Jamie Newell – Lyrebird

Jamie features as a Prison Clerk in Lyrebird, a World War II thriller produced by Ridley Scott and Imperative Entertainment and directorial debut by Dan Freidkin. Which was released this autumn. 

Starring Guy Pearce and Phantom Thread‘s Vicky Kreips, it tells the true story of notorious Dutch painter Han van Meegeren, considered one of the finest and most ingenious art forgers of the 20th Century, believed to have duped art collectors out of over $215 million in today’s money. 

He would make his name forging works by the Dutch Old Masters so effectively that world-renowned art experts believed them to be genuine masterpieces.

He entered Dutch folklore (and the nightmares of art collectors everywhere) for his actions during World War II, selling counterfeit paintings by Vermeer and other Old Masters to Nazi officials including Hermann Göring, swindling the German High Command out of millions. 

He was arrested under the charges of collaborating with the Nazis by the newly-restored Dutch government but after admitting that the paintings he sold were nothing but very convincing forgeries, he was instead given a year’s imprisonment for falsification and fraud which is getting off pretty damn lightly compared to being executed for high treason. 

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