SHOPPING CART
SHOPPING CART
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Beyond the study was a huge kitchen, and
beyond that a monumental spiral staircase—
made of marble—that led both up
and down. Conforti's men tried downstairs first.
The basement was divided into three. The first
room they came to was a store room, a magazzino in
Italian, which contained scores of boxes, each containing
fragments of antiquities, many with dirt on
them, and each carefully classified—"Apulian",
"Attic", "Etruscan". This was much more promising.
There were also a few complete objects in this room,
vases mainly. The second feature of the basement
was a huge laboratory, spotless, and laid out like a
medical pharmacy, with scientific instruments,
lancets, magnifying glasses, jars of chemicals,
paints, brushes and other equipment with which
fragile antiquities could be cleaned and restored to
their former glory. This was even more promising
than the magazzino. No wonder Savoca's wife had
been so furious. Beyond the laboratory, however, the
men were in for a real surprise, something that none
of the police there that day had ever come across
before—not the Italians, nor the Germans, nor the
Greeks who had flown in from Athens. It was a pool.
At first glance it looked like a swimming pool. It was
a metre and a half deep, twenty metres long and ten
wide. It was lined in ivory-colored tiles with skimmers
to ensure the efficient circulation of water. But
this pool wasn't used for swimming. Standing in the
water, like so many lobster pots, was a score of huge
ancient jars and vases. This was Savoca's way of
cleaning the bigger antiquities—they were dipped in
the pool, left for a few days and the chemicals in the
water removed the encrustations and other blemishes
that they had acquired down the centuries.
None of the police could believe their eyes. This was
restoration on an industrial scale. The great majority
of the vases were of Italian origin, though there
were some from Bulgaria and some from Greece.
Next to the pool were a number of plastic vats, containing
stronger chemicals used to clean the vases
with really difficult encrustations. The smell from
the chemicals in the vats was quite strong and no
one risked putting their fingers in the liquid to
reach for the objects. Savoca was silent. There was
no hiding what the pool room was used for. He knew
there and then that he was facing a lengthy jail term.
For Conforti's men, however, the pool and its
contents were just the first of several surprises.
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HARDCOVERISBN 978-1-58648-402-6 Pub date: 04/24/06 Price: $26.95/36.95 Canada 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 320 pages 16 pp b/w photos Carton Quantity: 24 True Crime, World Affairs Selling Territory: W Rights:
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