RT @Mweilc: Une vente après décès dans l'Ohio aurait permis de découvrir deux tableaux d'Ambrosius Bosschaert provenant de la collection Sc… (tw)

On this day in 1945, Dutch forger Han van Meegeren was arrested for treason—initially accused of selling a priceless Vermeer to the Nazis. The work in question, ‘Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery’, had been purchased by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring for 1.65 million Dutch guilders, believing it to be a genuine Vermeer. Tracked down by Monuments Man Capt. Harry Anderson at Fischhorn Castle in Austria, the painting became a pivotal piece of evidence in one of the most bizarre postwar trials. To avoid a death sentence, Van Meegeren confessed to forging several “Vermeers”—a claim verified by Belgian Monuments Man Paul Coremans and a team of experts known as the Coremans Commission. In an ironic twist, Göring was informed of the forgery in 1946 by Monuments Man H. Stewart Leonard during an interrogation. According to Leonard, Göring looked as though “for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world.” _____ Image 1 | Monuments Man Captain Harry Anderson (right) holding Christ With the Woman Taken in Adultery. National Archives and Records Administration (111-SC-374666) US National Archives Image 2 | Monuments Man Captain Harry Anderson and an Allied official display Christ With the Woman Taken in Adultery after its recovery from Göring’s collection #MonumentsMen #ArtHistory #WWIIHistory #HanVanMeegeren #VermeerForgery #CulturalHeritage #StolenArt #NaziLootedArt #80YearsOn (fb)