He only ever wanted to give them what they were looking for.

There had been rumors in the art world for a very long time that the Dutch master Johannes

Vermeer had painted a series of biblical scenes, but no one knew where they were, so Henry

helped them find them.

The painting he sold them in 1937 called The Supper at Emmaus was hardened and cracked

with age, but it was beautiful.

And it came with a sort of price tag you'd expect from a rare, lost masterpiece, something

close to $4.5 million today.

All of a sudden, Henry was a very rich man.

Over the next few years he earned even more money, roughly 30 million today, all from

selling long lost Vermeer paintings he had found.

But the truth was harder to believe.

Somehow, this man had painted all of them himself, imitating the style of Vermeer so closely

that the experts had been tricked.

Then he treated them with chemicals and heat to add what three centuries of aging should

have done.

Henry Van Miegerin's deception came to light only after selling one of his paintings to

a well-known Nazi leader.

After World War II ended, the art world assumed that he had sold a national treasure to the

enemy and he was tried on conspiracy charges.

The only way to prove his innocence was to come clean and reveal his scam.

History is full of people getting fooled.

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