The Washington Post tells the poignant story behind the van Gogh recently authenticated and the collector who cried Vermeer too many times to be taken seriously on the one painting he was absolutely right about:

Hannema became director of the respected Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam in 1921 at age 26. Born to a wealthy art-collecting family, he was talented, successful, good looking and supremely confident in his judgment of art, said Ralph Keuning, the director of Museum de Fundatie.

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands he was given responsibility for all the museums in the country. After the war in 1945 he was arrested and stood trial for collaboration, but he was never convicted and was released from internment two years later.

He continued to add to his own collection, seeking out high quality work by lesser known artists and always looking for unattributed works of masters. He was mistaken nearly all the time.

“He was the laughing stock of the art world,” van Tilborgh said. “His tragedy was that he was always thinking in terms of the big names.”

Van Gogh Experts Authenticate Unusual VG Painting (Washington Post)