Saturday, 14 October 2017

When We Visit Museums,

we go to see famous painting, sculptures, works of art, etc,


like this one, Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus by Johannes Vermeer, except at this museum it is not, it is a fake, 

as is everything else in the Museum Of Art Fakes, in Vienna, if are thinking about purchasing an expensive paintings, you should know there is a chance you are buying a forgery, there is in fact a study that shows that roughly half of the works of art sold throughout the world might be forged, or more 70% of Chagall's, 90% of Dali's and numerous van Gogh's, and now the bad news for the super rich, if the work of art is a Rembrandt, a Picasso or a Renoir, you should know the odds are even higher, and their forger is certainly Edgar Mrugalla, throughout his life, the German painter, has already forged about 3500 paintings by famous artists, He has painted every Rembrandt, Picasso, Renoir, Klimt, Macke and countless other artists, but never Dali, You see, Mrugalla didn't like the Spanish painter, the story and trial of Edgar is a fascinating one, 

in May 1945, Van Meegeren, above at his trial, was arrested, charged with collaborating with the enemy and imprisoned, His name had been traced to the sale made during WW II of what was then believed to be an authentic painting Vermeer to Nazi Field-Marshal Hermann Goering, shortly after, to general disbelief, Van Meegeren came up with a very original defence against the accusation of collaboration, then punishable by death, He claimed that the painting, The Woman Taken in Adultery, was not a Vermeer but rather a forgery by his own hand, moreover, since he had traded the false Vermeer for 200 original Dutch paintings seized by Goering in the beginning of he war, Van Meegeren believed that he was a national hero rather than a Nazi collaborator, He also claimed to have painted five other "Vermeers" as well as two "Pieter de Hoochs" all of which had surfaced on the art market since 1937, to say he made a fortune is an understatement, from the article, 

He bought dozens of houses and hotels, but even then he could not exhaust his wealth, so he hid hundreds of thousands of guilders in gardens, heating ducts and under the floorboards of his many properties. Often he would forget where he had hidden the money, and 30 years after his death, the Dutch were still turning up cashboxes stuffed with pre-war notes,

for a good read over a coffee the full article is here, and for the museum,

Opening Times:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (different opening times in the winter)
Entrance Fees:
Adults                                                                            5,70 Euro
Pensioner, persons with disabilities & student (-27)     5,00 Euro
Children (11-18)                                                            3,20 Euro

Children (-10)                                                                Entrance free


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