The Toledo Fake

by Behrens, Gerhard

• ISBN13: 9781475964622
• ISBN10: 1475964625
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-12-13
• Publisher: Author Solutions

Summary

A rare eleventh-century astrolabe from Toledo-an astronomical instrument- fetches a record price of 2.8 million pounds sterling in a London auction. A few days later, Dr Martin McKenna, an eccentric British expert of Islamic art and science, is murdered in his modest London flat. Only his former teacher, Professor Rietberg, is aware of a connection between McKenna and the astrolabe-in fact he was not only the owner of the alleged medieval instrument, but also its maker. Together with his Iranian friend, Daryoush, he had been in the forgery business for years, producing medieval Islamic artifacts to near-perfection in Isfahan. This astrolabe, their latest and ultimate forgery, was not only made for money, however. McKenna wanted to leave their imprint on historical research'even research based on a fake! Unaware of McKenna's complex motives and his shady business, the police limit their investigation to angry neighbours and male prostitutes. Professor Rietberg, who is proud of his detective talents already proven in the case of "The Janissary File" (published by Universe in 2007), suspects the murderer to be among McKenna's forgery victims. He embarks on a long but ultimately rewarding journey to fi nd the killer, which takes him through the London art market, to Iran and the Arab Gulf States.

Excerpts

Rietberg stared at these lines as if he could not believe that his shy and very private friend was able to play the art market in his own bizarre way. He justified making money with fakes by his intention to fool whom he called 'the market's gullible middlemen'. Was he idealistic or sim-ply hypocritical, or both? Rietberg realised that he had scarcely known Martin's true nature in spite of their long friendship. Martin's observations about science in Islamic Spain during their last meeting acquired all of a sudden a special meaning. As usual, Rietberg had not paid much attention to what seemed only rambling remarks, while his mind was mostly elsewhere, and as usual he would only insert a suitable reply from time to time, when it was necessary to stop Martin from being carried away for too long by his monologues. Martin had spoken at length about his recent research of a golden period in Islamic Spain with a special attraction for historians and for collectors of art objects of that period. "The story goes that once upon a time there was in Islamic and early post-Islamic Spain a golden period of religious tolerance among Muslims, Christians and Jews, before the fanatics of the Spanish reconquista forcibly converted and deported the non-Christian minorities. The histo-rians have even coined a term for this period: Convivencia, which is Spanish for peaceful coexis-tence, but I don't need to tell you all this." Rietberg had never heard that term before, but did not want to admit his ignorance. Martin smiled his usual sarcastic smile. "Imagine the importance of this, when everyone now talks about the conflict of civiliza-tions. I recently attended a conference funded by the European Union on convivencia with a pa-per on Islamic science. The Brussels bureaucrats like to give money for events that stress harmony instead of conflict. No wonder, they owe their own living to a modern legend of European con-vivencia." "You don't believe in a united Europe, do you?" "If it were united, I would, but there is too much make-believe for me to believe in it." Martin's love of sarcasms and word-play could be irritating. "You are certainly proud to be different, I must say." If he had hoped with his interruptions to prevent further lecturing about convivencia, he was mistaken. Martin simply continued with his lecture. "Quite typical for the original convivencia period was Raymundus Lullus, a Catalan thinker, who even advocated a dialogue between the three monotheistic faiths. It was not all for the sake of harmony, of course, but to combat the savage heathen Mongols, who were then in-vading Europe. Yet somehow convivencia did not work for him personally, although he wanted all religions to treat one another with respect. Angry Muslims pelted poor Raymundus with stones during his travels in North Africa. They accused him to spy for the Pope, who was just planning a new crusade and did not much believe in convivencia himself. Not only that—also two Popes criticised him severely, after he showed more zeal in his peace mission than they thought was appropriate." He laughed: "Reminds one of Middle East peace initiatives today." Martin would never leave an opportunity for a sarcastic remark. Then he added pensively: "Whatever the reality was, instruments like astrolabes from this period will command premium prices in the modern art market. Museums would want them for their singularity and historical importance, Arab collectors would want them to prove the tolerance of mediaeval Islam and Jewish collectors would want them—well, for being Jewish. Not completely Jewish of course, but Palestine was not completely Jewish either." So Martin had been talking all the time about his own astrolabe! He had chosen the right time (11th century), when the right dynasty (Dhu 'l-Nunids) ruled in the right place (Toledo), all of which were known to be imbued by the spirit of convivencia. Toledo under the Dhu 'l-Nunids lived through a particular interesting period of criss-crossing alliances. The dynasty came to an end in 1085, when their capital Toledo was ceded to the Christian King Alfonso VI of Castile by its last Muslim king Yahya, whose Muslim grandfa-ther al-Ma'mun had granted the Christian King Alfonso asylum for nine months after the latter's defeat by his Christian brother Sancho. The story knew a Happy End, when the Christian king Alfonso, who remained grateful to his Muslim host al-Ma'mun, offered the latter's grandchild, the Muslim king Yahya, the Christian town of Valencia as a compensation for the newly Christi-anized Toledo. Martin's astrolabe was the perfect symbol of all that convivencia mélange, and it was no wonder that he expected his masterpiece to fetch nearly three million pounds. In spite of Trevelyan's somehow hostile advice he decided not to contact the police, least of all tell them about Martin's singular confession. He was aware that in not coming forth with his information he could come in conflict with the law himself. Martin's statement could cer-tainly be considered by the police as an important piece of evidence. He had given more than one clue to possible suspects. But as no one except Rietberg knew anything about this yet, the risk of being accused of withholding material evidence was quite negligible. If at a later stage he would have to answer questions, why he had not contacted the police, he could always concoct a story about some verbal communication given by Martin that he had not taken seriously at the time. There were several reasons, why he did not want to disclose Martin's testament to any-one. First of all it would have been a betrayal of Martin's trust in him. His friend had not sent his letter to a solicitor or a notary public with instructions to open it in the event of his death, but to him alone as a sign of confidence. He alone should judge what to do with it. Certainly, Martin did not want him to neglect his duty by simply forwarding his intimate confession to the police. Then he had to reckon with the possibility—or better certainty—of Dina being once more contacted by the police. The confession held some embarrassing information about wishful thinking of some of their staff including herself about the authenticity of the objects on sale. Nothing to do with murder, of course, but still opening doors for investigation of fraud or for civil litigation involving huge sums that had been paid trusting their glossy catalogues. In that case, Alistair Trevelyan, who had already suspected Rietberg of withholding facts about his rela-tion to Martin, could well name him as a witness who needed to be interrogated by the policel. Rietberg held also a personal grudge against the London Metropolitan Police. He had tried once to instigate procedures against a reckless driver who had nearly run him over on a pe-destrian crossing while driving at unbelievable speed. Armed with the voluntarily given state-ment of a witness, a nice Indian lady, who like him narrowly escaped death on that crossing, he went hopefully to the one police station that the cuts in public spending had spared in his neighbourhood. The lonely officer in charge, who finally emerged reluctantly from his back of-fice, after Rietberg had pressed the bell several times, made it quite clear that he did not intend to do anything at all. Not looking at Rietberg at all and with his arms crossed in a defensive atti-tude. It was more his body language than what he actually said that annoyed Rietberg. He simply left and swore never to walk into a police station again if he could help it. Why should he involve a police force so overstretched by protecting politicians and fighting terrorism that they would not have much time for investigating a non-terrorist traffic offence? Finally, a long time ago during his sabbatical in Cairo, he had managed to find a decisive clue for the police in a case involving shady speculators in a property scam based on docume