The legendary spy and restorer of works of art Gabriel Allon finally left the post of head of Israeli intelligence and settled in Venice - the only place to find peace. For days he spends wandering through the streets and canals of the city built on the water and runs away from the demons of the past. However, when an eccentric London art trader Julian Isherwood asks him to investigate the circumstances of the finding and the beneficial sale of a centuries -old masterpiece, Gabriel finds himself in a deadly cat game and a mouse in which nothing seems to be. Allon soon discovers that the image - a portrait of an unknown woman written by Antoine van Dyck - is almost certainly a successful copy. In the desire to find a mysterious counterfeiter, revealing a billion -dollar fraud among the elite of the world of art will come up with one of the most sophisticated trickens of his career. However, if the plan is to succeed, Gabriel must become the greatest falsifier of the art that the world has ever seen.
A portrait of an unknown woman is an expedition to a dark world where ruthless art traders cheat on their clients daily, and rich investors consider great artwork only as another commodity that can be bought and sold with profit. From an elegant introduction to unexpected twists in the end, this novel is a real masterpiece. It is also another proof that Daniel Silva as the author of spy novels and thrillers has no competition.