The Lost Madonna (©2007)

by Kelly Jones

When an old friend, now the Dean of an American university program in Florence, Italy, calls with an invitation to teach art history for a semester, Suzanne Cunningham is both hesitant and excited. In the sixties, as a young woman backpacking in Europe with a girlfriend, she had arrived in Florence and the following day found herself caught up in a devastating flood as it swept through the city. She stayed to help with the rescue and restoration of priceless Renaissance art, and also became involved with a young Italian restorer. The affair did not end well, and she has not returned to Florence in over thirty years.

Suzanne decides to accept the position. While preparing for a class she comes across an article featuring a fifteenth-century painting claimed to have been lost in the flood. She

knows the painting was saved, because she had assisted in the restoration. She returns to Italy and begins a search for the lost painting as well as the man she has never forgotten.