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to the stone floor below. Nobody in the other rooms stirred, and if someone heard a sound, they ignored it.
Outside, thick fog reeked of soot and sewage. The backyard was derelict. Nothing moved but rats scurrying from one meal to another.
Bathed in cold sweat, Colonessi carried the body towards the river.
Suddenly, the young man moaned loudly. Michael froze with fear and dropped him to the ground. He looked anxiously about the yard expecting his crime to be discovered...

But the bloody mess did not move, and he stood alone in the silence, heart pounding.
Slowly the artist regained his composure and dragged the lifeless body the rest of the way.
He struggled to push the dead weight up onto a wharf and into the murky River Thames.
As he sank below the surface, it seemed to Colonessi that the young man opened his eyes and smiled up at him.

He returned to his studio with only one thought. The portrait was now his, and his alone.
Michael knew that the police would discover the young man sooner or later, but that did not concern him. They dragged bodies from the Thames every day. London's morgues were overflowing with the unclaimed and unwanted.

'Why had the young fool not signed the painting?' The artist pondered as he poured wine. 'It is proof enough that he intended me to claim soul ownership to it.' A toast to my masterpiece!'
He took his brush in hand, but was now hesitant to touch the portrait...
'I am the fool if I stop now. It is mine!'
He signed it: Michael Colonessi.

National Art Gallery. London. Summer. 2007.

'Please move along the room so that everyone can see...
Ladies and gentleman! Welcome to the National Gallery's newly opened viewing room. It gives me great pleasure to present Michael Colonessi's masterpiece. His self-portrait!

It has now been six months since this portrait was discovered by accident in the vaults of the National Gallery. And during those months, the world's most renowned art experts have scrutinised every aspect of the painting. It has undergone extensive carbon dating, as well as paint, canvas and even handwriting tests. The results conclude that it is authentic and without doubt the work of the artist Michael Colonessi. No flash photography, please...

Before this portrait came to light, Colonessi's 'unsigned' self-portrait, as it is famously known, was considered to be his last and greatest work of art.
And along with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, has been the standard by which we perceive greatness. But even these two monumental achievements pale in

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