"The Raphael Affair" by Iain Pears
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1990
Review by Travis Simpkins
Well-written, mysterious and imbued with an Art Historian's sense of detail, The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears was the first in a popular series of Art Crime Detective novels to feature his shrewd lovelorn protagonists, Jonathan Argyll and Flavia di Stefano. When British art historian Jonathan Argyll is arrested for breaking into a small church in Rome, he defends the act by revealing to the Italian National Art Theft Squad the presence of a lost masterpiece by Raphael, hidden under a later painting by Carlo Mantini. Sold at auction for the highest price ever paid for a painting, the new Raphael is hailed at the nation's top museum, until a horrendous act of fiery vandalism destroys the Renaissance masterwork. Or was the painting just a fake, perpetrated by a master forger and unknown powerful accomplices? Argyll teams up with General Bottando and his beautiful assistant, Flavia de Stefano, to get to the bottom of the mystery… dodging a murderer and bureaucratic roadblocks in a case that is bound to shake the art world and disgrace some of the top experts and museum officials. The story was innovative, several years ahead of it's time, acting as a welcome precursor to the influx of great Art Crime stories to come. The writing style is well-versed, informative and academic, but not haughty. Iain Pears delivers an enjoyable work, combining fiction with believable art market elements in a fast-paced novella… creating a fascinating art historical setting, populated with well-rounded characters, that would serve him well in future stories.
The Raphael painting in Iain Pears' novel is fictional, but I picture the "Portrait of Elisabetta di Laguna" as looking similar to this:
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| Portrait of a Lady, by Raphael |
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| Iain Pears |
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| The Raphael Affair, by Iain Pears |
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| Iain Pears |
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| The Raphael Affair, by Iain Pears |
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| The Raphael Affair, by Iain Pears |
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| The Raphael Affair, by Iain Pears |
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| Iain Pears |
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| The Raphael Affair, by Iain Pears |
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| The Raphael Affair, by Iain Pears |
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| Iain Pears |
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| Portrait of a lady, by Raphael |
