The Art Forger - B.A. Shapiro Audiobook

Written by B.A. Shapiro
Read by Xe Sands
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: HighBridge Company
Release date: October 23, 2012
Duration: 10:00:25

On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million 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 nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.

VERDICT Shapiro expertly includes details about Degas, Isabelle Gardner, and the art world, as well as describing techniques used by artists and forgers. The first-person narrative is professionally and skillfully read by Xe Sands. This work is highly recommended and will be popular with fans of literary fiction and anyone with an interest in the art world. [”This well-researched work combines real elements…with the understanding that the art world is as fragile and precarious as the art itself…. A highly recommended debut that would be great for book discussion groups