Lot 22

March 22, 2009

What do Venice, The Doge's Diamonds, a stolen painting by Pinturicchio, honey, a Picasso print and Lincoln cathedral have in common? Lot 22. A tangled web of intrigue, false identity, underground crime and long-savoured revenge, Lot 22 takes us from the baking heat of Umbria to the Lincolnshire Wolds, from the majesty of Venice to the opulence of Monaco, as piece by piece two mysteries gradually unfold: that of the theft of a valuable painting from a provincial Italian museum in the 1970s, and that of the famed Doge's Diamonds of Venice, presumed lost but soon finally to be rediscovered - only to be hidden once again.