An Inside Job

Calvesi shows Gabriel photos of the purported lost Leonardo at various stages of its restoration. Gabriel is convinced that the work is authentic. However, Calvesi already showed the picture to the foremost art expert on da Vinci, Giorgio Montefiore, who rejected the idea. Calvesi refused to allow Penny to do any more work, and the picture was returned to storage. She was sent on to her next assignment. Gabriel insists that he wants to take a look at the picture himself.

When Gabriel finally tells Calvesi that Penny is dead, the art conservationist takes the situation more seriously. When they arrive at the storeroom, they discover the painting is missing. Gabriel alerts the pope’s private secretary, Father Mark Keegan, about the theft and the murder. Keegan arranges for Gabriel to meet another contact for dinner that night to discuss the problem.

Gabriel goes to Veronica Marchese’s villa that evening. She is the director of the National Etruscan Museum and was romantically linked with the pope decades earlier. Veronica quizzes Gabriel on the details of the case. He surmises that the thieves will try to sell the painting on the open market. It might fetch a price as high as half a billion dollars. They both conclude that the painting could only have been stolen with the assistance of someone inside the Vatican. Veronica points out the problem with this scenario. “An inside job at the Vatican, well, that could be quite messy indeed” (100).

The following morning, Gabriel meets Calvesi to review security footage of the storage room. They discover that the painting went missing on the night of a brief power blackout. Five security guards were responsible for making sure that the art collections were safe during this time. Gabriel asks for their names.

With Rossetti’s assistance, a probable suspect for the theft is identified. His name is Ottavio Pozzi, and he has a brother in prison. Gabriel and Rossetti question Ottavio by playing good cop, bad cop. The guard admits that he took the painting out of storage on the night of the blackout because someone threatened to kill his brother if he didn’t cooperate.

Ottavio explains that a man named Signore Bianchi approached him a few weeks before the robbery. On the night of the blackout, Ottavio was instructed to hand the painting to a priest who would carry it out of the Vatican. Based on Ottavio’s physical description, Gabriel draws a sketch of the unknown priest. Ottavio is allowed to remain at liberty for fear of alerting the art thieves that someone is on their trail. Both Rossetti and Gabriel conclude that the gangsters known as the Camorra orchestrated the heist.

Back at the Vatican, Gabriel shows the sketch of the priest to the head of the Swiss Guard, Alois Metzler. He calls in three sentries who were on duty during the blackout. One of them remembers seeing the priest. He left with a bag large enough to hold the painting. Apparently, he had been invited to the Vatican by Father Keegan.

That night, Gabriel meets the pope for a private dinner in a secluded restaurant. Luigi recognizes the priest in the sketch as someone named Father Spada. He is a visiting cleric from a charity organization in Mali who met briefly with the pope, Keegan, and Cardinal Bertoli, the papal chief of staff. Luigi suggests that Gabriel’s next move should be to question the da Vinci expert, Giorgio Montefiore.

The following day, Veronica agrees to drive Gabriel to Tuscany to see Montefiore. When they arrive at his office, their host is nowhere to be found. Growing suspicious, Veronica and Gabriel go to his villa, only to find him dead. He’s been shot in the forehead. Gabriel thinks, “His life’s ambition had finally been realized […]. He had found his lost Leonardo. And now he was dead” (129).

The police arrive at the scene a few minutes later. After dodging questions from local law enforcement, Veronica and Gabriel return to Rome to meet with General Ferrari of the Art Squad. As they discuss the case, it becomes clear that Montefiore was part of the conspiracy to steal the painting. He was probably executed once he had verified the authenticity of the find and no longer proved useful to his fellow thieves. While Ferrari wants to chase down the culprits, Gabriel suggests that they should wait for the painting to surface somewhere and then try to steal it back.