Showing posts with label Amsterdam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amsterdam. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Cheating Hermann Goering

Hermann Goering was the number two in Nazi Germany after Adolf Hitler. Apart from being an arch Nazi, he was an avid if incompetent collector of art stolen at his behest all over Europe. But sometimes he bought art and paid for it with equally stolen money. One of the pictures he bought was a forgery. It was so cunningly falsified it almost cost its creator his head after the war. 


Monday, October 8, 2012

Prime Minister for Dinner Anyone?

Johan de Witt was Grand Pensionary of Holland, an office with powers similar to that of a Prime Minister cum Foreign Secretary combined. He led the country during the first stadtholder-less time from 1650 to 1672 when Republicans saw their chance to get more power for themselves personally at the expense of the House of Orange.