TedEd: The art forger who tricked the Nazis

A TedEd by Noah Charney

In the strangest trial in Dutch history, a man's life depended on proving his work was a forgery. Han van Meegeren was an artist whose original works failed to make money. Angry toward his critics, he decided to make fools of them. He researched the old masters, their methods, their paints, their biographies. He decided to copy Johannes Vermeer, who was famous for his meticulous domestic scenes. Van Meegeren bought 17th century canvases, the pigments available in Vermeer's time, and created his own brushes. When he was done, he used synthetic resin and baked the paintings to make them look old. In his time, there were few forensic tests available to test the veracity of his paintings, and whether or not a painting was real was a matter of judgement by critics. Through research, van Meegeren found that many historians believed that Vermeer was influenced by Caravaggio in his early years. Luckily for him, the leading authority on Vermeer, Abraham Bredius, believed this theory and pronounced the paintings authentic. He sold forgeries for many years, making millions. When the Nazis invaded Holland, a German general wanted to add a Vermeer to his collection of stolen European art. So, van Meegeren sold him a forgery. But when the war was over, he was arrested for selling important pieces of Dutch history to the enemy. So in court, van Meegeren had to prove that the work was a forgery. He showed them the entire process, and escaped the death sentence - replaced with a 1 year sentence for forgery. After that, he became a sort of hero for swindling the Nazis, and his works gained a reputation of their own. So much, in fact, that he was later forged by his own son.