Masterpiece

One of the world's finest art treasures, a beautiful, sensual nude portrait by the Spanish master Diego Velazquez, is uexpectedly put up for auction. The art world reacts greedily. Every major museum and the wealthiest and stealthiest private collectors passionately want the painting, the last truly great one by the master in private hands. Even the Soviets are conspiring to acquire it. This brings the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency into the plots and counterplots. The Mafia and a mysterious Sicilian nobleman hold hidden cards. Some who wish to possess the beautiful Marchesa, it appears, will stop at nothing. Two of the contenders are the dashing director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., who yearns to run the Metropolitan, and an ambitious and attractive young woman, the Metropolitan's acting director, who sees the acquisition as a means of furthering her career and securing the job of director (something some of her own board members want to deny her). The two are deeply suspicious of each other. They meet in Paris two weeks before the sale. As they vigorously compete for the masterpiece, they find themselves falling in love; they try to keep their personal and professional lives separate -- with fascinating results.