This story was inspired by a Carabinieri raid on a warehouse in the Geneva Freeport in 1995 and their discovery within it of over ten thousand illegally excavated antiquities worth over $35 million. The resulting investigation implicated the mafia and raised questions over the role of some of the world’s largest museums, collectors and auction houses in the multi-million-dollar international trade in illicit cultural artefacts.
All descriptions and background information provided on works of art, artists, thefts, antiquities smuggling, ‘orphans’, illegal excavation practices, and architecture are accurate, apart from the Desposito Eroli in Rome, which I have altered to suit my purpose.
For more information on the author and on the fascinating history, people, places, art and artefacts that feature in The Geneva Deception and the other Tom Kirk novels, please visit www.jamestwining.com
Extract from the Amherst Papyrus, original court records from the reign of Ramses IX (-1110 BC); translated by J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Book IV (1904)
We opened their coffins and their coverings in which they were. We found this august mummy of this king…Its coverings were wrought with gold and silver, within and without; inlaid with every splendid costly stone.
