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I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Wynne
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 190097
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.5
ISBN: 1582345937
Dewey Decimal Number: 759.9492
EAN: 9781582345932
ASIN: 1582345937
Publication Date: October 3, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Pages are in excellent condition with no apparent markings. Cover is in great condition with minimal wear around edges. Cover is as pictured. Hardback version.
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Product Description
Frank Wynne’s remarkable book tells the story of Han van Meegeren, a paranoid, drug-addicted, second-rate painter whose Vermeer forgeries made him a secret superstar of the art world—and along the way, it reveals the collusion and ego that, even today, allow art forgery to thrive. During van Meegeren’s heyday as a forger of Vermeers, he earned 50 million dollars, the acclamation of the world’s press, and the satisfaction of swindling the Nazis. His canvases were so nearly authentic that they would almost certainly be prized among the catalogue of Vermeers if he had not confessed. And, no doubt, he never would have confessed at all if he hadn’t been trapped in a catch-22: he had thrived so noticably during the war that when it ended, he was quickly arrested as a Nazi collaborator. His only defense was to admit that he himself had painted the remarkable “Vermeers” that had passed through his hands—a confession the public refused to believe, until, in a huge media event, the courts staged the public painting of what would be van Meegeren’s last “Vermeer.” I Was Vermeer is an utterly gripping real-life mystery, capturing both the life of the consummate art forger, phenomenally skilled and yet necessarily unrecognized, and the equally fascinating work of the experts who identify forgeries and track down their perpetrators. Wry, amoral, irreverent, and plotted like a thriller, it is the first major book in forty years on this astonishing episode in history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 The Art of the Forger January 31, 2007
R. Hardy (Columbus, Mississippi USA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
In 1938 in Rotterdam there was a museum exhibition of masterpieces headlined by _The Supper at Emmaus_, a recently discovered painting by Jan Vermeer who had died over two hundred years before. It was being hailed as the masterwork of the famous artist, and the exhibit was a sensation. One man returned to view the painting repeatedly, day after day, standing before it and insisting he was not one of the awestruck viewers reverentially taking it in: "I can't believe they paid half a million guilders for this," he would declare. "It's obviously a fake." The other viewers, if they replied, would attempt to contradict him, but he could not be swayed. He was right, though, and he knew he was right, because he himself had painted the picture. _I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger_ (Bloomsbury) by journalist Frank Wynne tells the astonishing story of Han van Meegeren, a complicated saga of art forgery that came to light merely because van Meegeren had to confess to the forgeries to avoid being convicted of collusion with the Nazis. Even then, some didn't believe his confession.
Van Meegeren was an artist outside of his time. "Peering into Han's studio," Wynne writes, "it was as though a century of artistic revolution never happened." He could not make his realistic paintings pay. He was angry at the critics, and he was broke, and he determined he would do something about both. He would make a name for himself by painting pictures that would be praised as lost masterpieces of famous past artists, and eventually he would let the world know how he had fooled the so-called experts. Han determined that he would paint a Vermeer, and in order to be sure that his forgery was accepted, he set technical demands for himself. Van Meegeren practiced different techniques in experimentation before beginning his masterwork, _The Supper at Emmaus_, on which he worked for six months after years of planning and research. He had picked the subject of the painting with as much care as he had his materials, so that it fit into a void in Vermeer's career that critics were happy to see filled. He made up a story about the painting's provenance, and got a stooge to present it to one of the top critics of the day, who was flabbergasted to see such a magnificent Vermeer, and announced it as such to the world. Van Meegeren went on to sell a Vermeer to Hermann Goering, for more than a million guilders and the return of hundreds of genuine old Dutch masters which the Nazis had looted. After the war, van Meegeren was arrested not for forgery, but for treason in dealing with the enemy. He was six weeks in custody before he accepted that there was only one way to clear himself, by admitting that he had sold no Vermeer but that he himself was the painter of Goering's canvas, as well as many others. When authorities didn't believe him, he was given a chance to paint a new Vermeer while in custody, and there was agreement that he had, indeed, turned out a Vermeer to rank with his others, but even so, not all the art critics consented, some complaining he was using a ruse in order to get out of the treason charges.
Van Meegeren was vindicated, in a way. He became known as "The Man who Swindled Goering", and bragged of his patriotism in bringing back the looted paintings the Nazis had stolen. He was convicted of minor fraud charges, but died in 1947 before serving any of his one year sentence. His lawyers had argued that there was no fraud; Van Meegeren had never said he was offering a real Vermeer, but the experts declared them to be real, so where was the fraud? The judge in the trial summed up, "The art world is reeling and experts are beginning to doubt the very basis of artistic attribution. This was precisely what the defendant was trying to achieve." This perceptive book can't make van Meegeren into any sort of hero, but instead he emerges a complicated con-artist with at least some goals that were not mercenary. The extent of his achievements and how much work they entailed are well documented, but the main fun of the book is enjoying, rather like co-conspirators of the forger himself, the readiness of smart and urbane authorities of the art world to be hoodwinked.
Quite simply, brilliant... September 26, 2006
kaimac (San Diego, Ca)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
The life of the scheming fraudster is by its very nature more interesting than that of the natural genius. Everyone loves an underdog, and Han van Meegeren was that most unusual of underdogs: a winner.
Wynne's book, described last weekend by [English Newspaper] The Observer as 'gripping and psychologically fascinating', seeks to do more than simply recount this most interesting of stories. It gets inside van Meegeren's head, and in doing so sheds new light on one of the most intriguing characters the art world has ever seen.
This is just a fascinating story, brilliantly told. Very highly recommended.
 Hans Down November 11, 2006
Christian Schlect (Yakima, Washington/USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
A re-telling of an interesting European art crime of many years ago. While Mr.Wynne does a good job of explaining the techniques behind the actual forgeries, he cannot escape his own journalistic background for most of the book's narrative. Scenes are invented, descriptions are embellished, feelings imputed, and dialogue created. Or so I think.
Loved it! December 26, 2006
jeffsdate (Boxford, MA USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am a huge Vermeer fan and already knew quite a bit about Van Meegeren before reading this. I agree with the reviewer who says that the author invents conversations or claims to know what Van Meegeren thought on a specific occasion, which is impossible -- but I think much of the book is based on fact, and it's a fabulous read. As far as I know, there are not many other places where Van M's works are reproduced in color, either - and I like it that the book includes appendices listing the whereabouts of all extant works by Vermeer and Van M.
 Entertaining tale but very flawed writing December 29, 2006
Chicago (Chicago)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Usually when I find a book with as many factual and editorial errors as this one, I stop reading. However, the subject matter was interesting enough to keep me going until the end.
Clearly the book lacked a competent editor. Unwarranted and sloppy shift changes within a single sentence or paragraph weren't uncommon. Compound words broken in two also were a common occurrence. I know that there are British conventions (such as the closed quotation mark with punctuation outside, or the usage of a single one where we Yanks would use doubles) but the text therein exhibited poor usage in any form. Picture names were also spotty--the cover art, "Woman Reading a Letter," became "A Woman Reading Music" on the inside color plate section (and later, "A Young Woman Reading"). Finally, there was reference to a class offered at "Huntingdon University, Pennsylvania." There is no such place; there is a Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA, and a Huntingdon College in Alabama.
For a journalist who has written for the esteemed publications claimed on the jacket (Sunday Times, Independent, Irish Times), I'd expect him to have paid a lot more attention to such details. However, as the story is so compelling, I have to give it two and a half stars--a pity, as better attention to detail would have earned it double that in my review.
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