The Night Gate

Acknowledgements

I would like to offer my grateful thanks to those who gave so generously of their time and expertise during my researches for The Night Gate. In particular I’d like to express my gratitude to Dr Steven C. Campman, M.D., Medical Examiner, San Diego, California; Mike Baxter, former Head of Forensic Science Services at the Police Forensic Science Laboratory, Dundee, Scotland; Madeleine J. Hinkes, PhD, D-ABFA (American Board of Forensic Anthropology); Charles Berberich for his insights into genealogical research in Germany; the Gouffre de Padirac for facilitating my private tour of the caves; and my wife Janice Hally for taking on the role of research assistant in delving into conditions and events in wartime France.

Many of the characters described in the book are real — Jacques Jaujard, Rose Valland, René Huygue, Sturmbannführer Christian Tyschen. And many of the events actually occurred — the evacuation of artworks from the Louvre during WW2 to various châteaux around France; the burning of paintings by the Nazis (although I took a small liberty with the timing and precise location); the shooting of Maquis fighters in Saint-Céré, and the prevention of a massacre of that town’s civilians by the intervention of brave Berthe Nasinec; the installation of a radio transmitter by resistance fighters in the Tours Saint-Laurent; the extraordinary courage of Rose Valland in cataloguing stolen Nazi art and tracking it down, post-war, to return to its rightful owners; the presence of the huge, rolled canvasses from the Louvre in an apartment above a double garage in the Lotois village of Bétaille.

As for the existence of a Mona Lisa forgery, I leave my readers to decide if that is truth, or a fictitious construct of the author.