Theo van Wijngaarden (27 February 1874, Rotterdam – 4 November 1952, Voorburg) was a Dutch art forger.
Van Wijngaarden was born in Rotterdam and later lived in The Hague.Associated often with fellow art forger Han van Meegeren, van Wijngaarden was a lesser artist whose legitimate income came largely from restoration, working with cheaply purchased pictures and moving them to other areas of Europe to sell for a profit.[1] He worked on several of van Meegeren's forgeries, including Frans Hals and Smiling Girl, a painting once thought to be a work of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, akin to his Girl with a Pearl Earring and donated by collector Andrew W. Mellon to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1937.[2] [3] Van Wijngaarden often served as the front man, making the sales deals on van Meegeren's forgeries.[4]