Focus on The Procuress (Dirck van Baburen) and analyze the The Courtauld Institute version.
In 1960, Geoffrey Webb presented a version of the painting to the Courtauld Institute. At the end of the Second World War, he had been an allied officer in Europe investigating art works looted by the Nazis. He believed it was a fake painted by Han van Meegeren, and he presented it to the Courtauld as such. In his own defense, van Meegeren claimed that the painting had been bought in an antique shop by his wife. Although the painting was initially believed to be a fake, its authenticity remained controversial, and in 2009 a scientific study indicated that the painting was likely to be genuine, as no modern pigments were found. A spokesperson for the gallery stated that they were "surprised" by the results, but that the evidence indicated that it was "likely to be a 17th-century painting".Following this, the BBC TV programme Fake or Fortune? conducted a further investigation. The resulting film was first shown July 2011. Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce traveled to Amsterdam where they obtained samples of the paints used by van Meegeren. These included an artificial resin which turned out to be Bakelite. The use of Bakelite had the effect of hardening the paint and thus making it difficult to detect that it was new. Chemical analysis showed Bakelite in the Courtauld painting, thus confirming that it was a modern forgery. Van Meegeren is the only forger known to have used this technique, so the painting was attributed to him. It was probably intended to be used as a prop in Vermeer forgeries. Ironically, it is  now more valuable as a van Meegeren forgery than as a 17th-century studio copy.
Fake or Fortune? Bakelite Courtauld Institute Second World War Han van Meegeren Philip Mould Fiona Bruce Vermeer BBC Geoffrey Webb