101 Conversations in Intermediate English

5. The appearance

After making excuses to her boss and colleagues for not staying to eat and drink for a while longer, Laura heads to the Tate Museum. When she arrives, she meets Emily and her friend Natalie, who she worked with previously to catch an art thief. Emily and Natalie are looking worriedly at a large painting in one of the most important rooms in the contemporary art wing of the museum.

Natalie: Laura! How are you?

Laura: Hi Natalie, fine. How are you? And Alice?

Natalie: Alice can hardly move. She’s due to give birth in a few weeks and the baby is very restless… But apart from that, everything is fine.

Laura: That’s great. And how are you, Emily? Your phone call made me very curious. Are you going to tell me what has happened? Perhaps this painting has been forged? Or was it stolen?

Emily: To be quite honest… We are not sure what is wrong with this painting.