ABSTRACT
In June 1938, the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam bought the painting Supper at Emmaus, for what was at that time the very high price of 520,000 Dutch guilders, on the assumption that it was a newly discovered masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer (Fig. 1). Seven years later, in July 1945, the Dutch painter Han van Meegeren, when arrested for collaboration with the just-departed German occupiers of the Netherlands, claimed that he had painted the picture in 1936-37. It soon became evident that his claim was justified. The case has been viewed ever since as “perhaps the most famous forgery of modern times.” 1 Countless articles and many books have appeared on the affair. In 1996, however, when I became involved in putting together a small book to accompany an exhibition on Van Meegeren, browsing the literature soon revealed that much of what had been written was contradictory, based on hearsay, or refutable, compared to documentary evidence. Our principal authors, Diederik Kraaijpoel and Harry van Wijnen, did a better job of reconstructing the evidence in their Han van Meegeren (1889-1947) en zijn meesterwerk van Vermeer, to which my wife, Alice Blankert-Roessingh, and I contributed additional research. 2 When that publication was at the printer’s, my young colleague, Jim van der Meer Mohr, discovered some very remarkable correspondence concerning the affair. We managed to include its most remarkable letter in a “Postscriptum” to the book. 3 Later Jim published and discussed the other letters in the magazine Tableau. 4 Han van Meegeren, <italic>The Supper at Emmaus</italic>, 1936-37, oil on canvas. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. A painting of The Supper at Emmaus, breaking bread while others observe attentively. https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003697855/cf00d316-4c4f-41b8-a0f7-d2f2cb7200f3/content/pg48_Image_13.jpg"/>
