Ken grinned. “Sandy says we’re not. But I’m wondering if you could tell us anything about this box?” He unwrapped it and put it on Lausch’s desk.
The round-faced little man bent forward to look at it. “Just what did you want to know?” he asked. “This is not in my line, you understand—even though it does look Italian to me. But Italian paintings are a big enough field for one man. I am an amateur in all other aspects of Italian art.”
“We’d like to know if it’s really an antique,” Ken explained, “and if it’s valuable. We’d also like to know if there’s any reason to think it might have been stolen recently—from some European collection, that is. Probably in Italy.”
Lausch’s stubby finger traced the scrollwork on the lid of the box. “I could make a guess at the answers to your first two que
