Posts Tagged: ‘jan vermeer’

Back in April, I reflected on Errol Morris’ essay “Whose Father Was He?” about a Civil War-era identity mystery. Morris’ most recent essay series in The New York Times is titled “Bamboozling Ourselves.” It’s an examination of the Han Van Meegeren Vermeer forgeries, which Jane McGrath included in her list of the 10 Biggest Lies in History.

Morris acknolwedges that there have been two books recently published on the subject — Edward Dolnick’s The Forger’s Spell and Jonathan Lopez’s The Man Who Made Vermeers. These books, he says, are timely commentaries, given the way “imaginary returns, fakes and frauds” have affected us. But as Morris’ essay reveals, Van Meegeren wasn’t any ordinary forger.

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