BOOK SHEET

Revealing the name of the character to whom the book in progress is dedicated is impossible: there is no certainty to confirm that he was truly called one thing rather than another. Not even the only existing biography, dated 1987, was able to establish it with certainty... yet it was written while he was still alive. It took us many years to reconstruct the many facets of the most reliable version of this "Arsène Lupin," not created by Maurice Leblanc but born in Croatia in the late 19th century.

His figure is surrounded by incredible mystery. He was a collector, dealer, painter, restorer, forger, and art thief. Probably also a spy, certainly a friend of Hermann Göring and Josip Broz Tito, and accredited in Europe's most exclusive circles. Perhaps he was all of these things at once. Certainly an impostor, but one with extraordinary intelligence, capable of rampaging throughout much of the 20th century, from the Old Continent to South America, passing through Tangier, until finally returning to his homeland. A definitive answer to his story may only be possible when the UDBA opens its secret archives. To date, the only certainty is the deeds he accomplished; governments and cultural institutions around the world are aware of this, having discovered, often after a long time, that they are among his "victims." His existence is summed up in a quote from Ovid that appears on the first page of the catalog of the museum dedicated to him:
"Exegi Monumentum" ("I have erected a monument").