Breaking van Gogh: Saint-Remy, Forgery, and the $95 Million Fake at the Met

Description

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-Remy 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.

James Grundvig is an investigative journalist who has published over 100 articles on a diverse array of topics in the Huffington Post, the Financial Times, and the Epoch Times, among other media outlets. He is a lifelong Vincent van Gogh fan and has now decided to devote his passion and forensic expertise to the master artist. He lives in New York City.

"[In this investigation,] written like a detective novel, journalist James Grundvig takes the reader on a rollicking ride through the high-stakes world of art and art forgery. Breaking Van Gogh is a fast-paced and engrossing expose of the shady underbelly of the art world." Robert K. Wittman, founder of the FBI's Art Crime Team and New York Times bestselling author of Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures "[In this investigation,] written like a detective novel, journalist James Grundvig takes the reader on a rollicking ride through the high-stakes world of art and art forgery. Breaking Van Gogh is a fast-paced and engrossing expose of the shady underbelly of the art world." Robert K. Wittman, founder of the FBI's Art Crime Team and New York Times bestselling author of Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures