The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 19, 2011 Kay rated it really liked it

Shelves: world_war_ii, credulity, nonfiction, art_architecture

The "True Story of a Colossal Hoax"

Edward Dolnick prefaces The Forger's Spell with an intriguing quote by Anatole France: "It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown." Ostensibly a tale of art forgery, Dolnick's book is most fascinating when examining what makes us believe something, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that what we believe is not true.

Why did so many experts assert that the forged paintings of Han van Meegeren were the genuine article? The The "True Story of a Colossal Hoax"

Edward Dolnick prefaces The Forger's Spell with an intriguing quote by Anatole France: "It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown." Ostensibly a tale of art forgery, Dolnick's book is most fascinating when examining what makes us believe something, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that what we believe is not true.

Why did so many experts assert that the forged paintings of Han van Meegeren were the genuine article? The author offers another interesting quote by magician Teller to provide some insight into how this occured: "When you're certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool." Dolnick's analysis of how van Meegeren deftly exploited the vanities, petty jealousies, self-interests, and hubris of a handful of experts, dealers, and wealthy patrons is fascinating stuff. This is, ultimately, a tail of human frailties. We want to believe something and are, therefore, disposed to believe it, especially when in the process we can burnish our own egos.

Van Meegeren, a second-rate artist, was a first-rate con artist who knew, above all, how to select a mark. Once taken in, Dolnick notes, "The experts have to believe because, if they dared admit the possibility of fraud, the consequences would be too grim to contemplate." Ultimately, several of van Meegeren's fake Vermeers were snatched up by that acquisitive but not very discerning Nazi, Hermann Goering, and it was this fact, perhaps, that not only spared van Meegeren the death penalty but also made him something of a folk hero in post WWII Holland: he thoroughly duped the Nazis.

Part WWII saga, part psychological profile of a forger and his victims, and part examination of the world of art experts and restorers, The Forger's Spell casts a fairly ambitious net. If at times the book sounds the same themes a bit more than might be necessary, it still makes insightful points about human credulity.

This is the third book by Edward Dolnick that I've read. I enjoyed this tale more than I did another book by Dolnick on a famous art theft (The Rescue Artist), but not quite as much as I did his account of John Wesley Powell's exploration of the Colorado River, Down the Great Unknown. It strikes me that Dolnick, who has recently written a book on Isaac Newton and the Royal Society, has a broad-ranging curiosity that bears interesting fruit in his books. ...more

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