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Magdalena nodded.
“How did you know that Monsieur Fleury would be interested in going into business with you?”
“He acquired a painting from my father once and convenientlyforgot to pay for it. Even by the reduced standards of the art world, Monsieur Fleury was an unscrupulous worm.”
“How did you play it with him?”
“Straight up.”
“He had no qualms about selling forgeries?”
“None whatsoever. But he insisted on subjecting one of our pictures to scientific analysis before agreeing to handle them.”
“What did you give him?”
“A Frans Hals portrait. And do you know what Monsieur Fleury did with it?”
“He showed it to the future president of the Louvre. And the future president of the Louvre gave it to the National Center for Research and Restoration, which affirmed its authenticity. And now the forged Frans Hals portrait is part of the Louvre’s permanent collection, along with a Gentileschi, a Cranach, and the most delicious little Van der Weyden you’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“Not the outcome Phillip expected. But quite an accomplishment nonetheless.”
“How many fakes did the two of you move through Galerie Fleury?”
“Somewhere between two and three hundred.”
“How was Fleury compensated?”
“The first sales were consignment deals.”
“And after that?”
“Phillip purchased the gallery through an anonymous shell corporation in 2014. For all intents and purposes, Monsieur Fleury was an employee of Masterpiece Art Ventures.”
“When did Galerie Hassler in Berlin come under your control?”
“The following year.”
“I’m told you have a distribution point in Brussels.”
“Galerie Gilles Raymond on the rue de la Concorde.”
“Am I missing any?”
“Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Dubai. And all of it flows into the coffers of Masterpiece Art Ventures.”
“The greatest scam in the history of the art world,” said Gabriel. “And it might well have gone on forever if Phillip hadn’t purchasedPortrait of an Unknown Womanfrom Isherwood Fine Arts of London.”
“It was your friend Sarah Bancroft’s fault,” said Magdalena. “If she hadn’t bragged about the sale to that reporter fromARTnews, the Frenchwoman would have never known about it.”
Which brought them, at half past two in the morning, to Madame Valerie Bérrangar.
