Han van Meegeren was an artist who felt underappreciated and thought he could trick art experts into admitting his genius. This lie resulted from a classic case of wanting to please the critics. Seven decades after duping the art world into embracing a fake as "the masterpiece" of Johannes Vermeer, its creator now has his own exhibition in a Dutch museum he once conned out of a small fortune. In history, this has often resulted in elaborate hoaxes, perjuries and forgeries that had enormous ripple effects.Ī visitor looks at paintings by Han van Meegeren May 11, 2010, in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. But for many, deceit holds the key to money, fame, revenge or power, and these prove all too tempting. Unfortunately, in the annals of history, it seems there are 10 dishonest scoundrels for every honorable hero like Washington. (It was invented by one Washington's first biographers after Washington's death.) Still by most accounts, it appears that Washington was a man of high moral character. The story is testament to how much respect Americans have for their cherished first president and honesty in general, even though, ironically, the story is not true. Young George Washington tells his father he chopped down the cherry tree in this illustration, an incident experts say never happened.Īccording to legend, a young George Washington confessed to cutting down a cherry tree by proclaiming to his father, "I cannot tell a lie." His father embraced him for telling the truth and declared that honesty was more valuable than a thousand trees.
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