according to a […]

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A Columbus Letter Beloved by Thieves and Forgers Hits the Market

The last time Christie’s sold a copy of a famed 15th-century pamphlet announcing Christopher Columbus’s first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was in 1992, and it did not end well. It later emerged that the document had been stolen, and it was eventually repatriated to Italy. That wasn’t the only one. Since the early 1990s, […]

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The Market for Nazi Memorabilia Is Huge, Lucrative and Very Disturbing

News that someone is into Nazi memorabilia or more generally that there’s a ready supply of and demand for Nazi memorabilia is met, predictably, with widespread outrage (if perhaps also with some measure of titillation). If no one seems all that shocked that it’s legal — the sanctity of the First Amendment is baked deep […]

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Museum Worker Sold Paintings and Put Forgeries in Their Place

A worker at the Deutsches Museum in Munich stole paintings from the collection, replaced them with rough forgeries, then sold the originals at auction, according to the judgment of a court in the city this month. The thief used the proceeds to finance a luxurious lifestyle, the judge said. The worker, who is identified in […]

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