From scammer to national hero: the genius of Han Van Meegeren

Han Van Meegeren was a Dutch painter, born in 1889. He began his career with a realistic style, reminiscent of the Golden Age of Dutch painting (17th century). But the rise of modern abstraction in the 20th century led critics to target his outdated work. It was considered a mediocre imitation of old masters.

Furious, Meegeren spent 4 years preparing his vengeance. His plan was to master the style of 17th century masters like Vermeer & de Hooch, create a fake painting, have it authenticated by them and expose their incompetence. Eventually, he could create impeccable fake paintings, using 17th techniques & tools to make them more convincing.

That’s how, in 1937 a new Vermeer, “Supper at Emmaus” surfaced and quickly drew attention due to the rarity of his works. It was authenticated by a Vermeer specialist, A. Bredius, who then recommended it to the Boijmans museum of Rotterdam, stating that it was “THE masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer”. It was sold for $4M.

Meegeren thus achieved his goal, yet greed pushed him into not revealing the fraud; in the following years, other “forgotten masterpieces” appeared out of the blue & Meegeren quickly built a colossal fortune.

It is at the end of WWII that the story takes a turn. One of his forgeries, “Christ and the adultress” was found in the collection of the nazi dignitary H. Göring. It turned out that Meegeren had exchanged one of his replicas with him for 137 genuine painting stolen in museums by nazis & worth ~$12M.

Authorities traced the work’s history & arrested Meegeren. He was accused of collaboration, for having sold a national treasure to the enemy. To reduce his sentence, he was forced to reveal the fraud, but nobody believed him. So, Meegeren spent months painting a new Vermeer under authorities’ watchful eye, thus revealing the origin of the paintings that resurfaced in recent years.

He got away with a 1-year sentence & was raised to the status of national hero, becoming “the one who scammed the nazis”. He thus achieved his goal, while pocketing ~$60M and accidently becoming an icon. This may be the first case of a forger having to prove his own guilt in front of a court, which makes the story even better.