Dutch Master

Robert likes the recent New Yorker review of two new books about Han van Meegeren, the artist and dealer who sold counterfeit Vermeer paintings to the Nazis during the occupation of Holland. The books are "The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century," by Edward Dolnick and "The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren," by Jonathan Lopez. Van Meegeren sympathized with Nazi's, and, famously, got Hermann Goring to trade 137 ill-gotten paintings for a Van Meegeren "Vermeer." After the war, he was put on trial for selling off Dutch national treasures. His defense: "They were fakes!"

The New Yorker review can be found here.