A lost da Vinci painting draws a historian into the "dark underbelly of the art business . . . one heck of a story" (Tim Sandlin, author of The GroVont Trilogy). What happens when a Leonardo da Vinci masterwork, vanished for centuries, mysteriously appears in a New York City gallery and becomes the center of controversy among New York''s elite? Sam Driscoll, art expert, buyer, and advisor to the massively wealthy and powerful, is going to find out. Now he''s navigating a world where huge egos clash, where everyone is looking for the next big deal, and where greed, deceit, and crime are all part of the business. His labyrinthine journey takes Sam behind the scenes of the most exclusive auction houses and elegant parties of Manhattan to the Italian countryside, doggedly pursuing the answers to increasing dangerous questions: who are the original owners? Why has it suddenly surfaced? It is even an authentic da Vinci? And how far will collectors go to find out?

A lost da Vinci painting draws a historian into the "dark underbelly of the art business . . . one heck of a story" (Tim Sandlin, author of The GroVont Trilogy). What happens when a Leonardo da Vinci masterwork, vanished for centuries, mysteriously appears in a New York City gallery and becomes the center of controversy among New York''s elite? Sam Driscoll, art expert, buyer, and advisor to the massively wealthy and powerful, is going to find out. Now he''s navigating a world where huge egos clash, where everyone is looking for the next big deal, and where greed, deceit, and crime are all part of the business. His labyrinthine journey takes Sam behind the scenes of the most exclusive auction houses and elegant parties of Manhattan to the Italian countryside, doggedly pursuing the answers to increasing dangerous questions: who are the original owners? Why has it suddenly surfaced? It is even an authentic da Vinci? And how far will collectors go to find out?