Breaking Van Gogh: Saint-R駑y, Forgery, and the $95 Million Fake at the Met (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781510707801)

In Breaking van Gogh, James Grundvig investigates the history and authenticity of van Gogh's iconic Wheat Field with Cypresses, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Relying on a vast array of techniques from the study of the painter's biography and personal correspondence to the examination of the painting's style and technical characteristics, Grundvig proves that "the most expensive purchase" housed in the Met is a fake.

The Wheat Field with Cypresses is traditionally considered to date to the time of van Gogh's stay in the Saint-R my mental asylum, where the artist produced many of his masterpieces. After his suicide, these paintings languished for a decade, until his sister-in-law took them to a family friend for restoration. The restorer had other ideas.

In the course of his investigation, Grundvig traces the incredible story of this piece from the artist's brushstrokes in sunlit southern France to a forger's den in Paris, the art collections of a prominent Jewish banking family and a Nazi-sympathizing Swiss arms dealer, and finally the walls of the Met. The riveting narrative weaves its way through the turbulent history of twentieth-century Europe, as the painting's fate is intimately bound with some of its major players.

Author: James Ottar Grundvig
ISBN-10: 1510707808
ISBN-13: 9781510707801
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Language: English
Published: 10/04/2016
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 1.20d