Art Forger The

A clever twisty novel about art authenticity love and betrayal. Shapiro knows about Degas and she knows about art theft and forgery and she also knows how to tell a gripping story. -Tom Perrotta author of The Left OversOn March 18 1990 thirteen works of art (worth over $500 million today) were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history and Claire Roth a struggling young artist is about to discover that there''s more to this crime than meets the eye.Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting-a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum-in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire''s studio she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late 19th century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.