A Dutch museum has just put its fake Van Gogh on show

The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo has put a forged Van Gogh on display—Seascape at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (dated 1925–27)—in an exhibition running until 21 June, alongside a Dutch-language podcast about how the museum acquired it, The Art Newspaper reported. Museum founder Helene Kröller-Müller bought the painting in December 1928 on the advice of H.P. Bremmer, via a Hague gallery from Berlin dealer Otto Wacker, for the equivalent of about $18,000, but doubts arose quickly. In January 1930, Van Gogh catalogue raisonné author Jacob-Baart de la Faille wrote that it was “a very beautiful work, but not by Van Gogh,” and later evidence suggested it was made after an authentic Van Gogh drawing published in 1911 and shown at Wacker’s gallery in 1927. Wacker was convicted of fraud in 1932 for selling a large group of fake Van Goghs; the museum removed this work from display in 1947 and now believes it was painted by Wacker’s younger brother, Leonhard.

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