Cristo e l'adultera

In 1943, in occupied Amsterdam, Hermann Goring paid about 1.65 million guilders for this painting, one of the largest sums anyone had yet handed over for a single picture. He believed he was buying a Vermeer, a lost religious scene by the 17th-century Dutch master. What he was actually buying was a canvas Han van Meegeren had painted a year or two before, its surface aged with synthetic resin and a baking oven so the cracks looked centuries old. When Allied officers found it in Goring's hoard after the war and traced the sale back through the dealers, van Meegeren was arrested for handing a national treasure to the enemy. His defence was that there was no treasure to hand over. To prove it, he painted a fresh 'Vermeer' under guard. Look at the upper left and the forged signature is still there, the little false monogram where he signed as the man he was impersonating.