The Tower of Blue Horses

English sample translation by John Reddick available
Recommended for translation by New Books in German

An art detective agency sets out to discover the secret around Franz Marc’s lost masterpiece The Tower of Blue Horses

A filthy rich art collector claims to have bought Franz Marc’s legendary missing painting The Tower of Blue Horses from a mysterious stranger for only three million Euro. The painting had never been seen again since the Nazi’s declared it “degenerate art” and it was made part of Göring’s private property. Where has Marc’s painting been since the Second World War? The art detective agency von Schleewitz is given the assignment of finding out whether the resurfaced painting is a fake or the real thing. If it was the original that would be a global sensation.

The team from the detective agency, Rupert von Schleewitz, Klara Ivanovic and Max Müller, not only lead completely different private lives – from daughters in the throes of teenage crises, to careless affairs with suspects, to an ageing action-artist father who causes tremendous headaches – but also have very distinct investigative methods. Soon, the three find themselves caught up in a web of forgeries, mysterious deaths and made-for-Hollywood art heists. And suddenly it seems that there are half a dozen copies of the painting. Which is the real one?