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A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century
Harper
July 2008
On Sale: June 24, 2008
368 pages ISBN: 0060825413 EAN: 9780060825416 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
As riveting as a World War II thriller, The Forger's Spell
is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time
Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later.
The con man's mark was Hermann Goering, one of the most
reviled leaders of Nazi Germany and a fanatic collector of
art. It was an almost perfect crime. For seven years a no-
account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off
his paintings as those of one of the most beloved and
admired artists who ever lived. But, as Edward Dolnick
reveals, the reason for the forger's success was not his
artistic skill. Van Meegeren was a mediocre artist. His
true genius lay in psychological manipulation, and he came
within inches of fooling both the Nazis and the world.
Instead, he landed in an Amsterdam court on trial for his
life. ARTnews called Dolnick's previous book, the Edgar Award-
winning The Rescue Artist, "the best book ever written on
art crime." In The Forger's Spell, the stage is bigger, the
stakes are higher, and the villains are blacker.
No awards found for this book.
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