At 7 p.m. precisely, Mr Wilson gazed down at his clients and, like the Pope, smiled benignly. He tapped the microphone and said, ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sotheby’s Impressionist sale. Lot number one,’ he announced, glancing to his left to make sure the porter had placed the correct picture on the easel, ‘is a delightful Degas pastel, showing two ballerinas in rehearsal at the Trocadero. I’ll open the bidding at five thousand pounds. Six thousand. Seven thousand. Eight thousand . . .’
Sir Alan watched with interest as almost all of the early lots exceeded their estimates, proving, as The Times had suggested that morning, that there was a new breed of collectors who had made their fortunes since the war, and wished to show they had arrived by investing in art.
It was during the twelfth lot that Don Pedro Martinez entered the room, accompanied by two young men. Sir Alan recognized Martinez’s youngest son, Bruno, and assumed the other must be Sebastian Clifton. The presence of Sebastian convinced him that Martinez must be confident that the money was still inside the statue.
The dealers and gallery owners began to discuss among themselves if Martinez was likely to be more interested in lot 28, A Corner of the Garden at St Paul’s Hospital at St Rémy by Van Gogh, or lot 29, Rodin’s The Thinker.
Sir Alan had always considered himself to be a calm and collected man under pressure, but at that moment he felt his heart rate rising beat by beat as each new lot was placed on the easel. When the bidding opened at £80,000 for A Corner of the Garden at St Paul’s Hospital at St Rémy, and the hammer finally came down at £140,000, a record for a Van Gogh, he took out his handkerchief and dabbed his forehead.
He turned the page of his catalogue to look at the masterpiece he admired, but for which, ironically, he still hoped to end up as the under-bidder.
‘Lot number twenty-nine, Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker,’ said Mr Wilson. ‘If you look in your catalogue you will see that this is a lifetime cast by Alexis Rudier. The work is on display at the entrance to the sale room,’ the auctioneer added. Several heads turned to admire the massive bronze sculpture. ‘Considerable interest has been shown in this piece, so I shall open the bidding at forty thousand pounds. Thank you, sir,’ said the auctioneer, pointing to a gentleman sitting directly in front of him on the centre aisle. Several more heads turned, this time in the hope of identifying who the bidder might be.
Sir Alan responded with a slight, almost imperceptible nod.
‘Fifty thousand,’ declared the auctioneer, his attention returning to the man seated on the aisle, who raised his hand again. ‘I have sixty thousand.’ With no more than a glance in Sir Alan’s direction, Mr Wilson received the same slight nod, turned back to the man on the centre aisle and suggested £80,000, but was greeted with a frown of disappointment, followed by a firm shake of the head.
‘I have seventy thousand pounds,’ he said, looking back at Sir Alan, who felt a creeping doubt entering his mind. But then Mr Wilson looked to his left and said, ‘Eighty thousand. I have a bid on the telephone at eighty thousand.’ He immediately switched his attention back to Sir Alan. ‘Ninety thousand?’ he purred.
Sir Alan nodded.
Wilson looked back towards the phone, where a hand was raised a few seconds later. ‘One hundred thousand. One hundred and ten thousand?’ he asked, looking once again at Sir Alan and giving him his best Cheshire cat smile.
Could he risk it? For the first time in his life, the cabinet secretary took a gamble. He nodded.
‘I have one hundred and ten thousand pounds,’ said Wilson, looking directly at the Sotheby’s employee who was holding the phone to his ear and awaiting his instructions.
Martinez turned around to see if he could identify who was bidding against him.
The whispered phone conversation continued for some time. Sir Alan became more nervous with each passing second. He tried not to consider the possibility that Martinez had double-crossed him and had somehow managed to smuggle £8 million into the country while the SAS had set fire to counterfeits of counterfeits. What felt like an hour to him turned out to be less than twenty seconds. And then without warning, the man on the phone raised his hand.