The Da Vinci Deception Read Online Free

more importantly, if they were found, what would they be worth?”
    â€œCan you guess how many drawings there might be?” Stiehl asked.
    â€œSeveral hundred, perhaps more. Leonardo’s Leicester Codex was recently auctioned for nearly six million dollars. It consisted of thirtyeight pages and contained but a few unimportant sketches. One sheet holding an early study of the Mona Lisa could bring ten million alone. When a Van Gogh goes for more than eighty million a da Vinci will bring an untold amount.
    â€œNo one knows what the missing manuscripts contain, the experts can only speculate. Any that are found will be subjected to intense scrutiny and a battery of highly sophisticated tests. The first criterion is that they must be perceived as authentic.
    â€œAnd that, my new friend, is where you enter the picture. I plan for you to create a generous supply of the missing Leonardo manuscripts.”
    Stiehl’s reaction was immediate. “That’s insane! No one can do that. It’s craziness!”
    â€œIt is none of that,” Jonas shouted, and slammed his fist to the desk.
    â€œYou were serious about taking a Leonardo from Windsor,” Stiehl responded, his voice raised to match Jonas’s. “I thought that was a pretty bad joke. I was in prison for four years and I have no intention of going back.”
    â€œAnd I won’t let that happen. You will have privacy and total security. You’ll have every protection.”
    â€œSort of the honor system,” Stiehl said with more than a little irony. “We protect each other.”

    â€œYou can become wealthy, Curtis. Beginning immediately you will have a substantial income and a studio with every amenity. Consider also that it is I who must present the manuscripts to the community of art historians. Should they discredit them, then I would merely say I had discovered worthless copies. There is no crime in being misinformed.”
    â€œWhy must I duplicate the skulls so precisely if you plan to create Leonardos that have never been seen before?”
    â€œIf you can duplicate a known Leonardo drawing with flawless accuracy, it is very likely that you can create a new work that will go unchallenged.”
    â€œWho else is involved in your little game?”
    â€œThere will be three of you involved directly in the development of the Leonardo drawings. I will direct the project, and be aided by my assistant.”
    â€œWho would I work with? When would I meet them?”
    â€œYou will proceed alone for at least six months, and then you will work in close association with a former professor of Renaissance studies at the University of Milan. Giorgio Burri is an acknowledged Leonardo scholar.”
    â€œSix months is a long time.”
    Jonas smiled indulgently. “Exercise the patience you so painfully learned, Curtis. It has taken more than three years to put this plan together. In the beginning you will receive written instructions from Giorgio and will communicate with him through me or my assistant. When the two of you meet, it will be as if you have known each other a long time. No one is more essential to our success than the one who puts pen to paper. Before you attempt to make a precise copy of the Windsor drawing, you will need all of six months to master Leonardo’s style and technique, and ultimately you must write as he did. No small accomplishment.”
    â€œWhat if I fail?”
    â€œYou won’t. I have complete confidence that you’ll carry it off.”
    â€œWho is the third member of the team? What part does he play?”
    â€œ She is a highly qualified chemist with advanced degrees from the University of Chicago and MIT. Her name is Eleanor Shepard; when I met her, she was most unhappy in her assignment with the FDA in Washington. I persuaded her to undertake a special research project in Italy.”
    â€œWhat kind of research?”

    â€œFirst she will locate the