"A hundred years ago in Edinburgh it was possible to pick up for a few shillings manuscripts by Burns, Scott, Hogg, Thackeray, Mary Queen of Scots or Oliver Cromwell. The bargains were incredible - a song by Burns in his own handwriting for as little as 30s! To many collectors these bargains must have seemed too good to be true... more

"For seven years, between 1938 and 1945, van Meegeren’s principal forgery, “Christ at Emmaus,” was more famous than any original Vermeer. The fact that it was a fake was discovered by an odd turn of events. After the war, van Meegeren was investigated by the police for the hugely serious crime of disposing of priceless Vermeers to the Nazis. To defend himself against the charge, he admitted to the offense of forgery — and painted another fake while in police captivity, just to prove it... more

"A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days... more

"The ticket cost 12.5p and gained the holder entrance into the match at Crystal Palace, which Aston Villa beat West Midlands rival West Bromwich Albion 1-0. The game, the first final to be played at Crystal Palace, remains famous for the fastest goal ever scored in an FA Cup final - 30 seconds - and also for the fact that the Cup was stolen shortly afterwards and never recovered... more

"We've all marveled at the forensic wizardry that traps villains on such TV hits as CBS's "CSI" ("Crime Scene Investigation"), but dazzling science is also exposing secrets in another, more refined field—art. Armed with the latest technology, art historians are becoming cultural detectives, piecing together the puzzle of an item's past and, in the process, helping differentiate genuine from bogus... more

"Archaeologists announced on Wednesday that they had unearthed George Washington's boyhood home at a site not far from Fredericksburg, Va. Over the course of a seven-year excavation, the researchers found more than 500,000 artifacts. How can there be half a million artifacts at one site?... more