Today 71 years ago one of the Netherlands’s most controversial artists passed away. He went from collaborator to hero in the same criminal trial.
Henricus Antonius “Han” van Meegeren ( 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist and is considered to be one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century.
Forgers, by nature, prefer anonymity and therefore are rarely remembered. An exception is Han van Meegeren .His story is absolutely unique and may be justly considered the most dramatic art scam of the 20th century.
As a child, he developed an enthusiasm for the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, and later set out to become an artist himself. Art critics, however, decried his work as tired and derivative, and van Meegeren felt that they had destroyed his career. He decided to prove his talent to the critics by forging paintings of some…
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History of Sorts 