The Paris Secret by Karen Swan
‘Not every
door should be opened’
(Not every book should be opened!)
I was given
this book and I thought from the cover it wouldn’t really be my kind of thing,
but I thought I’d give it a try anyway.
As I suspected, I realised quite soon that the book was a romantic
cliché and I was about to give up and put it in the charity bag, when on page
48 I read a reference to the Art Loss
Register.. ‘ It was the absolute first step on this path; nothing could be
decided without the feedback from those records’. ‘Provenance was paramount to explain how it
had ended up here’.
Those lines
made me sit up, take notice and carry on reading! Someone was talking my language and the
mantra of Registrars across the world.
The story unfolds of a young woman, Flora, who previously worked at
Christies, and now works for a private art dealer. At an exciting multi-million pound auction
she receives the news from her employer that they have been asked to deal with
a potential art collection sale for the Vermeil family in Paris. The potential is unknown as the family have
only just discovered the property they own exists. It has remained untouched and closed for over
70 years. It was last used in 1943 when
it was closed up and given to a notary to secretly hold the deeds until certain
other family members had died. One last
relative of that era is still alive, but she is aged 99 and refuses to give
away any secrets. The apartment has only
come to light because someone has broken into it and made a discovery.
On
investigating the apartment Flora discovers 203 paintings, 57 sculptures and
316 artefacts just as they were left lying around the apartment in a jumble in
the 1940s. Of course there weren’t just
any old artworks in the newly discovered property; Flora uses her expert
knowledge to identify Manet, Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne and Renoir –
conveniently. There follows a lovely
process of cataloguing, even a kind of matrix of importance and type is put
into use. The type of collections
management project many of my colleagues would delight in undertaking. There are some twists and turns to keep you
interested whilst the audit is undertaken such as the revelation of a duplicate
apartment, a broody and moody handsome Vermeil son and even a fight involving a
stuffed ostrich. Who knew working with
art collections was such fun?
And the due
diligence continues, by page 71 the narrative explains to the reader that ‘..checking
if a painting is reported as missing or stolen is ‘the first step in due
diligence any time an artwork of this importance re-emerges on the market’
There is a
brief discussion about how the uncontrolled environment in the apartment may
have affected the art works, but this is soon dismissed with ‘Obviously humidity would have changed
throughout the year as the space wasn’t climate controlled, but all things
considered, not a disaster’. So luckily
all the works are in good condition and ready to sell – if only they can just
sort out that provenance.
Not
surprisingly, once Flora starts digging, the possibility of the art stash being
connected to Nazi loot increases. ‘The
resistance flooded the market with good-quality fakes to dupe the Germans as it
was. If we can’t show a step-perfect
paper trail, all bets are off. The painting’s authenticity will be thrown into
doubt if we go to market saying it was found in an abandoned apartment and
clients explain how they came by it’. So
there is a race to prove both that the paintings are not fake and that they
weren’t looted or bought from Nazi collaborators.
Depending on
your point of view this due diligence chase is the focus of the book, or the
development of the feisty romance between Flora and Xavier Vermeil could have
been the intended focal point. *(Spoiler)* Of course he turns out to be
a gifted artist in his own right, but hides his talents from the world, of
course both Flora and Xavier have unfolding tragedies in their families and of
course they argue bitterly, realise they have been mistaken about each other
and end the book falling into each other’s arms. Not before the provenance has been proved I
might add.
Flora
correctly proves that the paintings had belonged to Jewish families. At first she thought Xavier’s late grandfather,
who had last used the apartment, was a despicable Nazi collaborator, collecting
art from vulnerable Jewish families and then amassing a fortune from their
misfortunes. But then it is revealed
that in fact he would buy the paintings and ship them to Switzerland, with a
hidden compartment that would hide the children of the Jewish families and get
them to safety. He had been part of The
Oeuve de Secours aux Enfants (Children’s Aid Society) a French-Jewish
humanitarian movement that worked with The Resistance early in the War.
Overall,
this wasn’t a great read for me, but I did enjoy the seeing aspects of the
Registrar’s role being a central part of the novel. I think this may be the only book that uses
due diligence as a plot device to keep the heroine occupied in a location near
her interest so that the romance can blossom.
If you like cheesy romantic stories, with some underlying good
documentation principles – this is the book for you!
By Lynn Wall
National Museums Scotland
