The Man Who Sold The Eiffel Tower (Yes, Really)

Let’s begin with a comforting truth. If you’ve ever fallen for a scam,

at least you didn’t buy the Eiffel Tower.

Because one man did, actually almost more than one person did.

In 1925 Paris, the Eiffel Tower was famous, expensive, and was still half way temporary. Newspapers at the time weren’t doing anything else but complaining about upkeep costs, and over all it being controversial. Most people in that time skimmed those articles, one man did not.

His name was Victor Lustig, and he saw those articles as an opportunity.

How the scam began

Victor invited a small group of scrap metal dealers to a private meeting at Hotel de Crillon. He stated he was apart of the French Government and insisted this was all above his head. He claimed, the tower was being quietly dismantled, the metal would be sold for scrap, and especially public reaction was to be avoided at all cost. Meaning, to whoever bought the metal. this had to be kept secret.

Among the the dealers sat a man named Andre Poisson. He was ambitious, and desperate to be taken serious in elite business circle. Victor noticed this immediately.

It had been roughly reported that Andre paid Victor 70,000 French Francs. Which equaled to around $14,000 USD at the time. That now would be around $200,000-$235,000 USD.

I still am wondering how he never thought this was bizarre in the slightest. Even for that time, I believe the theories about Andre Poisson being an insecure man just truly wanting to fit in the upcoming world around him. That is the only reasonable explanation to me.

When did Andre realize it was a scam?

Andre Poisson stuck around in France for his part of the deal. He just simply waited. Victor didn’t make an effort to contact Andre, and Andre could not contact him. Once he realized the tower was going nowhere, he referenced back to the signed documents Victor gave him for the deal. Guess what was not on that paper? Any confirmation that the metal was bought from a person, place, or country. Nothing official just lots of words that had no meaning to him.

Andre eventually realized that him ‘buying’ the Eiffel Tower was actually a scandal. This was illegal at the time. To avoid any trouble that could be related to this, he let it go. Called it a loss.

Over all he was too embarrassed to say anything. To be honest, this wasn’t a crime built on stupidity. We only know these things happened because Victor did speak out to journalist of all his crimes, just like him exposing scamming Al Capone in an investment scam. (One google search on this guy and you might get your mind blown) Plus, Andre Poisson never denied the claims of him trying to buy the tower once his name was leaked.

It was built on very real human instincts. Trusting in paper work, fear of missing out, judgement.. All of these things that exist today within ourselves, as they did then.

Because if someone had offered you the Eiffel Tower in 1925…

Would you really want to admit that you said yes?