The Chicago Tribune tells the story of the detective work conducted by conservator Barry Bauman that led to his exposure of a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln as a fraud. Lincoln (and, by association, his wife) is one of those historical figures who's like a magnet for hoaxes. Other hoax magnets would include George Washington and Hitler.
Anatomy of a fake Lincoln
Chicago Tribune
...The original portrait, painted perhaps in the mid-1860s, is of a still-anonymous woman. She wore a crucifix around her neck — Mary wasn't Catholic and never would have worn one, so it had been painted out — and had a floral brooch over which was painted the Lincoln brooch.
Comments