Werner von Hausen

Werner von Hausen made copies so exact they fooled experts, but his metal reliefs tell a different story. While copying Fragonard’s sleeping bacchante and Simone Memmi’s Madonna in paint, he hammered the Madonna’s face into silver so thin you can read the newsprint behind it. Why he did it stays a guess, but his Pompeii street scene in oil captures the moment before the ash fell—empty shops, a lone lantern still burning. Find his metal Self-Portrait next to it; the eyes are chased so deep they look back.