I thought this was an amazing nonfiction book and often forget it is NOT fiction since it was such an engrossing read. It was fascinating to learn this slice of art history and how art is authenticated. Sadly it also shows how universal it is for many people to be afraid of questioning "experts" and how sometimes we see what we want to see or manipulate "facts" to fit a situation. An interesting follow up for me was "Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury." The movie or film "The Rape of Europa" is another work that dovetails nicely with this. This is a very interesting & in-depth look at the life & times of Han Van Meegeren. Van Meegeren was a painter in his own right, but he did not get the recognition he thought he deserved so he took to forgery & was able to sell his "Vermeer" paintings for astronomical prices both before & during World War II. He was able to dupe art historians & buyers in the era before much chemical testing by using a variety of materials including Bakelite e as the paint medium in conjunction with pigments used in the 17th Century. Author Jonathan Lopez outlines the various forgeries Van Meegeren painted, and helps illustrate why art historians & experts of the time were duped by these modern paintings. Lopez also shows how Van Meegeren was a Nazi sympathizer and how he used Nazi imagery in his forgery. All in all a very interesting look at the art world of the Netherlands in the 1930s & 40s.
Interesting but so many people mentioned it is sometimes hard to follow.
—Mrs
This was a very interesting book. I really enjoyed it.
—Aishu
I WANT TO READ THE BOOK NOW
—Shanna
3.5 stars.
—Ellysse13
