Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
He even cheated Göring...!
Even his opponents and law enforcement agree he's a genius art forger!
The Dutchman Henricus Antonius van Meegeren made headlines in the 1940s with his forgeries.
He didn't just copy famous paintings - he painted his own interpretations instead!
Here - on the left - the painting "The Witch of Haarlem" by Frans Hals and next to it the interpretation (or fake) by van Meegeren...:
He even managed to peddle forgeries of his “Vermeer” paintings Christ and the Adulteress and Christ Among the Scribes to the notorious art robber Hermann Goering (who took advice from the best art experts Germany had to offer!):
Van Meegeren also ventured into other works by Master Vermeer and forged, among other things, "Christ and the Disciples of Emmaus"/"The Last Supper"...
Original…:
Fake by Van Meegeren…:
...and sold the fake for $300,000.
On November 12, 1947, Henricus Antonius van Meegeren was sentenced to one year in prison in Amsterdam…:
However, he did not have to go to prison because on November 26, 1947, the last day of his objection period, he was admitted to the Valeriuskliniek in Amsterdam after suffering a heart attack. There he suffered another severe heart attack on December 29th.
He died of a heart attack around 7 p.m. on December 30, 1947.
Perhaps unsurprisingly:
According to a Dutch opinion poll in mid-October 1947, Han van Meegeren was second in popularity, behind the Prime Minister.
Many Dutch people saw him as a sly crook who really managed to trick the art experts of the Netherlands, Germany and Hermann Goering personally with his ingenious paintings dozens of times ...
Even his opponents and law enforcement agree he's a genius art forger!
The Dutchman Henricus Antonius van Meegeren made headlines in the 1940s with his forgeries.
He didn't just copy famous paintings - he painted his own interpretations instead!
Here - on the left - the painting "The Witch of Haarlem" by Frans Hals and next to it the interpretation (or fake) by van Meegeren...:
He even managed to peddle forgeries of his “Vermeer” paintings Christ and the Adulteress and Christ Among the Scribes to the notorious art robber Hermann Goering (who took advice from the best art experts Germany had to offer!):
Van Meegeren also ventured into other works by Master Vermeer and forged, among other things, "Christ and the Disciples of Emmaus"/"The Last Supper"...
Original…:
Fake by Van Meegeren…:
...and sold the fake for $300,000.
On November 12, 1947, Henricus Antonius van Meegeren was sentenced to one year in prison in Amsterdam…:
However, he did not have to go to prison because on November 26, 1947, the last day of his objection period, he was admitted to the Valeriuskliniek in Amsterdam after suffering a heart attack. There he suffered another severe heart attack on December 29th.
He died of a heart attack around 7 p.m. on December 30, 1947.
Perhaps unsurprisingly:
According to a Dutch opinion poll in mid-October 1947, Han van Meegeren was second in popularity, behind the Prime Minister.
Many Dutch people saw him as a sly crook who really managed to trick the art experts of the Netherlands, Germany and Hermann Goering personally with his ingenious paintings dozens of times ...
