Gabriel is a middle-aged, retired spy who works as a highly sought-after art restoration specialist in Venice. He possesses a photographic memory and immense artistic talent. Though officially retired from intelligence work, he maintains a vast network of contacts across global law enforcement and the criminal underground. He prefers to operate behind the scenes, using meticulous planning to solve mysteries outside of regular legal channels.

Luigi is the reform-minded leader of the Catholic Church who seeks to root out long-standing financial corruption within the Vatican. His idealistic stance and refusal to tolerate greed make him popular with the public but generate significant friction with traditionalists inside the Curia. He balances his desire for transparency with the institutional need to protect the Church from damaging public scandals.

Cardinal Bertoli serves as the Vatican's Secretariat of State and controls the Church's financial investments. He enjoys the wealth and privilege afforded by his high-ranking position. He strongly dislikes the current pope's reformist agenda, preferring to maintain the comfortable status quo of the Curia even if it requires dealing with illicit organizations.

General Ferrari is the pragmatic director of the Italian Art Squad. He lost two fingers and an eye in a past parcel bomb attack, leaving him with a prosthetic eye. He operates strictly by the book to amass evidence against organized crime, though he sometimes turns a blind eye to Gabriel's unofficial methods when official channels are blocked.

Penelope is a gifted, twenty-something apprentice art conservator with a graduate degree from the Courtauld Institute. Before her death, she works on a minor restoration project at the Vatican. She possesses an exceptional eye for classical art, leading her to identify what she believes is a highly valuable painting hidden beneath another work.

Ingrid is a Danish former master thief and skilled cyberhacker. She has ostensibly retired from a life of crime but agrees to help Gabriel infiltrate a Swiss bank's secure financial systems to track the movement of stolen art.

Martin is a billionaire Swiss financier with a history of questionable ethics. He understands the complex, often illicit workings of European banking and provides Gabriel with crucial information regarding institutions used for money laundering.

Franco is an Italian businessman who officially serves as the head of the asset management division for SBL PrivatBank in Switzerland. In reality, he manages the financial assets and money-laundering operations for the Camorra organized crime syndicate.

Nico is a financial advisor associated with Piedmont Global Capital who acts as a consultant to the Vatican. He works closely with Franco Tedeschi to manipulate large-scale investments and extract enormous fees from his clients under the guise of legitimate banking.

Chiara manages the Tiepolo Restoration Company in Venice. She handles the business aspects of her husband's art restoration commissions and frequently acts as a sounding board for his investigations, encouraging him to alert authorities when he discovers evidence of a crime.

Raphael is Gabriel and Chiara's grade-school-aged son. He possesses considerable artistic talent and frequently uses his father's workshop as a study room, though he initially declines to participate in Gabriel's formal painting classes.

Irene is Gabriel and Chiara's grade-school-aged daughter. She is politically active and principled, successfully organizing over a hundred students for a weekend march in Venice before taking an interest in her father's restoration timeline.

Rossetti is a captain attached to the Italian Art Squad. He serves as Gabriel's primary police contact and closest friend, regularly utilizing the art restorer's unique skills to assist with complicated cases involving stolen antiquities.

Antonio heads the Vatican's art conservation lab. He assigns minor restoration pieces to his students and relies heavily on the opinions of established art experts when evaluating potential discoveries, sometimes leading him to dismiss valid findings.

Father Keegan serves as the private secretary to the pope. He manages the pontiff's schedule and coordinates private meetings for delicate matters requiring extreme discretion.

Veronica directs the National Etruscan Museum. She understands the insular, secretive culture of the Vatican and assists Gabriel by providing strategic advice and logistical support during his inquiries in Rome.

Ottavio is a security guard working at the Vatican's art storage facility. He finds himself compromised by outside forces who use his imprisoned brother as leverage to force his cooperation during a brief power blackout.

Father Spada presents himself as a visiting cleric from a charity organization in Mali. He gains access to the highest levels of the Vatican by leaning on his supposed humanitarian credentials to carry out illicit operations.

Giorgio is considered the world's foremost art expert on Leonardo da Vinci. His established reputation in the art community gives his authentications and dismissals unquestioned authority, making his evaluations incredibly valuable.

Julian owns a prominent art gallery in London. He leverages his legitimate standing in the European art market to act as a wealthy prospective buyer, helping Gabriel draw illicit art dealers out into the open.

Sarah is a former CIA agent who now works as Julian's business partner in the art world. She utilizes her intelligence background to track private flights and manipulate art publications to advance Gabriel's strategies.

Christopher handles top-secret projects for British intelligence. He uses his high-level banking and intelligence connections to secretly reroute large sums of money for political purposes, supporting Gabriel's financial operations.

Alexander is a wealthy Russian oligarch living in a heavily secured villa in Antibes, France. Despite facing frozen assets in England, he maintains immense purchasing power and aggressively bids on undocumented masterpieces to hide his wealth.

Jacques heads the French art crime unit. He is reluctant to participate in outright fraud but agrees to carefully planned operations that maintain his legal and political standing while allowing Gabriel to retrieve stolen artifacts.

Amelia is an elegantly dressed Englishwoman who works as a reporter for ARTnews magazine. She travels to Venice hoping to secure an exclusive story about criminal activity within the art world, unknowingly stepping into a dangerous situation.