Fake Painting on a Wall

How a fake painting got into a museum and was sold during war time in Europe to the Nazis.

This painting is a forgery. Its author, Han van Meegeren, was an aspiring artist in the 1920’s and since a young age he had developed an enthusiastic approach and kind of devotion for Old Masters. However, the critics were strongly negative and severe about his work and made him believe that they destroyed any prospects for him to become a well known and respected artist.

He tried to prove the oppositie showing his mastering of skills by forging some of the most famous painters from the Dutch Golden Age and selling it as original ones. The business went good and allowed him to live a wealthy but suspicious lifestyle in several countries in Europe.

In 1937, he decided to paint the so called Supper at Emmaus (displayed on the photo) and pretending it was an original painting.The critics believed it was a new found and remarkably well preserved masterpiece and it was bought by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, that same year and presented as a work by the hand of Johannes Vermeer, the Old Master of Delft.

During WW II, some collectors sold several Dutch works to the Nazis, including this Supper at Emmaus to Hermann Goring, the Nazi official, who exchange the painting for 137 other paintings, original ones, without realizing it was being “a victim” of forgery. After the war, Van Meegeren was arrested and accused of selling Dutch artworks to the Nazis during occupation, which was considered an act of treason and punished by death. So he declared that he had sold forgeries which he painted himself and had sold them to the Germans, uncovering and proving his decades of forgery and wealthy lifestyle. This allowed him a less severe sentence because he was only convicted on fraud and falsification and got only one year prison sentence…

This painting still can be seen nowadays at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, reminding us how a single painting can have a hilarious story to tell.

Related posts:

One of the most crucial elements is the concrete when it comes to building jobs. Without concrete, there would be no structures or houses . That’s why it’s so important to work with a Concrete…

From the charming cowboy antics present in the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit to the grungy social commentary and intense chasing of The Vanishing Point the idea of a man on a mission on the run…