Hoax! Podcast – "Van Meegeren’s Vermeers"

Podcast: Hoax!
Hosts: Dana Schwartz & Lizzie Logan
Date: February 2, 2026
Episode Theme: The audacious forgeries of Han Van Meegeren, how he fooled the Nazi art machine and the global art world with "lost Vermeers," and the slippery ethics behind his legend.

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dana and Lizzie explore one of the most jaw-dropping hoaxes in art history: Han Van Meegeren’s fake Vermeers. Against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Europe and WWII art theft, they unravel how Van Meegeren managed to trick top Nazis—including Hermann Göring—art dealers, and even the brightest art experts of the 20th century. The hosts also challenge the myth of Van Meegeren as a folk hero, peeling back layers of legend to reveal the uncomfortable truths beneath the story everyone wants to believe.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage – Art Theft and Occupation (04:00–10:00)

• Context: Nazis looted art on an unprecedented scale, especially from Jewish families. Major Nazis, notably Hermann Göring, became obsessive collectors.
• The Stash: Allies recovered a trove of art, including an alleged Vermeer, “Christ and the Adulteress,” from Göring's collection.
• Acquisition: Art often changed hands through coerceive "sales" or outright theft under threat. The murkiness of “purchasing” under occupation is discussed.
  • Quote: “If you go and you point a gun in someone's face and you say, ‘Sell me this painting for the price that I say,’ like, yeah, you're purchasing it, but… you're also kind of looting it…” – Lizzie (06:25)

2. The Suspicion – Tracing the Vermeer’s Origins (10:06–12:59)

• The Investigation: After WWII, the Allies tracked the looted Vermeer to Han Van Meegeren, a Dutchman.
• Serious Consequences: Selling famous Dutch art to Nazis was seen as treason; in postwar Amsterdam, there was talk of capital punishment for such acts.
• Interrogation & Denials: Van Meegeren initially denied everything, stonewalling until faced with the full threat of prosecution.

3. The First Twist – “I Painted It Myself” (14:01–17:39)

• Ingenious Defense: Faced with death for treason, Van Meegeren’s defense is that he painted the “Vermeer” himself—it’s a forgery, not a national treasure.
  • Quote: “Painted it myself... Can’t send me to my death for selling a Vermeer if it wasn’t a Vermeer.” – Van Meegeren via Lizzie (14:01)
• Verification: Authorities make him prove it, tasking him to “paint for [his] life” under supervision (and, after some protest, with access to alcohol and morphine).

4. The Big Reveal – Van Meegeren’s Confession & Justification (20:31–23:49)

• His Story: Claims he forged to “get one over” on critics who dismissed his art. He framed himself as a misunderstood artist, a “Robin Hood” of art out to humiliate elitist experts.
  • Quote: “I wanted to get one over on the establishment.… and that'll show them that they're not as smart as they think they are and that I'm as good a painter as a Vermeer.” – Van Meegeren via Lizzie (20:59)
• Profit Motive: The judges (and everyone else) point out he also pocketed millions
  • Quote: “If I'd sold it for 12 bucks, no one would have thought it was a real Vermeer…” – Van Meegeren (21:37)
• Outcome: Art forgery brings a prison sentence, not death. Public opinion swoons—Van Meegeren becomes briefly the most popular man in the Netherlands.

5. Peeling Back the Myth (23:49–29:34)

• The Double Hoax: The story Van Meegeren told the court is itself calculated—a new layer of deception.
• The “folk hero” image is at odds with his behavior: he was an opportunist, not a resistance figure.
• Origin Story: Follows Van Meegeren’s life as a failed artist, party scene regular, and career forger skilled in deceit and self-mythologizing.
• He began with forging tempera works before perfecting his Vermeer grift just as Europe descended into war.

6. Technique & The Art Market (29:34–40:12)

• Forging Innovation: He developed credible fakes by:
  • Chemically aging oils with Bakelite and heat
  • Using period materials and brushes
  • Painting in a style not quite like real Vermeer, but more what experts wanted to see—creating a “Biblical phase” for Vermeer that art historians had speculated about.
• Quote: “The thing to do is create an original painting and add a lot of Vermeer touches so… people go, ‘Oh, I didn't know Vermeer did a this.’” – Lizzie (33:10)
• Market Reaction: Experts (notably Abraham Bredius, “the Pope of Vermeer”) fell for the fakes. Museums spent fortunes—up to 60% of their budget—on these paintings.

7. Morality & Pragmatism (41:08–46:12)

• Nazi Collaboration: Van Meegeren sold to whoever paid—Nazi, collaborator, or not. The moral question isn’t simple, especially as the art wasn’t “real.”
• Desperate Times, Opportunistic Crimes: He laundered money into real estate, likely profiting from Amsterdam’s emptied Jewish quarter.
• Nazis as Clients: He sent works, and even dedicated a book “To my beloved Führer.”
  • Quote: “At some point, you gotta make a stand. Do I know if he had hate in his heart? I don’t know. But, like, ugh. There’s pictures of him standing next to SS officers.” – Lizzie (44:57)

8. Aftermath & The Trial (46:12–50:51)

• Nuremberg Context: Compared to Nazi leadership, Van Meegeren’s crimes became less pressing in the public and legal imagination.
• The Dutch public wrestled with whether to see him as a traitor (for selling “national treasures”) or a trickster hero who made idiots of Nazis.
  • Quote: “Either one of our guys has been duping people about one of our favorite guys, Vermeer… or one of our guys is super smart and got one over on one of the really awful guys.” – Lizzie (49:35)
• His light sentence (a year in prison) was influenced by public sympathy and a psychiatric defense about being bummed by poor reviews.
• He died a month after his trial, “going out a hero” in popular memory.

9. Busting the Hero Myth (50:51–53:39)

• Multiple Hoaxes: Nearly every version of the story involves people seeing what they want to see—whether a cuckolded art world, clever forger, or Nazi dupe.
• Quote: “The last big hoax is kind of Van Meegeren’s reputation. You might even say it was forged.” – Lizzie (50:25)
• In reality, Van Meegeren was a talented liar and a con man who managed to write his own legend.

10. The True Hero: Alice Cohn (52:32–53:39)

• Unsung Heroism: Lizzie highlights Alice Cohn, a Jewish forger who risked her life to create fake identity documents that saved hundreds during the Nazi occupation. Her story is presented as authentic heroism compared to Van Meegeren’s opportunistic legend.
  • Quote: “Her entire family was killed by the Nazis, but she survived the war and she got married and had kids… Alice Cohn is the hero.” – Lizzie (53:25)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “They didn’t do the crime because they were busy doing another crime.”
  — Lizzie, describing Van Meegeren’s accidental alibi via forgery (04:31)
• “You gotta paint, paint for your life. You gotta paint for your life. Like, you gotta lip sync for your life, but you gotta lip sync Vermeer.”
  — Lizzie, referencing RuPaul's Drag Race (16:51)
• “Tricking Nazis should be legal.”
  — Dana (21:44)
• “His greatest forgery… his own reputation.”
  — Lizzie (51:25)
• “It sort of is multiple layers of hoaxes, because it’s a lot of people wanting to frame information in the way that they want… and that happened, I feel, like, six different times in this story.”
  — Dana (50:04)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Theme Setting: 02:41–05:04
• Art Thefts & Nazi Looting: 05:04–08:44
• Tracing the Vermeer to Han Van Meegeren: 10:06–12:59
• Van Meegeren’s Confession and Challenge: 14:01–17:39
• Inside the Court, The “I Tricked the Nazis” Story: 20:31–23:49
• Deconstructing the Myth: 23:49–29:34
• Forgery Technique & Market: 29:34–40:12
• Ethical Quandaries & Nazi Collaboration: 41:08–46:12
• Aftermath, Trial, & Reputation: 46:12–51:00
• The Heroic Forger: Alice Cohn: 52:32–53:39

Tone & Style

• The conversation is witty, sardonic, and deeply researched, blending pop culture references with historical insight.
• The hosts are self-aware, at times cheeky, and continuously question received narratives and their own emotional responses to the story’s twists.

Final Takeaway

The Van Meegeren saga is a nest of hoaxes: forgeries fooling experts, self-serving myths rewriting public memory, and a public eager for stories that make them feel clever and righteous. Van Meegeren fooled the Nazis, but he also fooled an entire nation into seeing him as a hero—when the real heroism, as the hosts remind us, belonged to those who saved lives, not reputations or fortunes.

For a folk hero who risked everything for others, the episode spotlights Alice Cohn, whose forgeries truly made a difference.

Contact the Hosts:

• Instagram: @hoaxthepod
• Email: hoaxthepodcastmail.com

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