The most famous crystal skull is the Mitchell-Hedges "skull of doom," allegedly discovered by a 17-year old Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1924 or 1927 while accompanying her adoptive father on an excavation of the ancient Mayan city of Lubaantun in Belize, where the elder Mitchell-Hedges believed he would find the ruins of Atlantis. The evidence collected by Joe Nickell proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Mitchell-Hedges bought the skull at a Sotheby's sale in 1943 for £400.
The age of the object, as well as the other claims made about its making and history, were fabricated by Mitchell-Hedges. The man who owned the piece, Sidney Burney, and those who were on the Lubannatun expedition, denied that Mitchell-Hedges found the skull. Mitchell-Hedges himself never mentioned the skull until just after he bought it in 1943.