Chapter 7 July
On 1 July, Alan Leigh-Travers, director of British contemporary and Victorian art at Darcy House, received a polite letter apparently from a fourteen-year-old boy.The boy explained that he was studying fine arts for his GCSE examination and was particularly interested inHe asked where the masterpieces of Rossetti, Millais, and Hunt were on public display.
Alan Leigh-Travers, a man of great etiquette, immediately dictated a letter in which he answered the young man's question in its entirety.When the letter was typed, he signed his name: Sincerely, Alan Leigh-Travers.
The most prestigious academic institution in London for the study, identification and appraisal of works of fine art is without a doubt the Colbert College.Deep in its basement, there is a science laboratory, where rows of powerful research technology instruments are housed.The chief scientist there is Professor Stephen Carpenter.He also received a letter, which seemed to be from a female graduate student who was preparing her dissertation.
The letter writer explained that her chosen subject was twentieth-century art fraud conspiracies and how science can play an active role in exposing fraudsters.
Professor Carpenter happily responded and suggested that she read his book on the subject - available in the bookstore in the College Foyer.He also signed the reply letter himself.
By July 7, Benny Evans had two authentic samples of his handwritten signature.
Susie Day knew that her boss had been a nationally known skilled computer hacker before he went to jail, and after he got out of prison, he rehabilitated and started a company to develop a security system to prevent illegal intrusion into customers' computers.
At lunch one day Susie asked him if he had encountered another type of con artist during his time in jail.He shrugged helplessly as if he didn't know, but he had a mischievous sense of humor and an amazing memory.
In the office three days later, Suzy Day found a note taped to her computer keyboard.The paper just said "Peter the Painter" and a phone number.Not a single word.
On July 10, Trupington Gore entered the back door of the Darcy Building, that is, the door from the back yard where the cargo was unloaded.It was a self-closing door, controlled by an electronic keyboard installed outside, but Benny still remembered the code to open the door.He used to go in and out of there often in order to take a short cut to lunch at a cheap café.
The actor wore a beige duster with Darcy's logo on the breast pocket, much like all the other porters, and he carried a painting with him.It was lunch time.
A porter in a dust jacket, carrying a painting, walks through the corridor of an art auction house, which is comparable to a raindrop falling during a thunderstorm, which will not attract people's attention at all.
After saying sorry several times, it took Truby ten minutes to find an empty office.After he walked in and turned back to lock the door, he rummaged through the desk drawer.When he returned the same way, he also took two pieces of letterhead and two envelopes with trademarks.
Four days later, he visited Colbert College as a tourist and took note of the dust smocks worn by the staff there, before reappearing as Colbert's porter and doing the same. matter.No one ever looked back at him.
At the end of July, Peter the painter wrote two beautiful letters and a laboratory report for them for only one hundred pounds.
For most of the month, Benny has been looking up a man he had heard about years ago, a man who turned heads in the art world.To his great relief the old man was still alive and living a life of poverty in Golders Green.Cory Burnside is a legend in the annals of art fraud.
Years earlier, as a gifted young artist, he had made his way into Bohemian post-war society - the Colonial Club, the Artists' Gathering and Bayswater Studios on Queen's Road.
He got to know the young people in the club: Freud, Bacon, Spencer, even the little boy Hockney.Then they all became famous and married, but he didn't.However, he discovered that he had a talent that was taboo.He cannot create his own work that people are willing to pay for, but he can copy someone else's work.
He researched centuries-old painting techniques, the chemistry of pigments, the role of egg yolk in tempera, and the tricks with which tea and wine can render paintings world-class.Unfortunately, although he gave up drinking tea, he became addicted to alcohol.
At that time, he sold more than a hundred oil paintings on canvas and wood panels acquired from Veronese to greedy and gullible people.Even before he was caught, it was thought that he could whip out a pretty nice painting for you before lunch.
There was a problem after lunch, and the reason was the "little friend" in his mouth.Corley fell in love with this liquid ruby, and it's usually the kind that comes from the hillsides of Bordeaux, France.He was stabbed for trying to sell others what he had painted after lunch.
The shamed and annoyed art world insisted on bringing him to justice, and sent him to a gray building behind bars.There, he became an uncle loved by prison guards and prisoners.
It took years for people in the art world to figure out how many of the paintings on their walls were copies by Burnside.After he himself made a full confession, he received a reduced sentence.After he was released from prison, he was gradually forgotten by people and lived a poor life by drawing sketches for tourists.
Benny took Truby to meet the old man because he thought they could work together, and they did.Both were geniuses who were rejected by the art world.Cory Burnside listened, gleefully savoring the French Upper Médoc that Benny had brought, which was much better than the cheap Chilean merlot he usually drank from Robuy.
"It's wicked, boy, it's wicked," said Burnside, after Benny had finished telling the story and Truby had confirmed that he had lost two million pounds. "And they said I was a liar. , but I can't compare with them at all. But that kind of thing in the past, I'm done with it now. Too old to be useful."
"There will be a pay," Truby said.
"remuneration?"
"Five percent," said Benny.
"Five percent of what?"
Benny leaned forward and whispered something in his ear.Cory Burnside's wet eyes lit up.He seemed to see the Lafite red wine shining crimson under the firelight.
"For that payment, boy, I'll make you a masterpiece. No, not one, but two. Coley's final blow. To hell with them, gentlemen."
Some paintings on old wood panels, although extremely old, are not worth much because of the serious damage, the original paint has almost faded away.Only the old boards still have some value.Benny bought this battered painting after visiting hundreds of antique shops that claimed to sell antiques but actually only sold old and shabby ones.
In a similar emporium he bought a very ugly Victorian painting for ten pounds.It shows two dead partridges hanging from a hook and a double-barreled shotgun leaning against the wall.The title of the painting is "Hunting Bag".Cory Burnside doesn't have to work very hard to copy it, but he has to work hard to appear as lifeless as the original.
On the last day of July, a Scot with a ginger beard and a thick accent walked into the branch of Darcy House in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.This is a small office, but it is in charge of three counties in East Anglia.
"Girl," he said to a woman behind the counter, "I have brought a painting of great value. It was painted by my grandfather a hundred years ago."
He proudly showed her The Hunting Bag.The girl was no expert, but she also thought that the partridge looked as if it had been hit by a car.
"Would you like to value it, sir?"
"Yes, I think so."
Burleigh's office did not have the equipment for an appraisal and had to be sent to London for an appraisal, but she took the painting and took note of the seller's details.The vendor, Hamish McPhee, claimed to live in Sudbury.She had no reason to doubt this.In fact, the address belonged to a small newsstand, but the operator agreed to let Mr. McPhee temporarily use it as a correspondence address and keep correspondence for him, for which he was paid ten pounds a month in extra money.The clumsy Victorian painting was on the next van to London.
Before leaving the Darcy branch office, Mr. McPhee noticed that his grandfather's original work had been stamped with a storage mark: "F608".
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