Almost 25 years after the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, still the largest unsolved art theft in history, one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist. Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner, Aiden Markel by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect...

"A deeply evocative portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, a daring visionary who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city of Boston itself. By the time Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum in 1903 to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d'art, she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston's polite society. But when Isabella first arrives in Boston in 1861,...

Life of a pace-setter in fashion and art collector.

"A patron with exquisite taste and a zest for life, Isabella Stewart Gardner traveled the globe for over three decades, assembling piece by piece one of the world's most remarkable art collections. Her interests ranged from Rembrandt, Titian, Sargent, Whistler, and Matisse to architectural antiquities, medieval stained glass windows, tapestries, painted leather "wallpaper" and rare books. In 1903, the "palace" she built as a museum to house her collection...

"Surrounded by artists, writers and musicians who constituted her court in Boston as in Venice, Isabella Stewart Gardner, a passionate art collector with enormous funds, was as revered and sought after as royalty. Henry James had a real affection for her, and was inspired by the rich and powerful Mrs Gardner and her magnificent pearls, as well as by the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, for his novel The Wings of the Dove made into a film in 1997. Mrs Gardner...

"Born in 1840, Isabella was a curious and mischievous child. When her parents brought her to Europe, she loved the excitement of travel and the artwork in the museums she visited. She told them 'If I ever have any money of my own, I am going to build a palace and fill it with beautiful things.' Many years later, Isabella Stewart Gardner curated, designed and built a world-class art museum which opened in 1903." -- cover, page 4