The man who made Vermeers : unvarnishing the legend of master forger Han van Meegeren / Jonathan Lopez.
Author: Lopez, Jonathan.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Orlando : Harcourt, c2008.
ISBN: 0151013411
9780547247847
9780151013418
Description: 340 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Subject: Meegeren, Han van, 1889-1947.
Vermeer, Johannes, 1632-1675 Forgeries.
Art forgers Netherlands Biography.
Painters Netherlands Biography.
Contents: Introduction. A liar's biography -- The collaborator -- Beautiful nonsense -- The sphinx of Delft -- Smoke and mirrors -- A happy hunting ground -- The master forger and the Fascist dream -- Sieg Heil! -- Goering gets a Vermeer -- The endgame-- Swept under the rug -- Epilogue. Framing the fake.
Summary: Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives to write a revelatory new biography of the world's most famous forger. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook who plied the forger's trade far longer than he ever admitted--a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush. Lopez also explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe.
