Page 76 of Conning the Billionaire
“Absolutely not. I’ll take minuscule samples with a needle from the wood panel and small scratches of paint from the sides of the panel, not the front. I assure you, no one will be able to see the sampling areas at all, and it will not damage the value of the painting.”
“All right, then. I guess yous guys got this down to a science.”
Micah Shine and Salvatore Grande pointed at each other and laughed.
Grande said, “Chiarina, come steady these while we take ‘em off the wall. We wouldn’t want to drop them if they’re going to be worth something.”
Kylie crept over and steadied the paintings while Micah held their weight. Salvatore reached behind them to unlock the frames from the wall, which was interesting considering how he’d complained to anyone who’d listen that they were obviously fakes.
When the three of them had wrestled the heavy art down from the wall and laid them on the floor, Salvatore unlocked his desk drawer with his fingerprint and then took a ring of keys that he sorted through to find two small ones, which he then used to unlock the frames and all four corners.
While he was doing that, Kylie rested back on her heels and checked out the view from behind Grande’s desk.
His computer monitor had a security dashboard open on it, some squares green, some dark red. The dashboard looked like the inside of an airplane cockpit, mystifying dials and buttons and gauges. The square that read Office Door flashed red and white, probably indicating that it was not just unlocked but standing open.
When Micah walked away from them to pick something out of his leather bag, Salvatore asked Kylie in a low voice, “You think this guy’s the real deal?”
“The guy he was with at the Tropicana sure thought so, and I haven’t been able to find anything that tells me otherwise, Mr. Grande. He had a business meeting at five o’clock in the morning our time, which is ten o’clock in the morning in London. They were talking about art and paints and colors and chemical names. I was supposed to be asleep, so it would be weird if he’d staged it for when I was supposed to be asleep.”
“Huh. I’m going to ask around, too.”
“Well, of course.”
“Uh-huh, yeah. He tell you anything about his other clients?”
“No, sir. He takes that confidentiality stuff seriously.”
Salvatore Grande nodded, his thin lips bowing upward pensively.
Micah came back with the small crowbar. “If you don’t mind, Mr. Grande, I can have those out in a jiffy. An excellent decision to protect them with Arbitrage brand security frames, if you don’t mind me saying so. They are an excellent company that many of our most particular clients prefer.”
Grande backed off while Micah delicately inserted the chrome crowbar in a notch in the frame. “While we’re taking samples, Mr. Grande, I noticed that you had a very interesting bronze in your waiting room. Is that known to be a replica?”
“It was payment for a shipment when the buyer couldn’t pay otherwise,” Salvatore Grande said.
“Is it purported to be a Giacometti, pre-war period?”
“The guy said it was from Switzerland, nineteen-thirties.”
The picture Micah was working on popped out of its frame, and he moved over to the other one. “If it is a Giacometti bronze, it would, of course, not be as valuable as his post-war period when he produced the gigantic statues of The Walking Man and The Pointing Man, but it would be an exquisite find. The Pointing Man sold at auction at Christie’s in 2015 for eighty-one million pounds, which is one hundred and twenty-six million dollars or so.”
That got Salvatore Grande’s attention. “Yeah?”
Micah vaguely gestured to the door with the crowbar without looking up and then went right back to work as he said, “Based on the size, the bronze would be from his pre-war period, of course, and perhaps worth only a tenth of what The Pointing Man sold for.”
Grande was leaning forward where he kneeled, listening intently.
Micah continued, “However, there have been no Giacometti bronzes offered on the market since 2015, so it might command a premium based on its rarity. It might go for quite a bit more than the twenty-five million I would estimate. I can take a small scraping from the base to see if it’s a match for the alloy Giacometti used during his prewar period. Why don’t you have one of those gentlemen bring it in here?”
Salvatore Grande jittered with excitement, and he grabbed onto his desk for leverage as he got to his feet and walked out to the waiting room, his hand already extended to pick up the small bronze statue from its perch on the end table on the other side of the room.
As Grande reached the door, Micah jumped to his feet, bounded to the door, and shoved Salvatore Grande out, locking it behind him.
Kylie lunged for the desk, grabbing the mouse and clicking the Office Door button so that it turned solid green. She clicked all the other red buttons while she was at it, locking every door in the office and probably the building.
The door whirred around its edges, locking like a bank vault.
Gunshots clanged and rattled the door and wall.
