This month we are discussing The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick.

All are welcome ,whether you have attended before or not. Contact Karen Knox at kareneknox@gmail.com or 208-241-2088, or Liz Kipp at 507-382-0399 or kipp.elizabeth086@gmail.com for more details.

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This is the page-turner story of Han van Meegeren, who painted copies of Johannes Vermeer’s famous artwork and sold them to Nazies trying to accumulate treasures during WWII. Post-war, van Meegeren was on trial for his life in Amsterdam. Was he simply a collaborator and a fraud, or was he serving the Allies by draining Nazi coffers?

 

From Amazon:

As riveting as a World War II thriller, The Forger’s Spell is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of one of the most beloved and admired artists who ever lived. As Edward Dolnick reveals, his true genius lay in psychological manipulation, and he came within inches of fooling the world. Instead, he landed in an Amsterdam court on trial for his life. The Forger’s Spell is the gripping, true tale of this almost perfect crime.