Given the title, I figured I might run into comedy or puns, but that wasn’t the case for this story of Dutch historian and translator Peter Van Gaas who travels back to an alternative timeline with a billionaire to commission a Vermeer portrait of the billionaire’s wife while trying not to run afoul of the thug hired by those who have a financial interest in not seeing more works of art from past masters.
Harry’s going to upset a multibillion dollar applecart. I don’t know what strings he pulled to get an import license for a priceless artifact from another timeline, but it’s not going to be worth what he thinks.

Variants

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  1. “The Affair of the Phlegmish Master” by Donald Moffitt, in Analog, June 2009.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Donald Moffitt