The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

by Edward Dolnick (Author)
Key Phrases: uncanny valley, ooo guilders, Van Meegeren, Woman Taken, The Hague (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Bookmarks Magazine
“‘Idiots!’ he yelled. ‘You think I sold a Vermeer to that fat Goering. But it’s not a Vermeer. I painted it myself!”’ With lines like that, it’s clear Dolnick has found the nonfiction equivalent of a Vermeer, buried under other (and more hackneyed) tales of World War II. Critics had nothing but praise for this book, noting that Van Meegeren raised a number of questions about the value of art, especially when the same art critics who had clasped the fake Vermeers to their chests later mocked them as obvious, ugly fakes. At a time when art museums are taking in record crowds, The Forger’s Spell will undoubtedly cause many a viewer to squint a bit closer at the “masterpiece” hanging on the wall.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
How we love stories of audacious con artists, and doesn’t Dolnick love to tell the tales. His art-theft chronicle, The Rescue Artist (2005), won an Edgar Award, and now he vividly portrays a staggeringly successful Dutch art forger. Han van Meegeren was a “dreadful” painter, and yet he managed to fake Vermeer, the most sublime of artists. Between 1938 and 1945, when Van Meegeren was caught, his Christ at Emmaus was “the most famous and the most admired Vermeer in the world.” Van Meegeren’s “Vermeers” are actually hideous and trite, yet this dapper, cunning, and patient man bamboozled top critics and museum directors and swindled the world’s most monstrous collector, the Nazi Hermann Göring. How to explain this mass delusion, the “forger’s spell”? Dolnick covers it all, from Van Meegeren’s technical brilliance to his shrewd choice of subject matter to his extraordinary manipulation of egos and perceptions. Dolnick’s zesty, incisive, and entertaining inquiry illuminates the hidden dimensions and explicates the far-reaching implications of this fascinating and provocative collision of art and ambition, deception and war. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harper (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060825413
• ISBN-13: 978-0060825416
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #232,986 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the Rescue Artist, July 9, 2008

By	Patsy (Freeport, NY) - See all my reviews

When I saw this book mentioned in the New York Times, I went out and bought a copy because I had really enjoyed Edward Dolnick's previous book, The Rescue Artist. I wasn't anywhere near as impressed with The Forger's Spell. What made The Rescue Artist so good was the way Dolnick described the detective Charlie Hill on the hunt for a stolen painting. Hill was a really great, quirky character that Dolnick made come to life on the page. In The Forger's Spell, there's no character like that. The forger, Hans Van Meegeren, is interesting for what he was able to do - sell a forged Vermeer to Hermann Goering - but you never get much sense of who he was. Dolnick presents Van Meegeren as a greedy, second-rate painter who managed to fool a bunch of art experts and rich people because they were stupid and easy marks. It's not so compelling, and there's way too much padding here - a lot of chapters that don't advance the plot, and are pretty easy to skip. I would recommend buying Tom Hoving's book, False Impressions, which is a really good book about forgery. The Forger's Spell is nowhere near as good or interesting

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars interesting story, disappointing book, July 3, 2008

By	Amy Smith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a fan of Edward Dolnick's book The Rescue Artist, but I have to say that I was disappointed in The Forger's Spell. I bought it as soon as it came out because I was interested in the story of Han Van Meegeren. Van Meegeren was a fascinating crook who figured out how to fool people into seeing what they wanted to see. But I had already read Van Meegeren's story in John Kilbracken's book The Master Forger and, unfortunately, I didn't learn anything new in Dolnick's book. Anyone interested in Van Meegeren should look at Kilbracken's book, which does a better job of bringing the story to life. I wouldn't recommend The Forger's Spell.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Spell?, August 15, 2008

By	Dr. Max E. Bailey "photo doc" (Richmond, IN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Interesting, but many parts are boring. Seems to repeat the same things over and over again.