The John Blake Conspiracy

“How five art dealers, four policemen, three picture restorers, two auction houses and a journalist plotted to recover some of the world’s most beautiful stolen paintings.” ( Double Dealer by Peter Watson, dust jacket)

Peter Watson, journalist at The Times, agreed to try and recover stolen art for the Italian authorities and this is what happened.

”Peter Watson went underground. He assumed a false name and a false identity and adopted a simple but effective disguise. In a few short weeks.with the help of art dealers, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and the ex-head of Scotland Yard’s Fine Art Squad, he converted himself into a mysterious art dealer, and contrived to have himself seen apparently spending large sums of money on paintings.

Under the name of A. John Blake he lived a double life, sometimes dangerous, occasionally comical, as he moved between London, New York and Italy in pursuit of stolen works of art. Along the way he met some curious characters, made some glaring mistakes, narrowly missed being blown up by a terrorist bomb, witnessed a tragic earthquake and developed a genuine passion for paintings he couldn’t afford.

The John Blake conspiracy culminated in newspaper and television headlines in New York and Europe on Tuesday, 2nd March 1982. Two major works of art were handed over to Peter Watson, alias John Blake, in a New York hotel. Among the gang arrested as a result was a picture restorers from Cremona in Italy who ran a conduit for stolen paintings from Italy to America and a Roman Catholic priest serving on the staff of the Vatican’s Mission to the UN.

This astonishing story reveals for the first time Peter Watson’s role in exposing how the international traffic in art theft operates. It is one of the most remarkable, ingenuous and funny journalistic escapades for many years.” (Double Dealer by Peter Watson, dust jacket)

This is a cracking read, combining art history within a thriller. I’m surprised it never made it into paperback.