![]() ![]() I imagine that they are out there living their lives in this parallel universe that I've created, and I like to just drop into it every now and again with a legal pad in my hand and a pencil and just sort of listen in. I think of them as though they're real people. He seems very, very real to me, as do all of the subcharacters in this series. You know, the cover of the book is sort of the view from his terrace of his apartment on the Grand Canal in Venice. ![]() SILVA: As I explain to my wife all the time when I'm preoccupied or not listening to what she's trying to say to me, I spend more time in his world than I do in this world. How much space does he take up in your mind? SIMON: You have written 23 novels with Gabriel Allon. She accepts a $10 million payday to steal the Vermeer from a palazzo in Amalfi, not realizing that she's in way over her head and there's a much broader conspiracy, and ends up working with Gabriel to find the painting that she stole. She has a little bit of touch of kleptomania, and she is an extraordinarily good con artist and thief. You know, Gabriel is a restorer, and he restores not only paintings, but people as well. SILVA: Readers of my series know that I turn crooks and assassins and other people who are not necessarily the finest examples of our society and sort of turn them into protagonists. Tell us about your new character you introduce here, Ingrid Johansen. They took these paintings, and now they're just being swapped around, perhaps, and used in other ways. The paintings end up sort of being used as underworld cash, for lack of a better word - you know, criminal traveler's checks, collateral and down payments in other criminal transactions - and that's something else that I explore in the novel - which makes it even more annoying. But when it comes to masterpieces like this, professional criminals are quite good at stealing the paintings, but they're lousy about trying to monetize their investment. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a illicit black market for stolen art, antiquities and object art that are of great value. SILVA: That is a debate within the art world. SIMON: Even loving your book, I still don't understand - why would somebody traffic in stolen art when can't show it to friends or the world, they can't lend it to, you know, to galleries or museums for tax write-offs and to get their names on plaques, and they could be jailed? The FBI believes that the paintings migrated to Connecticut, then headed down to the Philadelphia area, and in about 2007, they were put on the illicit market in the Philadelphia area. The FBI is quite certain that they're both dead. SILVA: The FBI is fairly certain about the identity of the two men who dressed as Boston police officers - in genuine Boston PD uniforms, by the way - and carried off the initial theft. How many of that is valid, according to your research, 'cause, as I don't have to tell you, some investigators think the works just might still be somewhere near Boston? SIMON: Some of your characters at one point review a list of possibles - people, groups or interest who may have wanted to take the Vermeer or wound up with it. And he reluctantly takes the case, and as is often the case, it leads to an unexpected place. I'm still angry about it, and so is Gabriel. It is an extraordinary crime against art. SILVA: Because, like the person who created him, he gets annoyed about art theft, especially something like "The Concert." I mean, it is one of 34 works by Johannes Vermeer. Why would he let himself be enlisted in this case? He's hopscotching with his love between Venice, Paris and other glamorous locations. Thanks so much for being with us.ĭANIEL SILVA: Thank you for having me. "The Collector" is his latest, and Daniel Silva joins us from New York. But when a South African shipping tycoon murdered in Amalfi turns out to have a secret vault holding an empty frame that matches the dimensions of the purloined masterpiece, who are you going to call? The Italian art police call Gabriel Allon, noted art conservator, artist, former Israeli intelligence official and hero of more than a score of bestselling novels by Daniel Silva. There have been boasts about the whereabouts of the painting and leads over the years, and they've led nowhere. It was cut from its frame in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and stolen along with 12 other works. It may be the most valuable stolen object in the world. Vermeer's "The Concert," painted in 1664, shows a young woman at a harpsichord, a man playing a lute and a woman singing. ![]()
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