In "Breaking van Gogh," James Grundvig investigates the history and authenticity of van Gogh s iconic "Wheat Field with Cypresses," currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Relying on a vast array of techniques from the study of the painter s biography and personal correspondence to the examination of the painting s style and technical characteristics, Grundvig proves that the most expensive purchase housed in the Met is a fake. The "Wheat Field with Cypresses" is traditionally considered to date to the time of van Gogh s stay in the Saint-Remy mental asylum, where the artist produced many of his masterpieces. After his suicide, these paintings languished for a decade, until his sister-in-law took them to a family friend for restoration. The restorer had other ideas. In the course of his investigation, Grundvig traces the incredible story of this piece from the artist s brushstrokes in sunlit southern France to a forger s den in Paris, the art collections of a prominent Jewish banking family and a Nazi-sympathizing Swiss arms dealer, and finally the walls of the Met. The riveting narrative weaves its way through the turbulent history of twentieth-century Europe, as the painting s fate is intimately bound with some of its major players.".