I was in Turin the week AFTER they ended the 1998 viewing.

Here’s an excellent site concerning the Shroud of Turin.

Here’s an article explaining why the 1988 carbon-14 dating test was flawed and how it’s actually much older. The first link goes into greater detail.

Nobody still knows how the image came to be, though a very interesting theory has emerged, explaining how a dead body in contact with linen woven using first century methods could leave such an impression. No one has been able to replicate it. It’s not painted–the image is a thin film of melanoidins, thick as the wall of a soap bubble. A forger would have to have scientific knowledge beyond what society has today to create an image like that. He’d also have to be able to accomplish this whole list.

Still, there are problems with the shroud. It doesn’t seem to jive with the Gospel of John, which says Jesus was buried with a separate cloth for the face and was bound in a cloth, which would surely produce wrinkles and distortion in the image. John also says Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus included a hundred pounds of spices, but there doesn’t seem to be much sign of them. And there are proportional problems with the image…the body seems elongated, one arm is longer than the other, the fingers are too thin and long, the head is too small, the lower part of the face is too big. Or maybe there aren’t enough distortions, if the cloth should have wrapped around the body.

Wikipedia also has a good overview.

Actual Fact: King Charles VI of France ordered the removal of the shroud, which was being displayed in Lirey, France, citing impropriety (the image consists of the front and back of a naked man). But the shroud was too popular, and the sheriffs were unable to carry out his order.