Here’s a summary of the text with the requested annotations:
The author Miles Mathis argues that the National Gallery’s decision to remove Girl with a Flute from its Vermeer collection, announced on October 8, 2022, is not a coincidence but a direct response to his previous exposé of the entire Vermeer project. He claims that major museums are attempting to “spin” the situation to save their reputations and collections, starting with this “fake Vermeer.” Mathis criticizes the justifications provided for removing the painting, such as it being “clumsy” and “awkward,” arguing that these flaws are obvious and were previously ignored by art experts. He details specific artistic failings in Girl with a Flute, including a poorly painted hand with missing fingers, an asymmetrical head, and incongruous background elements resembling Gauguin.
Mathis further asserts that the National Gallery has other fake Vermeers in storage and that the justifications for accepting these paintings as genuine are absurd. He points out stylistic inconsistencies and apparent repainting in other purported Vermeers, suggesting that the entire oeuvre was fabricated in the 19th century by individuals like art critic Theophile Thore-Burger and Rijksmuseum director Victor de Stuers to inflate the value of existing artworks. He highlights The Glass of Wine in Berlin as a potentially genuine and superior painting, unlike the other “Vermeers” which he believes were created through a “conjob” for financial gain and money laundering, particularly since the 1970s with the involvement of banks.
He questions whether art professionals are willfully ignorant or actively malicious, believing that directors, curators, gallery owners, and top critics are aware of the deception. Mathis concludes by criticizing the Epoch Times and art writer Lorraine Ferrier for attempting to defend the Vermeer narrative, citing a recent article that promotes the idea of Vermeer having a studio based on the painting being reattributed to “studio of Vermeer.” He debunks this, emphasizing that the lack of provenance and stylistic differences in paintings like Girl with a Flute and Girl with a Red Hat indicate they are not by Vermeer, and that the financial motivations behind the “Vermeer project” remain the driving force behind these ongoing deceptions. The author is ultimately concerned with the “money laundering” aspect and the deliberate misdirection within the art world.
List of Subjects, Names, References, Locations, Companies, etc.:
- Miles Mathis
- National Gallery
- Girl with a Flute
- Vermeer
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- Washington Post
- Arthur Wheelock
- Metropolitan Museum
- Walter Liedtke
- Gauguin
- Philip Kennicott
- The Glass of Wine
- Berlin
- Theophile Thore-Burger
- Rijksmuseum
- Victor de Stuers
- Baroness Beyens
- Oppenheims
- Gouins
- Buckingham Palace
- Botticelli
- Leonardo
- Sothebys
- Christies
- Epoch Times
- Lorraine Ferrier
- Girl with a Red Hat
- Kaywin Feldman