This is a painting called The Supper at Emmaus. Its subject is
the story in the 24th chapter of Luke’s gospel, and the story of
the painting is itself quite a tale. It was discovered from
obscurity in 1937 by the Dutch painter Hans van Meegeren, and it
was acclaimed by experts as a heretofore unknown masterpiece of
the legendary 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer. Soon other
previous unknown Vermeers began to surface thanks to his
efforts. During the occupation by the Nazis, van Meegeren sold
some of the paintings to the loathsome Hermann Göring for the
equivalent of millions of dollars. After the war, the Dutch were
understandably upset about this act of cultural betrayal and van
Meegeren was put on trial for his crime. The penalty would have
been severe, but van Meegeren dropped a bombshell: He had not
actually sold any Vermeer paintings, he claimed. He had forged
all of the paintings, leaving Göring holding a fake rather than
an actual cultural treasure. The penalty for such fraud was much
less steep, a