35. Painting the Perfect Vermeer
After years of experimenting with his criminal forgery techniques, van Meegeren was finally ready to make his big move. In 1936, he painted The Supper at Emmaus in the style of Vermeer, and handed it off to a lawyer friend, claiming it was a hitherto “undiscovered” work by the famous Dutch Master. A renowned art historian examined it, accepted it as genuine, and praised it to the skies as “the masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft“.
The “discovery” of The Supper at Emmaus took the art world by storm. Wealthy art lovers of The Rembrandt Society chipped in, and purchased the painting for the equivalent of $5 million in 2020 dollars. It was donated to a prominent Rotterdam museum, where it was highlighted as a centerpiece in an exhibition of Dutch masterpieces. Pleased at having pulled it off – and even more pleased with the money gained – van Meegeren invested the proceeds in buying himself a nice mansion in Nice, and began to pump it out more forgeries.