22 facts about Han van Meegeren

Henricus Antonius “Han” van Meegeren (Dutch pronunciation: [ɦɛnˈrikʏs ɑnˈtoːnijəs ˈɦɑn vɑn ˈmeːɣərə(n)]; 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. Van Meegeren became a national hero after World War II bearing in mind it was revealed that he had sold a forged painting to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring during the Nazi hobby of the Netherlands.

As a child, Van Meegeren developed an promptness for the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, and he set out to become an artist. Art critics, however, decried his affect as tired and derivative, and Van Meegeren felt that they had destroyed his career. He granted to prove his capability by forging paintings by 17th-century artists including Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Johannes Vermeer. The best art critics and experts of the time trendy the paintings as real and sometimes exquisite. His most booming forgery was Supper at Emmaus, created in 1937 even if he was vivacious in the south of France; the painting was hailed as a real Vermeer by leading experts of the daylight such as Dr Abraham Bredius.

During World War II, Göring traded 137 paintings for one of Van Meegeren’s false Vermeers, and it became one of his most prized possessions. Following the war, Van Meegeren was arrested, as officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis. Facing a feasible death penalty, Van Meegeren confessed to the less serious raid of forgery. He was convicted upon falsification and fraud charges on 12 November 1947, after a brief but severely publicised trial, and was sentenced to one year in prison. He did not help out his sentence, however; he died 30 December 1947 in the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam, after two heart attacks. It is estimated that Van Meegeren duped buyers out of the equivalent of over US$30 million in 1967’s money, including the paperwork of the Netherlands.