The Forger's Spell - Edward Dolnick [154]
“The whole population seemed to be”…Ibid.
Grabbing anything they could carry…Ibid., and Howe, p. 190.
a Monuments Man named James Rorimer…James Rorimer, Survival: The Salvage and Protection of Art in War, p. 199.
The Germans had flung tapestries…Nicholas, p. 320, and David Irving, p. 470.
The American soldiers collected…Nicholas, p. 320, and Alford, p. 37.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE: THE NEST EGG
Maj. Harry Anderson…Howe, p. 191, and “Goering Gave Nurse a $1,000,000 Vermeer,”
New York Times, May 22, 1945.
“A large bedroom was almost filled”…White, pp. 72–74.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR: TRAPPED!
“such a collection of what men call wealth”…White, p. 65.
tagged as item 5295…Nancy Yeide, personal communication, Oct. 3, 2005. Yeide is head of the Department of Curatorial records at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She is completing a catalog of Goering’s entire painting collection.
rumors of “hatchet day”…Maass, p. 245.
Before a Dutch policeman…Harry van Wijnen, personal communication, May 12, 2006.
Some 120,000 Dutch collaborators…The Dutch resistance Museum, p. 117.
a middleman did the actual work…Kraaijpoel and Van Wijnen.
secretly supported the resistance…Theodore Rousseau reported Miedl’s claim. See “Stylistic Detection,” p. 252.
in the gray area between…Lynn Nicholas, personal communication, May 4, 2006.
At the end of a tangled and dubious…Nicholas, p. 106.
Rienstra told Van Meegeren he was done…Kraaijpoel and Van Wijnen.
To get his money he would have to…Van Meegeren would later claim that he had never meant for Adultery to leave Holland and had certainly not wanted it to fall into German hands. He told his version of the story, in which it was Rienstra who took all the initiative, to a reporter from the Amersfoortse Courant, on July 19, 1946: “The painting Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery was hanging in my house when on a certain day Mr. Rienstra van Stuyvesande paid me a visit and showed great interest in a genuine Frans Hals that I owned. I didn’t want to sell that painting, but I showed him my ‘Vermeer’ instead. My visitor seemed interested and thought he could sell the painting for 2-million guilders. I emphasized that he should be careful not to sell the ‘Vermeer’ to Germany, but when he returned six weeks later I was startled to hear that the painting had been sold for 1,650,000 guilders to a certain Miedl, well known as a buyer for Goering. Since it would have been foolish to leave the proceeds to the middleman, I accepted, after some hesitation, a sum of 1,500,000 guilders for the painting.”
This was a lie. The reason Van Meegeren enlisted Rienstra in the first place was because of his ties to Miedl. And to deal with Miedl meant to deal with Goering.
Most forgers are finally caught…Jones, p. 15.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE: “I PAINTED IT MYSELF!”
Now Piller took it over…The description of Goudstikker’s dealership is from Frederik Kreuger, De Arrestatie van een Meestervervalser, p. 25. (The title means The Arrest of a Master Forger.)
They quickly found hoards…Harry van Wijnen, personal communication, May 28, 2006.
The penalty for treason…Author interview with Van Wijnen, Aug. 25, 2005.
“But what sort of nightclubs?”…Ibid.
Piller had unimpeachable testimony…Ibid.
paper was in such short supply…Maass, p. 208.
notorious Dutch Nazi named Martien Beversluis…Lopez, Sept. 29, 2006.
X-ray Goering’s “Vermeer”…Kreuger, De Arrestatie, p. 21, and Coremans, plate 55.
“I painted other Vermeers”…Kreuger, De Arrestatie, p. 21.
Sixty years later, a woman who worked…Frederik Kreuger interviewed Mrs. Pieternella van Waning-Heemskerk for De Arrestatie.
House arrest in such plush…This account, including the description of Van Meegeren working with Coremans and Froentjes, is based on Kreuger, De Arrestatie, p. 26.
“One unlucky day”…Schüller, p. 97.
“Nearly every story”…See, for instance, “Masterpieces Only,” Time, July 30, 1945, and “Dutch Cast Doubt on New Vermeers,” New York Times, July 24, 1945.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX: COMMAND PERFORMANCE
Piller agreed that someone…Harry van Wijnen, author interview,