The Serpent’s Tooth

An art dealer tries to help out a talented but half crazy artist. He later finds out he did history a disservice. After trying to assist an eccentric but gifted artist, an art dealer later discovers that he did history a disservice by actually doing so.

In pre–World War I Vienna, art critic Jacob Kohn and his wife Rachel take in a young, homeless artist named Addie. Rachel is frightened by Addie who, delirious from a fever, has violent nightmares about red, white and black insignias, which she feels are premonitions of death. After he recovers, Addie leaves and the Kohns never hear from him again. But they—and the rest of the world—hear about him as he rises to dictatorial power in Germany.

An art dealer attempts to support a skilled but mentally unstable artist, only to later realize his help caused harm to history.