Jane MacLaren Walsh, anthropologist emerita at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, is an internationally recognized authority on crystal skulls and other fake pre-Columbian antiquities. Her most recent research combines geology and archaeology in a study of the iconic stone faces of Teotihuacan.Brett Topping has been a professional writer and editor of arts and humanities publications for more than thirty-five years. During her career she was Editor at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and Director of Publications for the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).

• List of illustrationsAcknowledgmentsAuthors' NoteList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: On the Trail of Crystal SkullsChapter 1. Caveat EmptorChapter 2. Between Old World and NewChapter 3. Mexico: Ancient to ModernChapter 4. Mexico at Mid-CenturyChapter 5. The Emperor's Antiquarian: A Collection Takes ShapeChapter 6. Confronting a Different ParisChapter 7. Marketing a CollectionChapter 8. A Premier CollectionChapter 9. Narratives of ProvenanceChapter 10. The Rue du Sommerard Decade Chapter 11. Of Fakes and FakersChapter 12. From Student to Teacher: Dealer to CuratorChapter 13. Good Deals and BadChapter 14. Back in BusinessChapter 15. Fingerprints on Crystal SkullsChapter 16. Courting the SmithsonianChapter 17. Of Fakes, Forgers and FraudsChapter 18. "El Tocayo's" TriumphChapter 19. Later LifeChapter 20. AfterlifeEpilogueReferencesIndex

"An excellent biography of a little-known but important figure in the nineteenth-century history of American archaeology..." - Norman Hammond, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University