NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, THE LAST VERMEER, STARRING GUY PEARCE: A revelatory biography of the world’s most famous forger–a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush–and a deliciously detailed story of deceit in the art world.
It’s a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren famous worldwide when it broke at the end of World War II: A lifetime of disappointment drove him to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering in mockery of the Nazis. And it’s a story that’s been believed ever since. Too bad it isn’t true.
Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives for this long-overdue unvarnishing of Van Meegeren’s legend. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook. Lopez explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe: Not only was Van Meegeren a key player in that high-stakes game in the 1920s and ’30s, landing fakes with famous collectors such as Andrew Mellon, but he and his associates later cashed in on the Nazi occupation.
Author: Jonathan Lopez
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 08/01/2009
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780547247847
Language: English
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