Errol Morris' New York Times essays about film, art, and photography are always astounding. He just let me know that he's posted the first in a seven-part series about frauds and fakes for the New York Times' ZOOM blog. This one is about the Vermeers forger Han van Meegeren, who is the subject of two recent books: Edward Dolnick's The Forger's Spell and Jonathan Lopez's The Man Who Made Vermeers.
Over two years after Van Meegeren's arrest, he was put on trial in Amsterdam. On Oct. 29, 1947, The Times reported the following:
Hans van Meegeren (sic), the Dutch painter who shocked the art world by foisting a series of false Vermeers, Pieter de Hoghs and other old masters on experts, finally was placed on trial in District Court here today. He pleaded guilty and the state demanded a sentence of two years' imprisonment. The charge on which Van Meegeren was arraigned specified that he sold works bearing the spurious signatures of famous artists. It was not a simple case of forgery, inasmuch as the defendant created the works after the style of the seventeenth century masters, without actually copying any of their canvases…
And then on Nov. 12, The Times reported that Van Meegeren had been sentenced to a year in prison. Asked outside the courtroom for his reaction to the sentence, Van Meegeren simply said, "I think I must take it as a good sport."
(UPDATE: Part 2 is up, which is an interview with Edward Dolnick about how the "Uncanny Valley" applies to forgeries.)
