Books like The forgery of Venus by Gruber, Michael

Chaz Wilmot, a talented painter who masters the styles of Leonardo, Goya, and Gainsborough, lives a quiet life creating parodies for advertising. His career changes when an art dealer commissions him to restore a Tiepolo fresco in a Venetian palace, but the work is actually a flawless forgery. Wilmot embraces the challenge, producing a piece indistinguishable from an original, which draws the attention of the elusive dealer Werner Krebs. As Wilmot’s creative fervor intensifies, he experiences vivid, relived moments that twist into memories of a past life as the celebrated Spanish painter Diego Rodríguez de Silva Velázquez. Driven by these visions, he suspects he may have created a masterpiece—a nude portrait—though he cannot discern whether it truly exists. Wilmot’s world spirals into a labyrinth of illusion, hallucination, and shadowy crime, forcing him to confront the sinister motives of his patron and the murky truths of art forgery.

First publish date: 2008