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Book Chapter
True colors
2010
Overview
At the time of writing - the beginning of the twenty-first century - there isn't a single expert who is willing to speak out in defense of art dealer Otto Wacker's Van Gogh paintings. The generally accepted opinion is that they are all fakes and that most of them were made by the same person, most probably Otto's brother, the painter and restorer Leonhard Heinrich Wacker (born 1895). For a good part of the twentieth century, however, some of these paintings managed to pass for works by Vincent van Gogh, much to the astonishment of chroniclers of the Wacker affair. They point out the questionable aspects of Otto Wacker's career: earlier charges of dealing in forged paintings, the \"art collection\" of a Russian nobleman who was never identified, an unfinished \"Van Gogh\" found by the police in Leonhard's studio, and other incriminating evidence. Why did dealers and experts fail to heed these warnings? What made them take a chance on a man like this? The only possible answer, the chroniclers claim, is that they were corrupt, incompetent, or gullible. Seen from this perspective, the account of the affair is a history of wisdom by hindsight. The chronicler knows how the battle is going to end, sees the role that people and objects have played, and writes about how they were swept along by the current of the times. If only they had been more attentive, they never would have become such willing prey to Wacker's deception! This kind of chronicler is a prophet of the past.
Publisher
Routledge,Amsterdam University Press
Subject
ISBN
9789089641762, 9089641769
