Framed

 
Claude Fontaine, a Monaco lawyer, has only just taken over the family firm when the menacing and ruthless Farrelly twins of Belfast, Nessa and Niall, turn up. Apparently, they were in cahoots with Claude’s late father in secret criminal activities that Claude knows nothing about and these involve a hidden art collection that is worth millions.

JJ is an art conservator with the New South Wales Art Gallery and a keen amateur photographer. While house-sitting for her boss in Sydney, she happens to see into another apartment which has intriguing paintings on the walls that could be forgeries or reproductions of old masters. JJ takes photographs of them but then is surprised when the next time she looks they have been replaced by nondescript cheap paintings. She deliberately makes friends with the mysterious woman who lives there, Lesley Monroe, in the hope of finding out more. This is the beginning of a roller-coaster of events that will ultimately put JJ’s life on the line.

JJ is an appealing character; a little gauche and introverted but with a wry sense of humour. She’s found it difficult to recover from a traumatic childhood at the hands of her controlling policeman father Hugh who is convinced he is descended from Vincent van Gogh.

The artworks play a leading role and include real pictures stolen (and still missing) from a Boston Gallery in 1990 and one of Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers, reputedly lost in Japan in World War II.

The narrative moves rapidly towards a thrilling climax, but unless you are seriously into the science and methods of verifying the provenance of art, the latter third of the book gets a bit too bogged down in those technicalities. The ending is a cliff-hanger, suggesting there could be a sequel.

Four Stars.
 
(You may want to check out the background to the real artworks after reading the book.)

Gardner Museum Theft

Lost Sunflowers

 
Booktopia

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