Mosaic

In the early 1980’s two mosaics purchased by Art Termini from the Vatican Mosaic Studio in Rome were stolen from his home on Titan Court in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. The FBI, along with local and state police, tried in vain to find the thief.

Mosaic is a novel based on a true story. Art Termini grew up in Milwaukee’s “Historic Third Ward,” a Sicilian enclave in the heart of the city. Follow Art from his first kiss to a liaison in the bathroom of a palazzo belonging to the Prince of Afghanistan. Learn how an intrepid reporter tracks down the elusive Art after another of Art’s purchases, The Martyrdom of St. Valeria and St. Martial, is sold at Christie’s Auction House in New York in 2012 for $200,000.

Meet Robert McNamara, Mayor Henry Maier of Milwaukee, Italian Grand Prix driver Rayme DeToro, Sam LaMalfa, John Saxon, Cosimo Mascari, and Uncle Tony Balls, just a few of the characters Art meets in a life well lived. It is all the subjects you were told never to talk about: the Catholic Church, the Mafia, love and lust, theft and revenge.