Late Venetian

A disgraced former MP, Teddy Chesterton, is dying. He wants to put things right with his ex-wife, Laura, the only woman he has ever loved, but who left him after believing he deceived her. Teddy finds out that Laura has recently been widowed and invites her to come with him to Venice. To his surprise, she accepts.

They first meet at a gallery where Teddy’s university friend, Paul Merrick works, and Laura is offered the chance to work in London to help stage an exhibition of paintings by Tiepolo. Paul asks Laura to do him a favour and authenticate a sketch by the younger Tiepolo. She is told subsequently that what she believed to be a genuine Tiepolo was a fake, and her reputation in the art world is ruined.

She blames Teddy for his part in getting her involved with Paul. They divorce, and Teddy goes to prison for money laundering. Upon his release, he visits Paul, who explains that he had nothing to do with the sketch being a fake and that it was copied by a forger to whom he had unwittingly sold the original.

In Venice, Teddy gives Laura a pile of papers that prove Paul did not set out to deceive her about the sketch he asked her to authenticate. Teddy knows that he has done what he set out to do, even if everything is just too late.