The Art of the Matter

"The Art of the Matter" is short story in Frederick Forsyth's book "The Veteran" (2001). Set around the turn of the millennium in London, it tells the story of a middle-aged, impoverished, out-of-work actor, Trumpington Gore, who seeks revenge after being defrauded by the CEO of an art auction house.

Plot

Main characters

*Trumpington Gore, who was an extra in many films but due to the lack of work recently, has become poor.
*Peregrine Slade, Vice-Chairman and CEO of the House of Darcy
*Sebastian Mortlake, Director of the Old Masters department and chair of the Viewing Committee.
*Benny Evans,under-valuer whom despite his unkempt appearance was hired mainly because he is a “walking encyclopaedia on the Old Masters”
*Suzie Day, girlfriend of Evans and a computer expert

ummary

Trumpington Gore was an extra in hundreds of films, but lately work has been scarce and he took a family heirloom painting to the House of Darcy to be valued due to his precarious financial situation. He estimates that the painting is worth around £100.

When Evans came in to examine the last hand-ins. Painting D 1601 looked familiar to him but he only realises its value late at night. The following morning he e-mails a letter to Mortlake and Slade stating that he thinks it is a Sassetta and should be authenticated by Prof. Guido Colenso.

Auction 1: Slade cheats Gore and fires Evans

Slade is from an affluent family but has had financial problems lately. He conspires with Reggie Fanshawe of the Fanshawe Gallery to defraud Mr Gore. Slade removes the email sent to Mortlake, and sends Evans far away to Caithness in Scotland to value a private collection. Slade informs Gore that the painting is worth £6,000–£8,000, and Gore authorises its auction. In January, Fanshawe bids against a fictional rival and eventually buys the painting for £6k.

In April, Fanshawe puts the painting up for display after having it cleaned. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary sitting and gazing upwards as the Archangel Gabriel brings her news that she would soon bear the Son of God. Colenso had authenticated it as dating from the period 1400–1450 painted by Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo (aka Sassetta). The painting is resold for £2 million.

Outraged at their “mistake,” Darcy’s board of directors blames Slade. He frames Evans and fires him. Evans explains everything to his girlfriend Suzie Day, who motivates Evans to seek revenge with the original owner (Gore). Day hacks into Darcy’s and find Gore’s details using Mortlake’s user ID and password. They inform Gore that he has been swindled and the three of them swear to get revenge on Slade.

Auction 2: The trio embarrass Slade

Their first step is to gain access to Slade’s e-mails. This is done by Gore following Slade’s spinster secretary Priscilla Bat in May.

The trio’s first project involves sending a fake e-mail from Slade’s friend (Charles Dawson from the Observer) informing Slade that a Martin Getty might be in town to acquire art. The Getty’s are a wealthy American family. At the next Darcy auction Gore poses as Getty. Evans knows that a Dutch billionaire, Van De Bosch, wants to acquire a Coorte painting at the auction valued at £120k – £150k. Gore keeps bidding until he finally wins at £1.1m. Gore switches costumes in the men’s room and disappears. Although the trio gains nothing from this it places extra pressure on Slade as the Duke blames him for being ridiculed.

In June Slade hires private investigators to find out if Evans or Gore was involved but the trio fools them into thinking that they had nothing to do with it, with Gore acting as an Pakistani minicab driver and Suzie pretending to be a prostitute offering sexual services.

Auction 3: The trio swindles money from Darcy

In July, the trio starts on their final scheme. Evans sends a letter to Alan Leigh-Travers, Darcy's director of British Modern and Victorian Paintings, claiming to do research for a school project. Evans also sends a letter to Prof. Stephen Carpenter, chief scientist at the Colbert Institute, claiming to do research for a graduate thesis. These two people not only personally answer the letters but also helpfully sign both replies, giving the trio a sample of their signatures.

Day gets the name of a forger (Peter the Penman) from her boss, and Gore poses as a porter to steal sheets of Darcy stationery. Peter the Penman asks them £100 to forge two letters and a lab report. Evans gets notorious art counterfeiter Colley Burnside to paint two paintings on old poplar wood for 5% of their profit.

Burnside first paints a painting that looks like it is 500 years old and then covers it with another painting that looks 100 years old. The top painting is titled "The Game Bag" and is an excruciating ugly depiction of two dead grouse hanging from a hook with a shotgun.

Next they take Burnside's painting to Darcy's in Suffolk to have it valued. Gore poses as the "The Game Bag" painter's grandson – a Scot named Hamish McFee. The painting is labelled F 608.

In August, Leigh-Travers goes yachting in the Caribbean and Day hacks the Darcy network to change his contact numbers. Gore goes back to Darcy to claim his painting while Day changes the computer record to show that the painting was collected by the Colbert Institute. Slade goes to Hampshire for the holidays and receives a forged letter in Leigh-Travers' handwriting stating that he suspects F 608 might have a masterpiece beneath "The Game Bag" and that he has requested Colbert to X-ray it. Posing as a porter, Gore brings the painting back to Darcy together with a forged letter and lab report from Carpenter claiming that there is indeed a painting beneath "The Game Bag" which is probably from a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century Italian painter.

Slade realises that he would not be able to swindle McFee out of this painting, as Leigh-Travers and Carpenter already know about it. However, he decides to use the painting to restore his reputation at Darcy. He thinks it best to offer McFee £50k for the painting and then to have it later "discovered" in the Darcy storage. Gore, posing as McFee, refuses the £50k, claiming that his grandfather was a brilliant artist and that he would like the painting to be put up for auction.

Early in September, Slade asks Darcy's head porter, Bertram, to bid on the painting in the auction. They agree that a wink of Slade's left eye would be a signal for Bertram to bid. At the auction, Gore poses as Yoshi Yamamoto from the Osaka gallery and bids a couple of times unsuccessfully on other works. When the horrible "The Game Bag" is presented, however, Gore keeps on bidding against Bertram. At £50k the room is stunned that anyone wanted to pay so much for such a worthless painting. Leigh-Travers calls the Duke of Gateshead. At £250k Slade's eye starts twitching from stress and he can no longer stop Bertram from bidding. At £300k Yamamoto concedes and leaves the room. The Duke realises that Bertram was instructed to bid by Slade and summons Slade immediately to his office.

Slade explains the situation and convinces the Duke that he had done the right thing. They ask Edward Hargreaves to quietly remove the top painting. Hargreaves brings in the cleaned-up painting and, just as the lab report stated, it shows a beautiful medieval landscape with a donkey staring at the viewer in Renaissance style. The donkey's male "organ" hangs loosely to the ground and in the middle of the painting is a valley with a track running down the center. On the track, emerging from the valley, is a small but perfectly identifiable Mercedes-Benz. The Duke fires Slade.

Aftermath

Slade’s wife gets all his assets in the divorce, and he opens a bar in Antigua. Gore uses Day’s forged letters to open a Barclays’ account in the name of Hamish McFee in the Channel Islands and deposits Darcy’s cheque for £265k into it.