Resist everything except temptation . . .
Jilly Cooper's ritzy, riotous new novel takes the lid off the international art world - where successful young artists strut around like rock stars, where artful and crafty dealers indulge in every kind of gallery-pokery, and where the more beautiful the painting, the greater the backstabbing.
No picture ever came more beautiful than Raphael's 'Pandora'. Discovered by a dashing young lieutenant, Raymond Belvedon, in a Normandy chateau in 1944, she has cast her spell over the Belvedon family - all artists and dealers - for fifty years. Hanging in a turret of their lovely Cotswold house, Pandora has witnessed Raymond's tempestuous wife Galena both entertaining a string of lovers and giving birth to her four children.
These children grow up into chilly, manipulative Jupiter, who runs the family gallery; Alizarin, the high-handed loner; Jonathan, who blithely beds every beauty he paints; and superbrat Sienna, shortlisted for the Turner Prize. 'Pandora', meanwhile, has been locked away in her turret, increasing her colossal value by the second.
Then an exquisite stranger rolls up, claiming to be a long-lost daughter of the family and setting the three Belvedon brother at one another's throats. Accompanying her is Zac, her fatally glamorous American Jewish boyfriend, whose very different agenda includes an unhealthy interest in the Raphael.
During a firework party, the picture is stolen. The hunt to retrieve it takes the reader on a thrilling journey to Vienna, Geneva, Paris, New York and London. After a nail-biting court case and a record-smashing Old Masters sale at Sotheby's, passionate love triumphs and 'Pandora' is restored to her rightful home.
