Happy birthday, @NJTheatreMOM! <:-P
Meant to add birthday wishes to my post: So here they go - Happy birthday to NJTM and belated wishes to mom60.
@ignatius – yes, I’d forgotten about Cornelis Groen. He was eccentric for sure, but good to Sara. Who knows where she would have ended up without him. His long-time staff clearly cared about him and were used to his peculiarities.
Birthday greetings to Mom60- a day of leisurely reading what a great gift to give yourself, and birthday wishes to NJTM,too.
@Mary13 I feared for Sara as she entered her new life with Cornelius, and glad he was a kind person.
I, also, expected Sara’s husband to turn up unexpectedly in that decimated village, and glad he didn’t reenter her life.
Yes Happy Birthday indeed!
I should not read when I am half asleep. I realized that I was confused because when Gabriel brings Ellie the original painting she compares it to her own. But just mentally, not actually. Oops.
I too was afraid that Groen would take advantage of her. So glad he didn’t.
I wish the psychologizing hadn’t been so specific - show don’t tell. Yes Ellie is resentful about being mistreated, we don’t need to be bashed over the head with it. In fact I think saying that’s why she misbehaved made me believe it less, and forgive it less.
In any event I’d love to know what sort of provenance the Museum thought they had for that painting. And how shady were they that they were happy to get rid of a painting that they knew was a fake?
A private gallery in the Netherlands owns Ellie’s forgery. They never learn they don’t have a real de Vos - thanks to Marty purchasing it before Ellie has to let them know. Correct me if I’m wrong here.
^^^ I also believe that’s true, @ignatius. Marty offered such a high price for the painting (forgery) that it was taken out of the show in Australia. The gallery in the Netherlands got the money and Ellie got the painting.
^ That’s true, but Helen, Max and a few others knew that one of the paintings was a forgery. So sooner or later (probably sooner!), the gallery in the Netherlands would have gotten the word. Then, ethically, they would have had to contact Marty and tell him that he’d purchased a fake, and what would he then say? “That’s okay, I’ll keep it anyway, but thanks for letting me know”? He sure as heck wouldn’t say, “Yes, I know, so I gave it to Ellie Shipley to burn.”
That’s one of the holes in the story that I can’t quite fill.
Surely they will learn that the painting didn’t hang in the exhibit. That’s the sort of thing galleries like to boast about.
Exactly. I thought that was by far the biggest weakness in the book. Max knows that Ellie knows it is a forgery.
What would an innocent person do in Ellie’s position, upon learning that the painting had been sold? An innocent person would still tell the Netherlands gallery, “The painting is a fake.” And then the gallery would tell Martin.
Martin could then say, “I dont care, I want it anyway,” which would be weirdly suspicious, but wouldn’t implicate Ellie. I don’t know what would have happened under that scenario.
But by not saying anything, Ellie most definitely implicates herself as somehow being guilty of something. This will come out as soon as she returns to Australia.
So no happy ending for Ellie, in the way the book set things up, even though the book seems to THINK she has a happy ending.
PS Happy birthday to NJTM and mom60!
Did Hendrck, the courier, also know about the fake ? I’m little confused.
I thought Ellie may have invited him to do research with hopes he would remain silent?
Maybe forged art is an embarrassment to the art world and Museums, or in this case a private gallery, preferring to keep all of that hushed, especially if they have been reimbursed ?
I add my happy birthday wishes to NJTM and mom60!
I’ve been on vacation–I loved the book, and the audio version was great. I didn’t really like Marty, but the sections from his point of view really fleshed out his character. I agree it would have been nice to know more about Rachel.
It did seem odd to me that the painting was stolen in the first place, since although “it occupied a small but cultish position in the art world,” “very few art historians had actually seen it–or even knew about it.” Ellie’s thesis advisor didn’t know it was in a private collection in the same city. If it was so obscure, and the location bascially unknown, how would it have become a target for theft? Gabriel didn’t have a specific buyer for it.
Different country, but an interesting article just popped up on the my Facebook feed about the 17th century Italian painter, Artemisia Gentileschi. Like Sara, she was also the daughter of an artist. “With words and images, she fought back against the male violence that dominated the world she lived in.”
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/oct/05/artemisia-gentileshi-painter-beyond-caravaggio
I thought this, too, at first. But since the museum in Australia knows it’s a fake, keeping Hendrik silent wouldn’t do much good. I agree with @nottelling: The only way for things to work out well for Ellie would have been for her to identify the painting immediately as a forgery, insist that Hendrik contact the buyer (Marty), and then cross her fingers and hope that Marty comes up with a good story about why he’s okay with that and doesn’t mind letting the sale stand as is.
Great point! Which leads us back to the mastermind being Rachel, doing her very best to mess with Marty. I like that version and think I’m gonna stick with it. 
Italian Baroque is not my favorite painting era but Artemisia Gentileschi was fabulous at what she did.
The whole business of was the painting known or not known was strange. She writes about it in her thesis, presumably without ever officially having had a chance to view it. I felt like the author wanted to have it both ways.
@buenavista fascinating link. What sweet revenge,spectacular painting. Amazing, and thanks for that link.
Here is the entire painting, your article only displayed one section.
Yes, there are a few “holes,” IMO. But, I still enjoyed the book!
Well, yes and no, the painting no longer belongs to the gallery - the wire transfer of funds completed. The anonymous buyer requested it not hang in the exhibit and left all in Ellie’s capable hands.
Ellie should - in theory - talk with the owner before proceeding. As long as the new owner knows he purchased a forgery, Ellie’s done as she should. Anyway, if questioned, Ellie can honestly say that the new owner knows of the forgery. The new owner can quietly confirm his knowledge should he desire and say he purchased the forgery to remove the taint it presents to his original. He can profess that he considers it money well-spent to have a forgery removed with few aware that it existed. Helen, Max, et al will keep quiet as they have nothing to gain either. How does Marty learn before the gallery that a forgery floats around - well, he doesn’t like Max. He could always hint at Max as the source of the leak.
I can’t believe they tortured Gentileschi, an artist, by hurting her fingers! <shudder!> She kept painting, though, so I guess there was no serious lasting physical damage.</shudder!>
Thanks for adding that link, SJCM! I’m pretty sure I saw the painting in Florence years ago.
Ellie told her adviser that she HAD seen the painting, but that she was sworn to secrecy and couldn’t give details as to where or how.
Rachel seems to make the most sense as the thief–she preferred Impressionism, and probably noticed that her husband stared at the painting while making love. She knew what the painting was and that it wasvaluable. But I don’t see that she got much out of the theft.