| Description |
276 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Summary |
"He was a second-rate artist with an out-of-date style and a plan to have his paintings hung in the world's finest galleries - but Han van Meegeren's forgeries would nearly cost him his life." "In 1945, a small-time Dutch art dealer was arrested for selling a priceless national treasure - a painting by Vermeer - to Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring. The charge was treason, the only possible sentence death. And yet Han van Meegeren languished in his dank prison cell, incapable of uttering the four simple worlds that would set him free: 'I am a forger.'" |
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"I was Vermeer is the astonishing, bizarre story of a man out of time. From his early childhood, Han dreamed of being an artist, but in the scandalous world of modern art he found his work ridiculed by art critics as hopelessly old-fashioned. Furious and frustrated, he hatched a plan to revenge himself on his detractors. It was a dazzling, skilful swindle which, in less than a decade, earned him the equivalent of fifty million dollars and the acclaim of the very critics who had mocked him; and saw his paintings hanging next to those of Rembrandt and Vermeer." "As an artist, Han was a failure: as a forger, he was unstoppable. I was Vermeer is the unbelievable, irresistible true story of the greatest forger of all time, a riveting account of greed, hubris, excess, treason and fine art."--BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 263-265 |
| Subject |
Meegeren, Han van, 1889-1947.
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Vermeer, Johannes, 1632-1675.
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Art -- Forgeries -- 20th century.
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Painting -- Forgeries -- Netherlands.
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Art forgers -- Netherlands -- Biography.
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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| ISBN |
0747566801 |
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