The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

Its not that often that you come across a book that is just fun to read.  Its interesting and well told, doesn't require changing your mind about anything, you are transported someplace else, and there's no serious violence or controversy to make you cringe.  Its just a great story told by a talented author.  The Art Forger is just that book.

B.A. Shapiro lands us in the cut throat world of the high end art business where talent is king and ego is the name of the game.  We follow Claire, a young struggling artist who has been wronged by the gallery set and is asked  by an influential owner to copy a notorious painting for good money and a one woman show at his Boston gallery.  The painting was one of the 13 stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 in a now infamous and unsolved case where the brazen thieves dressed as police officers broke into the museum in the middle of the night, tied up the guards  and stole $500 million in paintings.  Among the paintings was a Vermeer, two Rembrandts, five Degas drawings, and a Manet.  Claire, who has been copying paintings for an online copy house, has become quite good at copying Degas, and is asked to copy his After the Bath II.  Aiden, the gallery owner assures her that there is no way for her to get in trouble, as he is poised to sell the copy to one of his Mideastern collectors and will return the original to the Gardner.  What follows is an intricate story of art and forgery, complete with detailed painting techniques, dusty archives, secret rooms and the FBI.

What makes this book so much fun is the details.  The story is well crafted and interesting.  Shapiro has really done her homework and understands Claire's world of pigments, chemicals, collectors and ambition.  She has obviously studied the processes that forgers use to copy great old works of art and how they negotiate the art world to be successful.  She certainly knows a whole lot about Degas and his painting techniques, Isabella Gardner and her collection, and the heist that remains perhaps the most famous unsolved art theft in history.  All that detail supports a great story with a likable but somewhat naive character who finds herself plopped right in the middle of a dark and dangerous world of international art forgery.

This book could have been light and trite had a different author had the helm.  I am intrigued with books about art and artists. I've read quite a few, and many come off as simplistic; the starving artist, the powerful gallery owner and the bad guys who are always on the fringes of any market that deals in millions. Without the detail and the insider's view into a mostly closed and interesting world, the story could have been just another art book, but in fact Shapiro made it believable.  She is deft at creating complicated characters that move in unexpected ways. Plot twists engendered great suspense with a big payoff in the end.  Most art books are written about the New York City Art world.  I think an unintended consequence of writing about the Gardner heist is that, for once we're reading about Boston, a new twist on an old theme.

Coincidentally, as I was beginning to read The Art Forger, the news came out that the FBI thinks that they have identified the thieves in the real Gardner Museum heist.  While they won't reveal names at this point, it is thought that they have ties to Whitey Bulger and Boston Irish mob.  Even having identified the criminals, they have yet to actually recover any of the stolen paintings. Thirteen years later, the case is still considered unsolved.

I wouldn't say that The Art Forger was a deep and meaningful novel.  It didn't change my life or tell the great American story, but it did engross and entertain me for a few days.  When I finished it, I turned to my husband and said "Boy was that fun!".  If you're reading for entertainment, then what better way to feel when you read the last page.  Bravo Ms. Shapiro!