3. Han Van Meegeren And The Great Nazi Art Swindle
Henricus Antonius ‘Han’ van Meegeren was a Dutch painter and portraitist and is considered to be one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. During World War II, wealthy Dutchmen, wanting to prevent the sale of Dutch art to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, avidly bought van Meegeren’s forgeries. Nevertheless, a falsified “Vermeer” ended up in the possession of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. After the war, the forgery was discovered in Göring’s possession, and van Meegeren was arrested on 29 May 1945 as a Nazi collaborator, as officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Third Reich. This was an act of treason, the punishment for which was death, so van Meegeren fearfully confessed to being a forger to prevent his death. On 12 November 1947, after a brief but highly publicised trial, he was convicted of falsification and fraud charges, and was sentenced to a modest punishment of one year in prison. However, after evading his execution he never served his sentence, as before he could be incarcerated, he suffered a heart attack and died on 30 December 1947.