Forger's death mask gives famous museum a reminder

The Han van Meegeren mask was made immediately after the art forger's death in prison in 1947.

The director of Amsterdam's world-renowned Rijksmuseum thinks Han van Meegeren's paintings are "horrible", so it may seem strange that he has acquired the artist's death mask.

But while Wim Pijbes may abhor the artworks, he has a begrudging respect for the business acumen of the master forger who fooled Europe's high society in the early 20th century.

So for what he calls "a bargain" of 300 ($480), Pijbes has bought a rather ghoulish image of the painter cast in plaster soon after his death in prison in 1947.

As well as augmenting the museum's collection of papers, materials and other evidence related to Van Meegeren's crimes, Pijbes says it also serves as a reminder that even the best museums can be fooled. "Van Meegeren's was the most scandalous and most famous forgery case in the 20th century, making several Vermeer fakes and selling them to the most prominent museums and collectors of the time," said Pijbes, who bought the mask at an auction in Rotterdam.

"[A museum] can always be wrong, it could always be a fake - there are still lots of fakes on the market - and the greatest mistake you can do as a museum is to buy a forgery."

Born in the Netherlands in 1889, Van Meegeren made a modest living as a portrait painter, but his career did not match his ambition. So, in the 1930s, he started producing paintings which he claimed were early works by the Dutch master Vermeer. Only 35 works by the 17th-century master were known, and Van Meegeren was able to convince the art world that his paintings were the missing link, even if his brushwork was not quite up to the mark.

"They were horrible, but regarded as really early Vermeers as nobody knew how early Vermeers would look," Pijbes said.

The critics Van Meegeren loathed were fooled, and what began as an elaborate revenge plot turned into a handy source of income as he struggled with morphine and alcohol addictions. His ruse continued for years, and he made millions from his Vermeers.

The hoax was uncovered at the end of World War II, when he was arrested for treason, charged with selling Dutch cultural property to the Nazis, specifically a Vermeer to Hermann Goring. His only defence was a full confession. He was jailed for a year in 1947, and died weeks into his sentence.

The identity and motives of the person who cast his death mask remain a mystery. But they created a unique art form, casting the likeness in the middle of a painting palette complete with brushes.

Pijbes has not yet decided what to do with the mask. which is in storage alongside the single Van Meegeren the Rijksmuseum was unlucky enough to acquire.

- Independent