Provenance- a book report- part 2

The middle section of the book is focused on the investigation of Drewe. It starts with Detective Richard Higgs, a police officer who is about to retire and is investigating the arson of the boarding house previously mentioned. While he does speculate Drewe is the cause of fire he cannot prove it. The only real evidence he has against Drewe is the surviving student who saw a man in the building earlier in the night. However, when put in a line up she does not recognize him; the author claims that it is because he changed his appearance. Nevertheless, the investigation fizzles and the case is left unsolved.

The next piece of the puzzle that is unravelled comes from Mary Palmer, the manager of the Alberto Giacometti foundation, a body that is working to catalogue the artist’s work and is the foremost authority on his work. Palmer becomes involved in the story when dealers start coming to her for certificates of authenticity and she notices that the works themselves are fake, despite impeccable provenances. From here she does some research on the provenances and discovers that they are fake, both the painting and their history. However, the proof she has is inconclusive and is not enough to go to the authorities with, although she does tip of one of the supervisors at the Tate, the art history museum that the records were tampered at. Something that I found interesting in the book is that the author glorifies her as a very sharp and strong willed individual for initially discovering the fraud, she is also seen as highly unprofessional and as having a poor reputation in the art community. Whether her unprofessionalism and her reputation have anything to do with one another is suspect but it certainly is something to consider when looking at the character.

The investigation into Drewe does not start to pick up again until Betsheva Goudsmid, his ex-wife, found several garbage bags full of documents that Drewe left in the attic and delivered them to police. From here, police had everything they needed to start an investigation. Dectective Sergant Searle took over the investigation from here and began digging and uncovering more and more evidence incriminating Drewe. With the help of Mary Palmer the police were able to determine how the fraud was being commited. However, the final lynch pin in the whole investigation came when the police arrested Myatt. Myatt immediately confessed and co-cooperated fully with police.

The last part of the book is dedicated solely to the building of the court case against Drewe. Myatt was vital to this part of the investigation, as he identified all of the paintings that he made. One thing that I found intriguing that the author never really talked much about is that there is a point when Myatt identifies a work that he did not make. The detectives and the author both cite this as important because it shows the forgery network expanded beyond Myatt. However, the author does not explain if this other artist was ever found or how many artists Drewe had at his disposal. I thought this would have been vital to the case and the book, as it possibly would have added emphasised the scale of Drewe’s operation. The highlights of the last section include Drewe’s initial arrest, interrogation, and numerous failed appearances. Drewe’s strategy for trail was to tell elaborate lies and stall the courts with phony medical excuses. Drewe himself even fired his lawyer so that he may represent himself. The purpose of this was to give himself sometime in the spotlight and to weave an elaborate web of lies for the juror, which included himself as the scapegoat of the government. He made outrageous claims of being an arms dealer and a spy for the government, among many other things. Throughout the whole trial Drewe is said to have never shown the slightly bit of remorse or shame, with the exception of once instance. Daniel Stoakes was one of the accused in the foraging ring and was also said to be Drewe’s only real friend. Throughout the book the author’s told the story of Drewe and Stoakes’ childhood, how they were loners who relied on each other’s company and concocted wild and crazy ideas together. After years of being apart, Drewe came to Stoakes with a business idea. Stoakes unwittingly agreed and ended up taking part of the fall for Drewe. During the trial it is said that Drewe leaned over to Stoakes and apologized to him. Throughout the whole story, this moment has to be regarded as the only true, heartfelt, words that came out of Drewe’s mouth.

In hindsight, it certainly seems as though Drewe was villianized by the authors, it seems unlikely that anyone could live such a distorted life. If Drewe really did live his life how the author claims then I would have to say the description fits, at one point the author says that while some con artists live a double life Drewe was completely different, he was a mirage. He did not live a double life; he lived strictly in his fantasy world. Everything about him was fake, everything was an illusion.