''The Rembrandt Affair'' is a 2010 spy novel by Daniel Silva. It is the tenth in the Gabriel Allon series, based in the world of Israeli intelligence.

Plot

Gabriel Allon and his team seek a lost

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

whose previous owners have included both Holocaust victims and terrorists. In addition to regularly recurring characters, Julian Isherwood in his role as a gallery owner features prominently.

Background

Part of the reason that Silva delved into the topic of art theft was the realization of the impact it has on the art world. Beginning with the role it played during and after the Holocaust, art theft has continued into the present. Each year, between four and six billion dollars' worth of art and antiquities are stolen, ranking it as the fourth-most lucrative crime behind

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

arms dealing The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...

, and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

. Silva touched on arms trafficking when dealing with the crimes of Ivan Kharkov in '' The Defector'' and ''

Moscow Rules The Moscow rules are rules-of-thumb said to have been developed during the Cold War to be used by spies and others working in Moscow. The rules are associated with Moscow because the city developed a reputation as being a particularly harsh loc ...

''. Silva was also intrigued by the greed that drove people such as

Bernie Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDA ...

and he, and some other key figures in the Great Recession were the inspiration behind this book's villain, Martin Landesmann.

Reception

Like others in Silva's Gabriel Allon series, this book was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. ''The Rembrandt Affair'' marked Silva's last book with Putnam after he signed a deal with HarperCollins following Rembrandt's publication.

International titles

Portuguese: ''O Caso Rembrandt''. (''The Rembrandt Affair''). (2011).

References

External links

* Novels by Daniel Silva 2010 American novels G. P. Putnam's Sons books {{2010s-spy-novel-stub