The Art Collector

The Art Collector

Produced for:	Fantomen 23/1978
# of pgs:	32
Writer:	Donne Avenell
Artist:	Jaime Vallvé
Original colorist:	N/A
Producer:	Semic Press

"The Art Collector" is a 1978 Team Fantomen story, written by Donne Avenell, with art by Jaime Vallvé.

Plot synopsis

A crate of ledgers is transported from Morristown to the Skull Cave. The Phantom intends to fill out the blank ledgers with information about the historical artifacts in the treasure room. In one of the crates the Phantom finds a copy of a current newspaper with the story that the millionaire Jason Parnassos has discovered Cleopatra's tomb and the mummified remains of the asp (snake) that killed her. The Phantom is mystified since he already has this asp in his treasure room. To Guran he tells the story of how the 9th Phantom discovered the tomb and the asp in 1720.

The Phantom travels to Gizeh in Egypt to be present at the press conference when Parnassos shows the tomb. The Phantom claims to be a representative of the Egyptian government. Parnassos orders his henchmen to kill him. Instead he is locked up in a tomb in the pyramid. With luck, the Phantom discovers a way to the outside.

He learns that Parnassos is visiting London where he chairs a meeting at the Savoy Hotel. When the meeting has ended, the Phantom finds a photo of the Eros statue at Picadilly Circus in London. Arriving there in the middle of the night, the Phantom witnesses how the statue is replaced with a copy using a helicopter. He gets onboard Parnassos yacht and hides in the boat when it goes from London to Parnassos private villa in the Gulf of Naples, Italy.

In the private villa the Phantom discovers how Parnassos has a collection of pricesless art objects that he has stolen from around the world and replaced with copies. In the end Parnassos is arrested and sentenced to prison while the objects of art are returned to their owners.