On May 17, 1945, barely nine days after the capitulation of Germany, an Allied regiment took possession of a priority objective, an... Austrian salt mine! The galleries of the Altaussee mine actually contain something to make your mouth water: more than six thousand works of art looted from the four corners of Europe! Hitler had his works stolen for his museum project, the "Führermuseum" in Linz, and Marshal Goering put part of his private collection there to protect them from bombings.
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At work, the American "monuments men", a unit created by President Roosevelt and made up of art specialists responsible for finding across Europe works of art stolen by the Nazis and returning them to their legitimate owners. Among the thousands of masterpieces that the "monuments men" find in the mine's galleries, they discover an unlisted Vermeer, a painting that is not found in any catalog, a ghost painting: Christ and the Adulteress.
The Americans then follow the trail of the painting, which leads them to the Nazi banker Alois Miedl. He gives them the name of the accomplice who sold him the work, a rich Dutchman.
On May 29, 1945, the Dutch police rang the doorbell of a painter and art dealer, Han van Meegeren. Stunned, Meegeren is arrested and charged with plundering Dutch national treasures for the enemy, a crime for which he simply faces life in prison. After three days in prison, Han van Meegeren realizes that he has no choice but to confess to avoid ending his life behind bars. Confessions which surprise his accusers, because van Meegeren maintains that he did not commit the crime of which he is accused, since the Vermeer he sold... is not one!
To everyone's surprise, he very seriously asserts that Christ and the Adulteress is only a fake that he painted himself.
Better yet, not only does Meegeren claim the paternity of this Christ, but he also claims that during the six years he spent in the south of France, in Roquebrune Cap-Martin, he painted a few dozen fake Vermeers, including some hang in the biggest museums. The investigators and judges refuse to believe the painter, the case is too big, impossible.
So van Meegeren makes a simple proposition: he can paint a “new” Vermeer in front of witnesses. Between July and November 1945, he therefore performed a new work, Christ in the Temple, before a commission of experts commissioned by the court. The stunned experts must face the facts: Meegeren has produced a perfect falsification that can confuse any specialist.
Director: Frédéric Tonolli
Authors: Frédéric Tonolli and Patrick Pesnot
© MANO A MANO - 2017
SHK
2 мар 2024
