They entered the Denon basement through a delivery gate Nadia had clearance for. The backup server room was small and noisy, filled with obsolete hardware the museum had never decommissioned. Nadia connected a laptop and began typing.
“The main database was overwritten three months ago. But the old backups still exist. They show OA 11472 entered the collection — as a donation from the Vasseur family — in 2023.”
Camille exhaled. “So the object is not two hundred years old. It entered two years ago.”
“And someone rewrote its history to make it seem ancient,” Julien said. “Why?”
“Because if it’s ancient and always in the museum, no one asks about its origin. If it’s recent, provenance is required. And the Vasseur family cannot explain where they got it.”