{"product_id":"the-man-who-made-vermeers-unvarnishing-the-legend-of-master-forger-han-van-meegeren","title":"The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han Van Meegeren","description":"340 pp. It's a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren famous worldwide when it broke at the end of World War II: A lifetime of disappointment drove him to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering, making a mockery of the Nazis. And it's a story that's been believed ever since. Too bad it isn't true. Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives to write a revelatory new biography of the world's most famous forger. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook who plied the forger's trade far longer than he ever admitted—a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush. Lopez also explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe: Not only was Van Meegeren a key player in that high-stakes game in the 1920s and '30s, landing fakes with powerful dealers and famous collectors such as Andrew Mellon, but he and his associates later offered a case study in wartime opportunism as they cashed in on the Nazi occupation.","brand":"Harcourt, In.c","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40414542790726,"sku":"2329591","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1232\/9510\/products\/2329591.jpg?v=1669483825","url":"https:\/\/ym-demo.myshopify.com\/products\/the-man-who-made-vermeers-unvarnishing-the-legend-of-master-forger-han-van-meegeren","provider":"Yesterday's Muse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}