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The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick - 4* - My Review

This book tells the true story of Han van Meegeren, a Dutch artist, who copied and sold fake Vermeer paintings that fooled the art world's leading experts during World War II. Van Meegeren sold one of his forgeries to Hermann Göring, which led to his arrest for collaboration after the war. To save himself, he confessed to forgery and painted a new fake Vermeer in court to prove his skills. Dolnick probes the psychological factors that made experts see what they wanted to see.

This is a fascinating true crime story. It is structured around two parallel narratives: the technical methods van Meegeren used to age his canvases, and the cultural context that made his forgeries believable. The book alternates between van Meegeren's criminal activities and the art world's assumptions about Vermeer's “lost” religious paintings. The author’s central premise is that van Meegeren's success depended more on manipulating human psychology than on mastering artistic technique.

Dolnick writes clearly about technical subjects like paint chemistry and X-ray analysis in an entertaining way. He raises uncomfortable questions about authenticity and value in art. Who decides what is “great” art, especially when even the experts can be fooled? After reading the book, I looked up the paintings, and even I could see differences between the forgeries and the authenticated paintings. Of course, I had the benefit of knowing ahead of time that they were forgeries.