The Art Forger Who Fooled Even Goering
Selling fakery depends on your marketing plan
The Forger’s Spell
A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century
By Edward Dolnick
Reviewed by R.A. DiDio
Philadelphia Inquirer/July 20, 2008
It ain’t over ‘till the fat guy sings…especially when he is that ravenous art-collector, and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goering.
In the annals of WWII stories, full of odd events and even odder characters, there may be none more implausible than the tale thrillingly told by Edward Dolnick in The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century.
A perfect sturm und drang of hubris, nationalism, war, and greed, Forger’s Spell is the story of Han van Meegeren, a Dutch portrait painter of modest skills whose work was considered hopelessly dated. Belittled at every art opening by leading critics, Van Meegeren ultimately turned to forgery, more as a way to tweak these cultural despots into recognizing his true artistic genius than to earn a living.
Being “hopelessly dated” when trying to channel Johannes Vermeer can be a good thing. Van Meegeren was so successful at mimicking the style of the 17th-century Dutch master that the same art critics who ridiculed his efforts were completely fooled, falling over themselves to proclaim the forgeries as the greatest works of Vermeer yet discovered.
But it was more than painting skill that fooled them. After many failed experiments, Van Meegeren discovered that he could reproduce the fine craquelure typical of a 17th-century painting by using oils mixed with Bakelite (the first synthetic plastic), followed by a careful baking regimen. Rubbing ink onto the dried painting simulated dirt that would have collected in the cracks. An essential step in art forgery is to have a convincing appearance, and Van Meegeren’s paintings looked to be centuries old.
In the end, though, it all comes down to the marketing plan, and here Van Meegeren proved to be an even better artist of the deal. With just a few dozen Vermeers known to exist at that time, a new “find” in someone’s attic would not be unusual. Also, Vermeer’s works fell naturally into two distinct periods. Van Meegeren’s paintings were enough not like Vermeer to convince art critics that they were the missing links between these periods, and therefore had to be painted by Vermeer.
How did these critics fall so hard?
If, as Dolnick writes, “a forgery is performance, and a forger is in many ways a magician,” Van Meegeren gave the performance of his life, masterfully playing critics, museum directors, and collectors against each other in their mad state of Vermeer mania.
The imprimatur of the experts launched the forgeries into a stratosphere of very competitive collectors, none more so than Goering, who was consumed with buying art “at bargain” in every occupied territory. He jumped aggressively into the market for Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery and, after his own brand of unique negotiations, became the proud owner of a Van Meegeren special.
Han earned millions, living a lavish lifestyle during the war while his countrymen suffered. His exploits were eventually exposed when soldiers looking for stolen art after the war came across his name in Goering’s little black book. He was sentenced to a year in prison and died of heart failure before serving any time, but not before becoming the people’s hero — after all, he had punk’d a Reichsmarschall.
(And the fat guy did sing, crooning lustily with his captors the night he was imprisoned. Goering’s tune was much more mournful when he found out the true nature of his “Vermeer,” as he had paid more for it than for any other in his collection.)
Van Meegeren’s forgeries are now ridiculed, described as “grotesquely ugly and unpleasant paintings, altogether dissimilar to Vermeer’s.” For Dolnick, this is the true mystery of the whole affair — obvious fakes were once taken to be the greatest works of one of the world’s greatest artists. With a convincing psychological, social and historical analysis, Dolnick’s “anatomy of a hoax” makes this mystery more understandable.
As in The Rescue Artist, his previous look at art theft, Dolnick exposes the seamier parts of the art world not covered in any art school, writing with pacing and prose as gripping as the best mystery novelist. Full of scoundrels, schemes, and artistic dreams, The Forger’s Spell is simply spellbinding.
Richard DiDio teaches Physics and Mathematics at La Salle University.
