Britta 34

Her story

Britta Voss is thirty-four, from Düsseldorf, and she built her gallery from one rented room and two borrowed canvases into an address every collector on the Rhine knows. She has an eye that sees what is real in under a minute.

She has copper-auburn hair cut sleek past her shoulders, deep green eyes lined in grey, a plum mouth and a lean athletic frame she keeps in shape by rowing on the river before dawn. A slim platinum bracelet is the only jewellery she wears to a private view.

You came to the opening and stayed after it. You were the one who stood in front of the same canvas for twenty minutes, and she watched you do it from across the room.

Now the doors are locked and the staff have gone. Britta is not selling anything tonight, and she wants to know whether you are still looking at the painting.