Editing Han van Meegeren (section)

===Hermann Göring===
[[File:Jesus unter den Schriftgelehrten von Han van Meegeren.jpg|thumb|Han van Meegeren's ''Jesus among the Doctors'', also called ''Young Christ in the Temple'' (1945).]]

In 1942, during the [[German occupation of the Netherlands]], one of van Meegeren's agents sold the Vermeer forgery ''Christ with the Adulteress'' to Nazi banker and art dealer [[Alois Miedl]]. Experts could probably have identified it as a forgery; as van Meegeren's health declined, so did the quality of his work. He chain-smoked, drank heavily, and became addicted to [[morphine]]-laced sleeping pills. However, there were no genuine Vermeers available for comparison, since most museum collections were in protective storage as a prevention against war damage.<ref>{{harvnb|Bailey|2002|p=255}}</ref>

Nazi ''[[Reichsmarschall]]'' [[Hermann Göring]] traded 137 [[Nazi plunder|looted paintings]] for ''Christ with the Adulteress''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2008-07-12 |title=How Mediocre Dutch Artist Cast 'The Forger's Spell' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92483237 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124124838/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92483237 |archive-date=2018-11-24 |access-date=2018-04-03 |work=[[NPR]] |language=en-US}}</ref> On 25 August 1943, Göring hid his collection of looted artwork, including ''Christ with the Adulteress'', in an [[Austria]]n salt mine, along with 6,750 other pieces of artwork looted by the Nazis. On 17 May 1945, Allied forces entered the salt mine and [[List of Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives personnel|Captain Harry Anderson]] discovered the painting.<ref name=Morris>{{Cite news |author-link=Errol Morris |last=Morris |first=Errol |date=2009-06-01 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/bamboozling-ourselves-part-4/ |title=Bamboozling Ourselves (Part 4) |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |department=Blogs |access-date=2022-11-10}}</ref>

In May 1945, the Allied forces questioned Miedl regarding the newly discovered Vermeer. Based on Miedl's confession, the painting was traced back to van Meegeren. On 29 May 1945, he was arrested and charged with [[fraud]] and [[aiding and abetting]] the enemy. He was remanded to the Weteringschans prison as an alleged [[Pursuit of Nazi collaborators|Nazi collaborator]] and plunderer of Dutch cultural property, threatened by the authorities with the death penalty.<ref name= Wynne2006/> He labored over his predicament, but eventually confessed to forging paintings attributed to Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch.<ref name="Kreuger2007"/> He exclaimed, "The painting in Göring's hands is not, as you assume, a Vermeer of Delft, but a van Meegeren! I painted the picture!"<ref>{{harvnb|Schueller|1953|p=16}}</ref> It took some time to verify this, and van Meegeren was detained for several months in the Headquarters of the Military Command at Herengracht 458 in Amsterdam.<ref>{{harvnb|Kreuger|2007|p=146}}</ref>

Van Meegeren painted his last forgery between July and December 1945 in the presence of reporters and court-appointed witnesses: ''Jesus among the Doctors'', also called ''Young Christ in the Temple''<ref>{{harvnb|Kreuger|2007|pp=152–155}}</ref> in the style of Vermeer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jesus Among the Doctors |url=http://www.tnunn.ndo.co.uk/doctors.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824023336/http://www.tnunn.ndo.co.uk/doctors.htm |archive-date=2013-08-24 |work=tnunn.ndo.co.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Van Meegeren's Fake Vermeer's |url=http://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826080106/http://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.html |archive-date=2015-08-26 |access-date=2012-07-08 |publisher=Essential Vermeer}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=February 2024}} After completing the painting, he was transferred to the fortress prison ''Blauwkapel''. Van Meegeren was released from prison in January or February 1946.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}