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"The Forger" was written by Robert OŽNeill, in 1975. After school he started to write, but many of his works stayed unrecognized. The book is a novel.
The book is about a great artist, his name is Sharp and his is living in Switzerland. He forged a number of old Dutch paintings, which are all about 300 years old. It is said that he learned the secrets of the "Old Masters" like Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer. He know how to mix paints, so that the paintings look very old. Even experts could not tell the difference between the orginal and the forgerie. After he forged a famous paintig, Karen, she was his daughter, took it and stole the orginal from a museum and put the forgerie in the place. The orginal Orton sold to rich people all over the world. Orton was the owner of the British National Art Gallery and he took part in this forgery.
The Scotland Yard Police of course knew about this and Inspector Moore observed all. Once he had an idea. He pleased David Ruthland, who was a young artist, to help him. David had no money thistime and so he decided to work with the police to catch Sharp. Sharp was old and he had arthritis and so he needed help, he needed an assistant. Moore and David had a plan. First David should sold forgeries painted by himself to Orton. Orton knew that Sharp neended someone to help him. And it really worked. After some weeks Orton invited David to his and there he gave him an one-way ticket to Zurich. So he traveled to Switzerland.
There, in Zurich, Karen was waiting for him. They drove to the house where he should live for some month. Sharp was an old, tall man and he spoke very little to David. Next day they started to work. First, Sharp gave him some exercises to do and to see how good he is. Little by little he got harder work. There were two rooms where they worked. In the one worked David, in the other Sharp and David was not allowed to go to his workroom. It was always closed. His daughter Karen was often away.
David has also a contact person from the Scotland Yard Police in Switzerland. It was a woman and they sometimes met in the park, but they must take care, because they could be watched. David learnd some secrets and how to forge paintings carefully. Once he could take a look in the other workroom, where he never may go in. There were some paintings and flowers. One painting David knew. It was the "Lady with the Green Eyes" and it is over 300 years old. The orginal is in the British National Art Gallery. He also forged this. The next day David met the police woman again and told her about the painting, but they were watched. So the next day two men came and took David away. They worked for Orton. They drove out of the city to a forest. There David should be killed. But skillful he could run away and made them out of action. He called the police and they were arrested. Also Orton was arrested, but Sharp and his daughter Karen were gone.
In England back they questioned Orton about all the things. After some days, a great alarm called David and Inspector Moore in the British National Art Gallery together. Sharp was catched by the keeper but Karen was again gone. But there was something special. Next to the orginal painting "The Lady with the green Eyes" was the forgerie of Sharp. They looked identical. At the police station they asked Sharp why he had done this. He told them that he hated the modern paintings and so he painted old pictures, but the people laughed at him. Once he painted the "Lady with the green Eyes" but he put a famous name under it. He had very little money and so he started to forge paintings and got rich. David and inspector Moore wondered about the thing that he had painted the "Lady with the green Eyes". In the end Sharp was not only a forger, but also a great artist, too. Some weeks later he died in prison.
I liked this book, because the story was exciting and easy to read. The book is good built up and I can recommend this book.
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