Solar Dance: Van Gogh, Forgery, and the Eclipse of Certainty [Book Review]

Abstract

Modris Eksteins's Solar Dance centers on one of the most famous art forgery cases of the twentieth century, the trial in Weimar Berlin of Otto Wacker, dancer turned art dealer, for the forgery of thirty-four works attributed to Vincent Van Gogh. Wacker's fakes were first detected in late 1927, when they were to appear in a major exhibition of the painter's works held in collaboration with the famous Cassirer gallery, which had done so much to make Van Gogh one of the most admired modern painters in Germany. Eventually brought to trial in April 1932, Wacker was found guilty of knowingly passing off fakes; his appeal failed, and he was condemned to nineteen months in prison and to pay a large fine.

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