The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century (P.S.),   ISBN:9780060825423

Customer Rating: 

I found this book most interesting. I am an art lover, but certainly no expert. I just know what I like and I enjoy reading about the art world.
What I found fascinating about this book was not just the story of the forger van Meegeren or even how Goering was duped, but how supposed experts were duped as well. The psychological aspects of how and why art critics and dealers cannot see beyond a terrible forgery made for very interesting reading, and I daresay are as true today as during the time of this narrative.
I loved the fact that so many so-called experts were (and continue to be) fooled by worthless imitations, therefore putting a big hole in the pretentiousness of so many in the art world.
In the end, this is not just a story of van Meegeren. It sheds light on some of the more unsavory aspects of the art world, and why people in that world act as they do.

Customer Rating: 

The publisher demands the same price for the Kindle edition as for the print edition despite the obvious manufacturing economies and the investment that readers have to make in their Kindles. Moreover, Kindle books cannot be lent to friends or others; the pagination precludes citation of the work. This is publishers myopia that will bring about the demise of an industry unless they wake up and smell the coffee.

I already own the print edition but wanted to be able to carry it more readily. To make me pay for a second copy for this purpose when the marginal cost to the publisher is no more than the concession they have to pay Amazon is patently outrageous.

Customer Rating: 

The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century (P.S.)
Dolnick's book about the Dutch forger Van Meegeren, who not only cheated Dutch experts on the great Golden Century Dutch painters, but also Nazi leaders, is a story about the adventure of a forger. It sketches the techniques and psychology of the man who created various forged Vermeer paintings. Dolnick also sketches credibly the mentality who paid for being cheated. They wanted to be cheated and could not believe that a minor artist could fool them and their expertise. A fine story.

Customer Rating: 

I couldn't put this book down. As an Art History major, I really appreciated the details Dolnick provided about both the forgery and the authentication process, as well as his detailed psychological portraits of the forger, Van Meegeren, and the world-renowned collectors and curators who authenticated his works (some still wouldn't admit Van Meegeren's paintings were forgeries even after being proven wrong in court!). One of the main points in the book is to take a step back and review your cultural and historical biases when looking at a work of art, which I feel the example of Van Meegeren's forgeries illustrates nicely. As Dolnick points out, the forgeries seem so obviously fake and lifeless to us today, but in the tumultuous Europe of the 1940's they looked like pure Vermeer gold. In my research on the subject, I have read other books about Van Meegeren, including The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren and The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, but this book was by far the most entertaining and had a surprising amount of information about the WWII art looting and Goering's art collecting habit as well.

For my review of the book on my blog (as well as a compilation of some Vermeer paintings compared to Van Meegeren forgeries) please follow this link:

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Customer Rating: 

A thoroughly-researched and smartly written book that covers an interesting range of subjects related to the story of the forgeries, from Dutch history and character to Nazi machinations to the difficulty of attribution to psychological studies related to why we tend to see what we expect to see. I loved Dolnick's curiosity and his unwillingness to sneer and laugh at the people who were duped; instead he tries to put himself in their shoes and in their times and understand how it happened. That makes this book valuable and though-provoking even beyond the fascinating story of the fake Vermeers.