A while ago there was a news story about an art courier in New York who got drunk after showing a prospective buyer a painting and then lost it on the way back to his hotel. I missed the follow up report until just now- the painting was found stashed behind a bush opposite the Metropolitan Museum Art and eventually returned. In the mean time one of the owners of the painting has been charged with fraud and the other has dropped a lawsuit against the hapless art courier. The tale still needs at least one murder before it becomes the plot of any one of a number of detective dramas.

Indeed, I was taken by the tale of a tipsy deliveryman losing a million dollar painting and may yet incorporate it into A Death In Didsbury as a plot thread.