The Secret of the Thirteen Apostles

There were thirteen of them—thirteen prominent Venetian nobles and political figures who, in the 16th century, organized a conspiracy to change the system of power. It was from them that the famous painter Jacopo Tintoretto wrote the painting “The Last Supper.” But the secret conspiracy was uncovered: the Doge of Venice was killed by someone from his former comrades, and the city’s main treasure disappeared without a trace…
At the Hermitage, in front of Tintoretto’s portrait of Admiral Morozini, an unknown murder was committed—and the painting itself, in an unimaginable way, changed: on a staff held in the admiral’s hand, blood appeared. Expert and restorer Dmitry Starygin examined the canvas in every possible way and determined that the paint used to depict the blood is genuine, old—just like the entire painting. But the mysterious inscription had never existed before. When Starygin brought the admiral’s portrait to Venice, he accidentally found the same inscription on another Tintoretto work and understood that life had once again thrown him a riddle—one he simply must solve…