Art: Not for Money

Han van Meegeren was the 20th Century’s most ambitious forger, and for a time its most successful. In ten years at his odd calling, he had fooled some of Europe’s smartest experts and made close to $3,000,000 by painting and then “discovering” half a dozen “Vermeers” and a couple of “Pieter de Hoochs” besides. When he was convicted three years ago (TIME, Nov. 24, 1947), Van Meegeren told a reporter that he was “sure about one thing: if I die in jail they will just forget all about it. My paintings will become original Vermeers once more. I produced them not for money but for art’s sake.”

Van Meegeren died about a month after the trial, and last week his remaining paintings went up for auction. Together with his Amsterdam house and furniture, they brought only 242,000 guilders as against creditors’ claims of some 5,000,000 guilders ($1,315,800). One of the highest bids, $800, was for a seventh “Vermeer” entitled Christ in the Temple, which Van Meegeren had painted after his confession (see cut) to prove to some still unconvinced experts that he had actually forged the previous ones.