The Forger's Spell - Edward Dolnick

This is my first book on art forgery and it was really a wonderful book. Before reading this book i never heard or read about Vermeer, the great Dutch painter, thats bad. But while reading this book i searched a lot in internet and found out many things about the great Vermeer.
Most of the time my art world stopped with Michelangelo, Rembrandt  and some time Da Vinci but  it seems  Vermeer was as good as those old masters.Some of his paintings were breathtaking , i wonder how it looks in real time.Vermeer did not paint much but all his paintings speaks volume.

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Vermeer 

This book talks about Van Meegeren , a painter himself, who drawn paintings in the the name Vermeer and fooled the whole art world for more than quarter century.Van Meegeren's talent was not appreciated by the Dutch art word and they kept on tell him that his works were "ordinary and sometimes pathetic" . To take revenge on those critics , he joined hands with some others in the art world and painted many "Vermeer"s and fooled them all.

Its surprising that even die hard Vermeer supporters did not even suspect those painting by Van Meegeren as fake but they were all praising like anything one fake after another.The author clearly explains the phenomena "A little Knowledge is famously dangerous thing, but a lot of knowledge can be dangerous too,if a fraudster knows how to exploits it".

The book also explains how Hitler and his generals loot arts and other wealth from Netherlands . Hermen Goering who was second only to Hitler in Nazi regime was very much interested in Vermeer's painting and he generously offered money to anyone who shows Vermmer's.In case of Van Meegeren too Goering paid loads of money for all his (fake) paintings.The author explains how monument men reclaimed all the 'lost' arts from Nazi regime.

Van Meegeren

When Van Meegeren was convicted, he himself drew the paintings and proved that he was the one who painted all the paintings in question. In fact, he enjoyed the limelight and his popularity.He died of hear attack even before he start his jail term.

Nice book to learn about Vermeer and techniques in faking and of course about Van Meegeren- an amazing cheat!

To find more about the fake paintings and its cost click here

*Thanks to Wikipedia  and Museumboijmans