Page, Martin

New York. 1984. September 1984. Pantheon Books. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 039453283x. 191 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Dave Calver. Jacket design by Louise Fili. keywords: Mystery England . FROM THE PUBLISHER - Paris, 1911. The impossible has occurred: somehow, someone has stolen the Mona Lisa. The theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre remains one of the century's most extraordinary crimes (exceeding both the Great Train Robbery and the Brink's Job in its skill and the value of what was taken). Now in The Man Who Sole the Mona Lisa, Martin Page has written a captivating thriller about the theft as ingenious as the crime itself. Beginning in the private railway car of John Pierpont Morgan (whose one last unfinished piece of business on earth is to procure the Mona Lisa), Page introduces us to the twentieth century's most accomplished and audacious thief, Adam Worth. Worth - whose past is an enigma and who possesses the remarkable ability to alter not only his personality but also his very physiognomy - is no stranger to Morgan, having already robbed his bank in Boston, stolen his mistress's jewels in New York, forged his letters of credit in Brussels, and pirated his yacht in Cannes. But this time Morgan turns the tables by offering Worth the ultimate challenge of his career - five million dollars in return for Da Vinci's masterpiece. Worth's ingenious plan begins with his own staged funeral in London (which he discreetly attends with his newly wed, and sixth, wife). From there it takes him to the dangerous jungles of the Amazon, to the sinister underworld of Paris, and finally into the halls of the impenetrable Louvre. But no plan is foolproof, and once the painting is lifted, Worth discovers that his challenge has only begun, for he has yet to outwit the French authorities, international art experts, and even the ruthless J. P. Morgan himself. inventory #5990 ISBN: 039453283x.