Otto Wacker (1898–1970) was a German

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...

who became infamous for commissioning and selling

forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

of paintings by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

. He had gained a good reputation in the 1920s after false starts in various other professions. Since the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he lived in East Berlin. A study of his life and times has been written by

Modris Eksteins Modris Eksteins ( lv, Modris Ekšteins; born December 13, 1943) is a Latvian Canadian historian with a special interest in German history and modern culture. Born in Riga, Latvia, his works include ''Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of ...

Wacker's Case

Otto Wacker became an art dealer in 1925. He developed a reputation for reliability in the art field. The fraudulent Van Goghs were probably the work of his brother, the painter and restorer Leonhard Wacker. Otto's father, Hans, was also an artist. Wacker managed to convince prominent Van Gogh experts

Jacob Baart de la Faille Jacob Baart de la Faille (1 June 1886, Leeuwarden – 7 August 1959, Heemstede) compiled the first ''catalogue raisonné'' of the work of Vincent van Gogh, published in 1928. The catalogue was revised and republished by an editorial committee in ...

, Hendrik P. Bremmer,

Julius Meier-Graefe , ro, Reșița), Resicabánya Dist., Krassó-Szörény Co, Bánság, Royal Hungary, Imperial and Royal Austria(now Romania) , death_date = , death_place = Vevey, VD, Switzerland , nationality = German, Hungarian German ...

and that the paintings he was selling were genuine and they supplied certificates of authenticity without proof of

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

. These experts accepted his account that a Russian had bought the paintings, transferred them to Switzerland illegally, and had commissioned an illegal agent to sell them. They understood the need for this Russian to remain anonymous in order to prevent reprisals from relatives who still lived in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Thannhauser, Matthiesen and Goldschmidt galleries bought some of the paintings. Wacker's paintings were to be exhibited in January 1928 by the firm of

Paul Cassirer Paul Cassirer (21 February 1871, in Görlitz – 7 January 1926, in Berlin) was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Im ...

in Berlin. It was organized to coincide with the publication of de la Faille's standard catalogue of Van Gogh's work. When Wacker delivered the last four paintings, and , the general managers of the exhibition, noticed the differences and recognized them as fakes. The canvases were returned to Wacker. Further investigation revealed 33 suspect paintings, all of them supplied by Wacker. Galleries that had sold his paintings asked their customers to return them. Hugo Perls, an art dealer and lawyer who had bought several paintings, still insisted that they were authentic.For

Hugo Perls Hugo Perls (24 May 1886–1977 was an international art dealer, historian, philosopher and notable collector born in Rybnik in Upper Silesia. During his lifetime, he witnessed his homeland change from its German origins to Polish. He studied law, p ...

' view of the Wacker affair see: Hugo Perls, ''Warum ist Camilla schön?'' Von Kunst, Künstlern und Kunsthandel, München 1962. pp. ???. In December 1928 the Matthiesen gallery, with the aid of the Federation of German Art and Antique Dealers, sued Wacker. De la Faille responded to the accusations by publishing a supplement to his catalogue in November 1928, which listed all the paintings supplied by Wacker as fakes. In 1930 de la Faille published ''Les faux van Goghs'' (''The False Van Goghs'') which again listed the suspect paintings among 174 that he regarded as forgeries. In May 1929 the studios of Wacker's father and brother were raided by police, who seized nine paintings from Hans and twelve from Leonhard. The latter claimed that the paintings were only in his studio for restoration. The

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in Berlin analysed the paints used in the seized artworks; they discovered the presence of a resin used to accelerate the drying process, which had not been found in any genuine van Goghs. The trial against Wacker began on 6 April 1932. Vincent Willem van Gogh, nephew of the painter, gave the first evidence at the trial and stated that family records did not include any Russian who would have purchased any paintings. De la Faille, on the other hand, had changed his mind once again and claimed that five of the paintings were genuine. During the trial, various experts did not come to full agreement on what paintings were authentic (and the argument was to continue in some circles for years afterwards). Bremmer argued that at least 9 paintings were genuine. Meier-Grafe admitted his mistake and even that the expert opinion could be fallible. Hans Rosenhagen said that 14 of the works were inferior but genuine. However, the Dutch restorer A M de Wild found that the pigments used in the paintings were not similar to those Van Gogh had used. Art restorer Kurt Wehlte showed with X-rays that the painting techniques were different (although he used a painting that was declared a forgery in the 1970s). Later it was found that the paintings had not been painted on French canvases at all. On 19 April 1932 Wacker was charged with fraud, and after an appeal, was sentenced to 19 months in prison and a fine of . Some former directors of the Bank für Deutsche Beamte, who had been speculating on the paintings on behalf of the bank, were sued. A few of the incriminated paintings have disappeared since the close of the affair.

References

Bibliography

, ''Solar Dance. Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age'', Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 2012. *''Van Gogh: Mythos und Wirklichkeit '', Stefan Koldehoff, DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne, 2003 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wacker, Otto 1898 births 1970 deaths Art forgers German art dealers Vincent van Gogh 20th-century German painters 20th-century male artists German male painters