CRIME PAYS
THE MASTER FORGER, by John Godley; Home and van Thal. English price, 9/6. HE career of Hans van Meegeren as a forger of 17th Century old masters was a hoax in the grand manner. The fact that he made some £500,000 from eight pictures "by" Vermeer or de Hooch is an indication of size more than of iniquity. He might never have been caught if he-had not had the bad luck to get a picture sold to Goering (who swapped back for it a number of genuine Dutch old masters previously looted); thus after the war, to disprove the heavier charge of collaborating with the enemy, van Meegeren was obliged to confess to his forgeries-and to make a new forgery under observation for the final conversion of sceptics. It was fun to lead the experts up the garden, fun to gull collectors buying names rather than pictures; but in the end: the success of this hoax strikes at the basis of the appreciation of art. Why shouldn’t a pastiche give as much pleasure as the real thing? John Godley, a friend of van Meegeren’s children, is perhaps oversympathetic to his subject; and he tries to play a superb comedy as ill-digested tragedy. But the story tells itself.
David
Hall
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 656, 1 February 1952, Page 11
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211CRIME PAYS New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 656, 1 February 1952, Page 11
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