The Modigliani Scandal - Hardcover

Follett, Ken

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688051197 ISBN 13: 9780688051198

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1985

Synopsis

This suspense thriller turns on the existence of an unknown masterpiece that inspires intrigue and treachery among a dealer, an art historian, a gallery owner and a young painter of genius

About this title

About the Author

Ken Follett is the author of numerous international bestsellers, including Jackdaws, Hornet Flight, Code to Zero, Triple, Eye of the Needle, Pillars of the Earth, and A Dangerous Fortune. He lives in England.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction

 

PART ONE - Priming the Canvas

I

II

III

IV

V

 

PART TWO - The Landscape

I

II

III

IV

V

 

PART THREE - Figures in the Foreground

I

II

III

IV

V

 

PART FOUR - The Varnish

I

II

III

IV

V

 

The Modigliani Scandal

A high-speed, high-stakes thriller from Ken Follett,
the grand master of international action and
suspense

 

A fabulous ″lost masterpiece″ becomes the ultimate prize-for an art historian whose ambition consumes everyone around her, an angry young painter with a plan for revenge on the art establishment, and a desperate gallery owner who may have double-crossed his own life away. Behind the elegance and glamour of the art world, anything goes—theft, forgery, betrayal, and maybe even murder....

PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF KEN FOLLETT

JACKDAWS

″[A] celebration of uncommon courage and unlikely heroes.″

—People

″Great entertainment.″

—The Baltimore Sun

 

CODE TO ZERO

″Gripping.″

—The New York Times

″This spy thriller is Follett at his best.″

—People

 

THE HAMMER OF EDEN

″Hammer will nail readers to their seats.″

—People

″Follett ratchets up the Richter scale of suspense.″

—USA Today

 

THE THIRD TWIN

″Follett really knows how to tell a story.″

—The Atlanta journal-Constitution

″His scenes whip along. And his ending is absolutely smashing.″

—The Virginian-Pilot

 

A PLACE CALLED FREEDOM

″An altogether entertaining reading experience.″

—Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

A DANGEROUS FORTUNE

″A terrific page-turner. Careening thrills ... telling historical detail ... genuine surprises.″

—Los Angeles Times

″Relentlessly suspenseful.″

—The New York Times

 

NIGHT OVER WATER

″An excruciatingly taut drama on the aerial equivalent of the Orient Express ... thoroughly satisfying ... his best since Eye of the Needle.″

—Publishers Weekly

LIE DOWN WITH LIONS

″Sheer suspense.″

—The Washington Post

ʺVintage Follett.... This is his most ambitious novel and it succeeds admirably.... Tense, vivid, excating ... satisfies on deep levels.ʺ

—USA Today

 

ON WINGS OF EAGLES

″Absolutely electric with suspense.″

—San Francisco Chronicle

″A marvelous, rare, terrific read.... A superb edge-of-the-seat true story that is as exciting as a novel.″

—USA Today

 

THE MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG

″Ken Follett has done it once more ... goes down with the ease and impact of a well-prepared martini.ʺ

—The New York Time Book Review

 

THE KEY TO REBECCA

″A top-flight adventure thriller ... violence, intrigue, and exotic passions ... a vivid page-turner.″

—The Wieshington Post

″The most exciting novel in years.″

—The Cincinnati Enquire

 

TRIPLE

″One of the liveliest thrillers of the year.... Follett is a master of crafty plot and incredible detail.... A sizzling narrative.″

—Time

 

EYE OF THE NEEDLE

″Really thrilling.″

—The New York Times Book Review

″An absolutely terrific thriller, so pulse-pounding, so ingenious in its plotting, and so frighteningly realistic that you simply cannot stop reading.″

—Publishers Weekly

ALSO BY KEN FOLLETT

The Modigliani Scandal
Paper Money
Eye of the Needle
Triple
The Key to Rebecca
The Man from St. Petersburg
On Wings of Eagles
Lie Down with Lions
The Pillars of the Earth
Night over Water
A Dangerous Fortune
A Place Called Freedom
The Third Twin
The Hammer of Eden
Code to Zero
Jackdaws

SIGNET

Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto.
Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2,
Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124,
Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany,
Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand
Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

 

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

 

Published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Pen-
guin Group (USA) Inc. Published by arrangement with the author.
First Signet Printing, May 1985
30

 

Copyright @ Zachary Stone, 1976 Introduction copyright @ Holland Copyright Corporation, 1985

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCAREGISTRADA

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

 

 

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

eISBN : 978-1-101-43662-2

INTRODUCTION

IN A MODERN THRILLER the hero generally saves the world. Traditional adventure stories are more modest: The central character merely saves his own life, and perhaps the life of a faithful friend or a plucky girl. In less sensational novels—the middlebrow, well-told narratives that have been the staple diet of readers for more than a century—there is less at stake, but still a character′s efforts, struggles, and choices determine his destiny in a dramatic fashion.

I don′t actually believe that life is like that. In reality, circumstances quite beyond our control usually determine whether we live or die, become happy or miserable, strike it rich or lose everything. For example: Most rich people inherit their money. Most well-fed people simply had the luck to be bom in an af fluent country. Most happy people were born into loving families, and most miserable people had crazy parents.

I′m not a fatalist, nor do I believe that everything in life is blind chance. We do not control our lives the way a chess player controls his pieces, but life is not roulette either. As usual, the truth is complicated. Mechanisms beyond our control—and sometimes beyond our understanding—debermine a person′s fate, yet the choices he makes have consequences, if not the consequences he anticipated.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0688051197
• ISBN 13: 9780688051198
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 202