The last judgement - Iain Pears

Witty art-history-mystery featuring English dealer and sleuth Jonathan Argyll, from the author of the best-selling literary masterpiece, `An Instance of the Fingerpost'.

When Jonathan Argyll agreed to transport the Death of Socrates from a gallery in Paris to its new owner in Rome, he had no idea that such a worthless, nondescript painting would cause such as stir. First someone tries to steal it from him in a train station. Then the man he's delivering it to decides he doesn't want it - and is brutally murdered a few hours later.

Now Argyll is stuck with a painting that only the most tasteless collector could love. and he finds himself right in the middle of a murder investigation. With bodies piling up, he must investigate the dark secrets in the painting's past - before someone with truly horrible taste decides to put him out of the picture for good.