The Man Who Made Vermeers

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.