The Forger's Spell

As riveting as a World War II thriller, "The Forger's Spell" is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later. The con man's mark was Hermann Goering, one of the most reviled leaders of Nazi Germany and a fanatic collector of art.

It was an almost perfect crime. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of one of the most beloved and admired artists who ever lived. But, as Edward Dolnick reveals, the reason for the forger's success was "not" his artistic skill. Van Meegeren was a mediocre artist. His true genius lay in psychological manipulation, and he came within inches of fooling both the Nazis and the world. Instead, he landed in an Amsterdam court on trial for his life.

"ARTnews" called Dolnick's previous book, the Edgar Award-winning "The Rescue Artist," "the best book ever written on art crime." In "The Forger's Spell," the stage is bigger, the stakes are higher, and the villains are blacker.