# Lot 41: The Cataloguer's Confession

Case file GV-01. Geneva, 1968. An hour before a great estate sale, the auction house's star appraiser is found dead among her perfumes, a lot ticket beside her. By morning the quiet secretary has typed six pages confessing everything. You are the authenticators: tell the real thing from the fake.

- Players: 2–6
- Time: 105–135 minutes
- Difficulty: medium
- Age: 18+

On Saturday 12 October 1968, an hour before a great estate sale, Hortense Verre, the star appraiser of Galerie Vernaz, was found dead in her scent library with a lot ticket beside her. The next morning the gallery's secretary, Julian Pell, gave the police six typed pages confessing to her murder and to another. The gallery's president does not believe him. He has hired you, as authenticators, to examine the confession as you would examine a painting, line by line, before the sale reopens.

## What's in the file

- 3 envelopes, opened one at a time
- 23 papers: reports, letters, statements and photographs
- About 40 pages to print at home, on A4 or US Letter
- Hints and the full solution, read on screen

## Inside the envelopes

### Envelope 1: The Confession

- Briefing letter
- Crime-scene photograph
- Typed papers
- Auction catalogue
- Provenance slips
- Cut-out overlay
- Witness statements

### Envelope 2: Two Deaths, One Sale

- Police report
- Floor plan
- Torn paper to fit together
- Auction catalogue
- Receipts and tickets × 2
- Letters
- Handwriting samples
- Map

### Envelope 3: Withdrawn from Sale

- Recorder chart
- Police report
- Logbook pages × 2
- Letters
- Receipts and tickets
- Timeline sheet

Content: Two deaths off the page, no gore; an old fraud, a ruined refugee family, cigarettes and wine

[Buy on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/listing/4616516586)

Written and illustrated with the help of AI tools, from our own story, prompts and edits, and checked by us.