Hermitage Lost

A Rembrandt caught amid ruthless oligarchs, shadowy collectors, corrupt officials, forgeries, looted art, vast Hermitage thefts-and a murder in St. Petersburg.

Nowak, a gruff outsider lawyer from Vienna, is asked to seize a Rembrandt tied to the family of a former Congolese dictator. Days later, an expert he met in Geneva-and who had questioned the painting's authenticity-is found dead in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Nowak's assistant, on holiday there, witnesses a violent raid on her former professor's home. The target: files from his years at the legendary Hermitage Museum. Terrified, they flee to his remote dacha.

When Nowak joins them and later travels to Tallinn, he begins to unravel a murky history of looted art-first by the Nazis, then the Red Army-and systematic thefts from the Hermitage during Perestroika. Even the Rembrandt itself-is it genuine, after all?-was once stolen, then traded for company shares. Just as the puzzle starts to come together, his assistant is detained without cause. By now, it´s clear: Powerful oligarchs and Kremlin elites are entangled in a vast, multimillion-dollar conspiracy.

Fighting for her release, Nowak must navigate a treacherous world of secretive collectors, influential lawyers, and shady advisors, notably from Switzerland and Austria. Yet, one oligarch plans to float his empire on the stock exchange-and that may be Nowak's one chance.


Christian Schopper is active in international banking and consulting. He also lectures as a visiting professor on banking, finance, and capital markets at universities and management institutes worldwide.