Der Tod kommt nach Venedig (2022)

mini|left|upright|Portrait of a Lady by Sandro Botticelli. In Venice, restorer Lukas Albrecht dies under mysterious circumstances. According to Inspector Mattia Santo, he was probably struck on the head by a ship’s propeller. He may have lost consciousness and fallen into the Canale dei Marani, where a water taxi ran him over. The victim’s hand bears second-degree burns from oil or water. It remains unclear why he fell into the water, as well as where the burns came from, but Inspector Santo considers the investigation closed. Lukas Albrecht’s wife, Anna, does not believe it was an accident, however. She travels from Vienna to Venice with her autistic eleven-year-old son, Paul, to identify her husband and bring him home. Rafael, Lukas’s best friend, supports Anna through this ordeal. Lukas Albrecht had been working on a Renaissance painting. At the Gambrini Museum workshop, Portrait of a Lady by Sandro Botticelli—a painting dominated by the colors of love and death, red and black—turns out to be a copy made by Lukas Albrecht, while the original is missing. Museum director Alexandra von Reuten suspects Anna knows where the original is. She is also worried about her reputation if the forgery becomes public, since she hired Lukas Albrecht on the recommendation of her lover, Rafael. While walking in Venice, Anna is followed by Carlo, whom she confronts. He, too, wants the original Botticelli. She also happens to meet Federica Patta, who recognizes Anna by her voice: Federica had left Lukas a voicemail. Federica is also searching for the Botticelli, and she has a burn on her hand as well. Anna wonders how her husband managed to make the original disappear from the museum. Director von Reuten has wondered the same thing and reconstructed Lukas’s working hours. By day he worked on the restoration; at night, on the copy. The paints were made using old techniques, with egg tempera as their base. Feeding chickens carotene-free food produces eggs with almost white yolks, which add little tint to the paints. Lukas had kept the chickens in his own apartment. He used condoms to soak the toxic lead white—not, as Anna had suspected, for an affair. After Anna visits Inspector Mattia Santo again, she meets Capitano Carlo Gabato of the department for the protection of cultural property. He had found 28,000 euros in Lukas Albrecht’s bank account, deposited by Lukas four days earlier. On museum surveillance footage, Alexandra von Reuten and Carlo Gabato spot Federica Patta, a former art student from Liguria who had applied for an internship at the museum and repeatedly gazed at the Botticelli, as well as businessman Frank Lee, a billionaire of Korean descent. Anna tells Rafael that she spoke to Lukas on the phone a few days before his death. He had been very distressed and said he was being threatened. Anna had not taken him seriously and blames herself for it. On Gabato’s advice, she sends her son to Vienna with Rafael, to stay with her friend and boss, Laura Frenzel. Schuster, who works for Frank Lee, puts pressure on Federica. He gives her another 24 hours to find the original Botticelli. Otherwise, something might happen to her father. In Lukas’s apartment, Anna discovers a plan, possibly of the museum. Frank Lee tells Capitano Gabato that he does not know Federica Patta, even though Alexandra von Reuten had seen the two of them having a long conversation. Shortly before his death, Lukas had sent Anna a postcard featuring the museum’s painting Max Ernst, USA, 1948, Feast of the Gods, 153 x 107 cm. She wants to see the painting at the museum, where she finds the director murdered. The Max Ernst painting had recently been sent to Ansgar Baumgartner in Vienna. Anna suspects that the Botticelli was sent along with it, but Baumgartner denies this. Back at her apartment, Anna finds a note reading: “The painting for your boy.” Capitano Gabato tells Anna about Rafael and his girlfriend, Federica: Rafael’s gallery was close to bankruptcy when he received a lucrative offer from Frank Lee to exchange the Botticelli. Lukas was to forge the painting for Rafael, who had secured him the job at the museum. In a Vienna museum storage facility, Anna finds the Botticelli in the shipping crate. The painting is to be handed over in an abandoned warehouse, with Anna supposed to get her son back in exchange for the painting from Rafael and Federica. However, Capitano Gabato had already replaced the painting. Schuster shoots Rafael after Federica recognizes the forgery. The police storm the handover and arrest Federica and Schuster.