Art Forgery Stories Netherlands
The Vermeer the forger had to paint again
A museum bought a supposed Vermeer. To make investigators believe his confession, Han van Meegeren painted another.
The Supper at Emmaus seemed to reveal an unfamiliar side of Vermeer. The Boijmans museum acquired the biblical scene as an extraordinary discovery. Its actual painter, Han van Meegeren, was working in the twentieth century.
After the Second World War, a different supposed Vermeer traced to Hermann Göring’s collection put Van Meegeren under investigation. He confessed to having painted the supposed masterpieces. To make his confession credible, he produced a new composition, Christ among the Doctors, in the same manner under observation.
A Rijksmuseum photograph records the demonstration. Boijmans still holds The Supper at Emmaus and catalogues it under Van Meegeren’s name. What once looked like a missing chapter in Vermeer’s career now documents the museum’s own history.
