The Van Gogh Deception

Camille reluctantly follows Art down the cold and dark alley. She feels tired and scared and notices that Art has changed since the morning from being timid and uncertain to being alert and determined. They enter the George Washington University’s Fine Arts building and look for the studio. Meanwhile, Mary has searched the entire Hotel Monaco and accepts that the children have vanished. Detective Evans tries to spare Mary from more worry, but when Mary asks her for the truth, Evans tells her the children may be in danger and that the boy is somehow involved.

Art and Camille locate the studio that appears unoccupied. Art doesn’t trust that the room is empty and warns Camille to stay in the hallway and run if anything goes wrong. As Art enters the room, Camille hears his expression of awe.

Meanwhile, Nigel Stenhouse enters the coffeeshop and asks the barista if she has seen two children. The girl at first hesitates to give away any information to a stranger, but when Stenhouse thickens his British accent and lies about being Camille’s uncle, the barista tells him they headed for the art studio.

When Camille joins Art in the studio, she is awestruck by its high ceilings and elaborate pulley system of pendant lights. Art operates the cranks with ease and familiarity, and the lights reveal a large table, laboratory equipment, and assorted glass jars. Art’s memories quickly bubble to the surface as he explains to Camille that the jars contain the raw materials used in traditional paint pigments. The art supplies are toxic and potentially explosive and have long since been replaced by modern chemicals. They find an enormous computer monitor four feet high and six feet wide projecting a three-dimensional text box. Art instinctively knows the password is “Verum” and turns on the monitor.

Back at the Hotel Monaco, Mary receives a call from her sister who has been stationed at Mary’s home in case the children return. Mary learns she has two phone messages: one from Detective Wasberger regarding the boy’s brother and the other from Camille promising to return home soon. Around that same time, Palmer provides Stenhouse with the floorplan of the university’s art building. Palmer loops the building’s security footage and warns Stenhouse not to underestimate the kids.

The monitor in the studio displays a life-like image of van Gogh’s painting The Park at Arles with the Entrance Seen Through the Trees. Art feels his thoughts struggling to break through the dam in his mind. He uses the touchscreen to rotate and magnify the painting and is shocked to see a familiar marking on the back of the canvas. He grabs the journal from his backpack and confirms the backside of the van Gogh canvas has the identical watermark of a spider from the verso drawing of Guillou’s painting. Art quickly deduces that the painting the National Gallery of Art plans to purchase is a forgery.

Art explains to Camille that forgers often reuse authentic old canvases and strip off the original paint. They then use traditional chemicals and pigments to apply the forged image on the canvas. Camille asks Art whether he might be involved in the creation of forgeries given that he knows so much about how fake paintings are made. Art is at first indignant by the accusation but then admits that he still has no idea how he is involved but is determined to discover the truth.

Art searches for more evidence on the computer, and when Camille exits the full screen, the desktop reveals a photo of Art smiling with a blond man in front of the Eiffel Tower. From that instant, Art feels as if a dam has broken, and all his memories come flooding back to him. He recalls details of his favorite food and movies, past travels, and his favorite work by his favorite artist, Vincent van Gogh. A QR code links to van Gogh’s painting, The Starry Night (1889) on the Museum of Modern Art’s website. Art remembers the man in the photo is his father, Arthur Hamilton Sr., an expert in art forgeries whom the National Gallery of Art hired to authenticate their van Gogh acquisition. Camille suggests they find his father and stop the museum from purchasing the forgery. Art tearfully tells her his father is dead and his mother died when he was four years old.

Art recounts the events from a few days ago, including a fuller account of the scenes from Chapter 2. His father discovered evidence that the painting was a forgery. The van Gogh painting had passed all his earlier tests for authentication: the canvas was old, the pigments were chemically accurate, and even the fingernail test demonstrated that the paint had dried over the ages. However, Hamilton’s discovery of the watermark on the back confirmed that the canvas was not originally van Gogh’s. Unaware that Dr. Belette was an accomplice to the forgery, Hamilton meets with the director in the parking garage of the museum where Palmer’s men ambush him. Art remembers his father giving him his backpack and whispering for him to hide in their car and wait for his knock. He instructed Art to run to the exit at the count of 20 and not look back. Art escaped on his father’s signal, and hearing a gunshot, he looked back to see his father’s head bleeding and his body being carried away by a stranger.

Art’s last memory of that evening is of hiding in the bushes and accidentally triggering the museum’s side door to unlock when he backed up against a wall. The white card in his backpack was his father’s key to the museum. Art blames himself for his father’s death and decides to report their new findings to the police. The only person Art trusts other than Camille and Mary is Detective Evans. Before the children can leave, Stenhouse enters the studio and holds them at gunpoint.

Stenhouse is pleased that he has found both the boy and the spider. He inserts a flash drive into the computer that transfers the data to Palmer and destroys the computer’s hard drive upon completion. Art refuses to hand over the journal, and Camille begs him to comply so they can go home. Art informs her they will end up dead like his father, and Stenhouse interjects that his father is still alive.

Art is at first disbelieving but doesn’t want to give up hope on seeing his father again. He puts the journal on the table, and while Stenhouse is distracted, Art releases the pendant lights from their cables. The fixtures knock Stenhouse unconscious, and Art takes his phone and binds him with duct tape. Art grabs the journal and tells Camille he changed his mind about going to the police and plans to save his father his own way. Camille notes his determination and observes he’s no longer a “blank slate” (257).