Forgive No More

by Seb Kirby

  It was gone. The file had been removed.

  Chapter 71

  I met Ferrara and Gina in the hotel lobby. We’d spent long enough cooped up in Ferrara’s room and needed natural light and fresh air.

  It was a short walk to Marienplatz where, in the square fronting the ornate Town Hall, a city was at peace with itself. A jazz band played cool music from a dais placed close to the ornate archway of the building. Long trestle tables were set out on the grey flagstones of the square. Munich beer in foaming glass steins glowed amber in the late summer sunshine as young and old sat and drank together. We joined them.

  Ferrara was thankful. “Next week all hell breaks loose once Oktoberfest gets started. It’s become a cross between a beer festival and a pop concert with six million visitors piling in. Not much like it was.”

  Gina joked, “And not even in October.”

  “That’s right. Much of the celebration takes place in September. But no one cares. Oktoberfest was always meant to be about escapism so who cares about breaking a few rules of common sense.”

  We drank beer and ate pretzels. Ferrara and Gina ate wurst. We tried hard to get into the prevailing feeling that life was good, uncomplicated and to be lived for the moment. But it was no good pretending. There was too much at stake.

  Ferrara was first to break the spell. “You’re not enjoying this, James? Not just for a moment?”

  “I don’t believe you are either, Nico.”

  “Does it show that much?”

  “You’re worried about Heller?”

  He nodded. “Aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I’m concerned being out here on Marienplatz makes us more visible to him or the Landos. But it’s more than that. It’s about what you said, Nico. A dark shadow hangs over this place. I can’t tolerate the joviality. Not when the past hangs so heavy.”

  Gina joined in. “If it helps, I don’t buy it either.”

  We made it back to the hotel and reassembled in Ferrara’s room, out of sight from the prying eyes that would have been on us if we’d stayed at Marienplatz. Away from the contrived joviality. Immersing ourselves once more in Schreiber’s research notes, searching for the answers we hoped would be there.

  Ferrara was clear. “Concentrate on the art. It is where the answer lies.”

  I needed to know why he was so sure. “Nico, why the art?”

  He paused to think and then continued. “James, we need to keep the connection with the reason your wife came to Florence.”

  “To search for missing art?”

  “Yes, and why so many of those masterpieces are missing. Did you know the original of the Da Vinci Leda and the Swan I told you about is lost, and what we have left is the copy made at the time by Cesare Lesto?”

  I thought back to my visit three years ago to the National Museum in London to view Rubens’ copy of Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan. “Just as the Michelangelo version is also lost and replaced by a copy.”

  “Would you call that a coincidence?”

  “Maybe not. Julia has her own view of why so many masterpieces are lost or missing. She’s convinced that in a number of cases their existence had been concealed by overpainting. Her career’s work is to use her conservation knowledge to discover one of these hidden masterpieces and give it back to the world. That’s what her visit to Florence promised.”

  He nodded in agreement. “Yes, but why conceal them?”

  I replied with what Julia had always believed. “Because of their content. The subject matter can be offensive to many.”

  “Agreed. But overpainting may not have been the only way to conceal them. Do not forget, these paintings were commissioned by wealthy patrons for their own needs. They could decide on their own interpretation of morality so long as they kept them hidden, so long as no one knew they were there. And simple hiding was another, effective means of concealment from the demands of orthodoxy.”

  “So, another way of concealing them?”

  “Yes. And there is a simple enough conclusion to be drawn about such paintings that made it necessary to hide them. There are those who believe the reason why the paintings had been commissioned at such great expense was they were the vehicle for the concealment of secrets that, if they had been spoken of in the open, would have led to prosecution, even the deaths of those that uttered them.”

  “The secrets were hidden in the art as a means of preserving them?”

  “Indeed. What better place could there be? Much else perishes with time, including people’s memories, but precious works of art, like myth itself, survive the centuries, survive war, famine and disease.”

  “You have evidence for this?”

  “We know the Church condemned many to death for far less. And we know that Da Vinci and Michelangelo and a large number of the other artists of the time were skilled in concealing secret messages in their work.”

  “That’s not going to stand up in a court of law.”

  He nodded. “Agreed. And in my profession we are not allowed to speculate for too long without firm evidence. But bear with me for awhile. Let me point to a few moments when the line was crossed and the madness surfaced in the world of art. You know about the Bonfire of the Vanities?”

  I told him what little I knew.

  He had more to add. “Yes, in Florence in 1497, Savonarola, the Dominican priest railing against the corruption of the Vatican, encouraged his followers to demand that the wealthy should publicly burn their precious objects, their books and paintings, to show they had turned their back on the sin of avarice. But, did you know such bonfires had been going on in Italy for half a century before Savonarola?”

  “Which means?”

  “So many masterpieces, by Botticelli, by Bernini. No longer hidden, destroyed in those fires. Yet, just as your wife Julia supposed, what a convenient way for clever people to intervene and acquire the paintings for themselves.”

  “You’re saying those in the secret societies acquired them?”

  “I am saying that a number of those great works and their secrets have disappeared and that what was concealed was the very stuff of the intrigue fueling the secret societies. It would be surprising if they had not been involved. But hard evidence is always going to be difficult to find because the whole idea of such societies is they operate in secret. That was what impressed me about what Signora DeFrancesco had to tell me.”

  “Alfieri Lando was in possession of the Michelangelo. It doesn’t matter to you that the painting he had was shown to be a contemporary copy?”

  “I do not think so. It follows that an object of such importance would be protected by having copies made. But the desire to devour the secrets in the original remains.”

  “How do we know the copy contains all the secrets of the original?”

  “We do not. And there lies one of the drivers to recover the originals.”

  “No doubt there’s a good rival explanation for each and every missing masterpiece?”

  “I do not doubt it. But with so many missing, it appears more as if there is a pattern over a long period of time. The disappearance of so many key art works may be evidence in itself for the existence of the secret societies right the way back to the days of Savonarola.”

  I looked down at what remained of the print out of Arndt Schreiber’s research we had yet to consider. My pile, like that of Gina and Ferrara, was going down fast. I could only hope the breakthrough we were seeking was to be found somewhere in the remaining pages.

  It was getting late and becoming difficult to keep focused yet I knew I had to keep questioning. “Nico, what you’ve told us about the importance of art in all this means we need to know more about Benito Lando’s activities.”

  Ferrara held up handful of papers he’d selected from his pile of notes. “Agreed. We need to return to World War Two. You’ve heard about the Fuhrermuseum? It was one of the largest projects proposed by the Nazis. The art works of Europe in all the countries occupied by the fascists were stolen. Painting
s, sculpture, by the train-load, was sent to Austria where plans were drawn up for a vast museum in Linz, the town where Hitler was born. Well, the paperwork I am holding in my hand right now shows Benito Lando was involved. Except he was working for Himmler rather than Hitler.”

  “We know why he was useful to them. He knew about art. But, Nico, I thought it was well-known that the fascist looting of all those art works was down to simple greed?”

  “Yes, it’s true, much of what the Nazis did was the kind of gangsterism that comes with unbridled power.”

  “So, theft, the grabbing of personal wealth, self-aggrandizement. There’s nothing more?”

  “Don’t you see, James. It was about greed. But at the same time it was something else altogether. If Benito was a member of a secret society that believed there were secrets in the art, think what occult secrets he could discover. What if there were more like him? That would be as much the reason for the obsession with stealing art as any simple grabbing of wealth.”

  “So, Nico, what had Arndt got to tell us about Benito Lando and Himmler?”

  He held up another of the pages. It was an order issued by Himmler in the closing years of the War. Ferrara read it out. “Use every means of transport to get all works of European art out of Florence except works of art from English and Americans… get anything away that you can get hold of. Heil Hitler.”

  Gina was quick to understand the significance of this. “And Benito Lando was close enough to the action to play a part?”

  Ferrara gave a nod of agreement and continued. “We know he was part of Himmler’s inner circle.” Ferrara read further through this section of Schreiber’s notes. “Here it is. Lando was part of a specialist SS group called Nibelungen detailed by Himmler to protect the art he was stealing unopposed in the ruins of war. And Himmler, like Goering, was a serious collector of art, in competition with the official policy of looting for the proposed Fuhrermuseum.”

  I was beginning to see where this was going. “So, Benito Lando had access to art works on an unprecedented scale.”

  Ferrara seemed sure. “Indeed. The Nazis looted over six hundred thousand works of art from right across Europe. Hitler for the Fuhrermuseum, Himmler for his own SS world center in Wewelsburg Castle. Vast schemes. And, you know, many of those stolen works have still not been returned to their rightful owners, even today. But you are right, James. What an ideal cover for a determined man like Benito Lando to be following his own agenda amidst the chaos and disorder.”

  I waved a sheaf of papers from my share of Schreiber’s research notes. “So maybe this is relevant.” I held up a thick batch of print-out sheets that were all concerned with art. “There’s so much material here. There has to be a good reason why Arndt attached such importance to it.”

  Ferrara walked across to look over my shoulder. “What kind of art?”

  I leafed further through. “Your instinct was right, Nico. It’s missing art. Classic paintings, lists of masterpieces believed to be lost, stretching right back.”

  And then I stopped. I turned over the next page and was presented with the image that had started the whole chain of events that had engulfed my family, first seen when Julia had sent it to me by phone as she was being kidnapped by Alfieri Lando’s men – Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan.

  Gina now appeared concerned. “You look like you’re in shock.”

  I steadied myself. “I’m OK. It’s just the first time I saw this picture I thought my wife was dead. Each time I see it, I get the same feeling of dread.” I held up the page. “The Michelangelo.”

  Ferrara spoke next. “Once again we follow in Arndt Schreiber’s footsteps. He is taking us back. He is saying: don’t get trapped into thinking this is only about Benito Lando and World War Two, also look back. At the same time that Benito Lando was serving Himmler he was using his position to serve an older cause.”

  I leafed further through the pages. “Yes, there are dozens of images of missing masterpieces.”

  Then I found the list.

  It had been produced on a manual typewriter during WWII and scanned from surviving documents by Arndt Schreiber.

  182/NI/SS Lorenzo Monaco – Madonna mit Kind und Heiligen Johannes dem Taufer und Nikolaus und Engel, inthronisiert 1402

  238/NI/SS Andrea Mantegna – St. James fuhrte zu seiner Hinrichtung 1455

  419/NI/SS Fra Angelico – Jungste Gericht 1456

  421/NI/SS Sandro Botticelli – Portrait von Cosimo Di Medici 1478

  533/NI/SS Luca Signorelli – Das Gericht Pan, 1490

  619/NI/SS Giovanni Bellini – Das Abendmahl in Emmaus, 1494

  655/NI/SS Ghirlandaio – Jerome und Johannes der Taufer, 1496

  711/NI/SS Fra Bartolommeo Himmelfahrt der Jungfrau, 1508

  724/NI/SS Leonardo da Vinci – Leda und der Schwan, 1508

  749/NI/SS Michelangelo – Leda und der Schwan, 1530

  758/NI/SS Veronese – Apollo und Juno und Saturn Hilft Religion zu uberwinden Heresy, 1580

  821/NI/SS Caravaggio – Matthaus und der Engel, 1602

  I handed the list to Ferrara. He looked at it with care. “It is a copy of a document found in Benito Lando’s possession when he was arrested by the Allies. It is incomplete. It is the start of a much longer list. We do not know how many paintings there were on the full list. Arndt has notes in the margin making that clear.”

  Gina chimed in. “Looks like a shopping list.”

  Ferrara nodded. “That’s just what it is. Or more like an accession list. It is Benito Lando’s list of the masterpieces he acquired under cover of looting for the Nazi cause. It shows the SS obsession with recording and numbering everything. Just as the internees in Dachau were recorded and numbered.”

  He began to take us through the list, translating from the German.

  182/NI/SS Lorenzo Monaco – Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Nicholas and Angels, painted in 1402.

  “Look at the accession number. NI/SS could refer to the Nibelungen group of the SS, the group we know Benito Lando was attached to.”

  He paused to check details on the Internet. “As I recalled, it is one of many masterpieces known to have been lost to Allied bombing in 1945 when a storage tower in Berlin in which they were hidden, the Friedrichshain Flakturm, was destroyed. But if Lando had stolen the paintings on the list for Himmler, I doubt they were ever sent to Berlin, despite Hitler’s order to send all stolen art there. The paintings on this list would have gone to Wewelsburg Castle.”

  I wanted to be sure I understood. “Nico, you’re saying these are all masterpieces that were stolen and then supposed to have been destroyed in the Allied bombing?”

  He nodded again. “Most of them. Mantegna’s St James Led To His Execution, Fra Angelica’s East Judgment, Botticelli’s Portrait of Cosimo De’ Medici, Ghirlandaio’s Jerome and John the Baptist, Fra Bartolommeo’s Assumption of the Virgin, Veronese’s Apollo and Juno and Saturn Help Religion to Overcome Heresy and Caravaggio’s Saint Matthew and the Angel are all listed as having been destroyed in the bombing of the tower.”

  “And the others?”

  “Signorelli’s The Court of Pan and Bellini’s The Supper at Emmaus are thought to have been lost long before that.”

  “Are you saying they were found by Benito Lando and taken to Wewelsburg?”

  “Why else would he have given them an accession number?”

  “You haven’t mentioned the two paintings of Leda and the Swan.”

  “If we are right, and this documentation suggests that is the case, both the Da Vinci and the Michelangelo versions were part of the consignment, with an SS accession number.”

  “If the whole consignment went to Himmler at Wewelsburg Castle rather than Berlin, what happened to it?”

  “That is what Arndt Schreiber was trying to discover. We know that by the time the Allies realized what had been happening with the Nazis plundering so much art, Himmler was dead. And because he was dead, his treasure trove of stolen works
was not investigated. Nothing was done until 1998 and by then too much time had passed. Benito Lando was not in custody for long. It is altogether probable once he was released he found a way to recover the paintings from wherever they were being hidden.”

  “But we have no proof.”

  “That is true. As the years pass it is ever more difficult to have certainty.”

  I looked again over the list. “It reminds me of the list Julia compiled before she set out to Florence in her own search for a hidden masterpiece. Except, the Lando list is shorter. And that brings us back to Leda and the Swan. Everything comes back to that single image. Leda being raped by Zeus. It’s always been what this is all about.”

  Day 6

  September 7th

  Chapter 72

  Ferrara ordered coffee from room service as we fought against sleep, determined before dawn broke to complete our search through Arndt Schreiber’s research papers.

  We were running out of time and material. Schreiber’s research notes were revealing much, yet the answers we were seeking still remained out of reach.

  My pile of papers was almost finished. Then I turned over the last page but one. It was about Isaac Newton.

  Ferrara came to look over my shoulder.

  I was ahead of him in reading Schreiber’s note. “It’s about speculation that Newton was involved with the Rosicrucians. Why would Arndt take time and trouble over him?”

  Ferrara paused before speaking. “They were one of the most influential secret societies of Newton’s day. Knowing Newton’s interest in alchemy and what we would today call the occult, it is perhaps not surprising. But there is a school of thought that says Newton was involved because he was trying to find the Elixir of Life.”

  “A way of living forever?”