Han van Meegeren
In 1947, Han van Meegeren, a Dutch dude had to prove to the court that he had forged Vermeer with such talent that the entire art world had been fooled by them.
So basically, Hav van Meegeren couldn't sell his own painting. So, he decided to become a forger bc duh??
He spent SIX years perfecting his Vermeer forgeries. He mixed his own paint after researching what all was available when Vermeer was alive, he made his own brushes, he bought 17th century canvases and he baked his paintings so that they could appear dry and cracked. Oh! He also applied a coat of synthetic resin on his art to make the paintings appear older. Yup, he went the full mile.
Now, once he was sure he had perfected his forgeries, he was like, "Oh damn I remember reading that Vermeer had an early period when he dabbled in religious paintings influenced by Caravaggio." Guess what his next step was?
He made a painting. "The Supper at Emmaus"
And guess what?
It passed off for a true Vermeer! Abraham Bredius, the leading authority on Vermeer saw it and was like "Holy smokes, this is the masterpiece of Vermeer's œuvre". In 1937, it sold at a what would be equivalent to $4 million dollars today.
He sold a lot many other "originals" as well. But coming to the Nazi occupation of Netherlands. Hermann Göring, one of Hitler's top generals, bought an "original" Vermeer from van Meegeren.
However, when the Allied powers defeated the Nazis, van Meegeren was put on trial for colluding with the Nazis and selling a national treasure to a Nazi. Damn.
Anyways, then, van Meegeren was like, "My, dudes, no. These are all forgeries. I'm so amazing that even Bredius didn't realise they were fake."
And Bredius -who needed to save his name- was trying to prove the paintings were the real deal. So, in the end, with no option other than a death penalty left, van Meegeren forged another "original" Vermeer in court. This helped prove all of the paintings he had sold to Göring and passed off as "original" Vermeers were actually forged by him and he got imprisoned for a year for fraud.
Art history is on another plane of existence y'all.
