It's a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren famous worldwide when it broke at the end of World War II: A lifetime of disappointment drove him to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering, making a mockery of the Nazis. And it's a story that's been believed ever since. Too bad it isn't true. Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives to write a revelatory new biography of the world's most famous forger. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook who plied the forger's trade far longer than he ever admitted--a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush Lopez also explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe: Not only was Van Meegeren a key player in that high-stakes game in the 1920s and '30s, landing fakes with powerful dealers and famous collectors such as Andrew Mellon, but he and his associates later offered a case study in wartime opportunism as they cashed in on the Nazi occupation. The Man Who Made Vermeers is a long-overdue unvarnishing of Van Meegeren's legend and a deliciously detailed story of deceit in the art world.

Edgar Award nominee for Best Fact Crime.

美國藝術史學家、藝評家、倫敦知名藝術暨骨董雜誌《阿波羅》及《Art & Antiques》專欄作家，對藝術品偽作歷史知之甚詳。他為了研究二戰期間偽畫大師凡．米格倫，耗費三年時間、操持四種語言、往來五個國家並造訪無數檔案館，深入耙梳二戰前後藝術買賣市場的傳統及系譜。《不存在的維梅爾》一書出版便獲得報章廣泛報導，並榮獲艾倫坡年度最佳犯罪實錄獎。