The Art Forger
The Art Forger is built on the foundation of a true story: the 1990 heist of thirteen famous works of art valued at $500 million dollars from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The paintings have never been recovered, and the frames still hang empty in the museum's galleries.
Twenty years later, painter Claire Roth is approached by a powerful art dealer with the unusual and illegal job offer of forging a painting. In return, he offers the one thing she can't turn down: a solo art show at his gallery. Claire hesitantly agrees, but the painting isn't any old masterpiece — it's one of the thirteen stolen from the Gardner.
Quote:
"As Markel strips away the final layer and the painting is uncovered, I'm momentarily confused. My first thought is that it's not a real Degas. That it can't be. Then I gasp. Not only is this a real Degas, it's a Degas I've seen before. Many times."
Author:
B.A. Shapiro is the author of The Art Forger, The Safe Room, Blind Spot, See No Evil, Blameless, Shattered Echoes, The Big Squeeze, and several screenplays. She has taught at both Tufts University and Northeastern University, and lives in Boston.
Published: 2012
Length: 356 pages
Set in: Boston, Massachusetts