Wilfred ‘Wilfy’ Hobbs is an art restorer hired by Roman Medovsky to repair “La Maledicció ”. He owns a studio in London, England.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse[]
George Stobbart learns Hobbs’ Studio’s address thanks to the business card found at Medovsky's residence. Once there, he and Nicole Collard try to ring the main entrance's doorbell but no one answers. Seems that George has to find a way to attract Hobbs’ attention. By looking for anything of help, he finds a letter in Hobbs’ mailbox that communicates him that no more models are going to assist him in his projects due to his very bad temper and some recent complaints. Now George has a perfect idea how to make Hobbs let him and Nico into the studio.
Due to Hobbs not listening to the doorbell, George needs to attract his attention by fixing an old van’s horn. After he beeps the horn, Hobbs finally leans out of the window stating that he is very busy at the moment. This is when George pretends to be from a Model Agency to which the artists asks them to come in immediately. Still inside the car, George borrows Hobbs’ bottle of Whiskey.
Inside the Art Studio, Hobbs asks Nico to pose as his inspiration muse and George to take his clothes off behind the screen to which he is very reluctant. After taking a look at the place, he notices a briefcase near Hobbs that must the stolen painting, “La Maledicció”. He needs to do what Hobbs is asking him if he wants to see what it’s inside the portfolio, therefore George finally decides to go behind the screen. There he sees a shocking image, something so terrifying that he will have nightmares for years. George sees her old friend, Lady Clarissa Piermont, totally naked. She greets him vigorously and asks George to pass her a robe because the studio is getting very cold. Ms. Piermont is not going to pose in these conditions making Hobbs a little stress to which he takes a sip of his drink. She demands George to increase the temperature of the thermostat. When the heat is raised the lights of the building start to blink, and Hobbs gets a little more stressed than before. He communicates Piermont that the building’s fuse box can’t handle the heat, but she is not giving up. That is why Hobbs must give in to her needs, and only take another sip more of his drink until everything is over. George needs Hobbs to take only one more sip of his drink to have him completely drunk.
He raises the stereo volume and takes advantage of Piermont’s helping hand to ask her to use the elevator that is near the stairs to completely burn the building’s fuse box. By doing this, Hobbs drinks his last glass and stops what he is doing to check on the fuse box. He is not able to move anymore and stays stumbling over a small bench.
Once Hobbs is out of the way, George is able to peek inside his portfolio to find an unusual sketch that reminds him of something he has recently seen. The drawing features a part from the stolen painting, “La Maledicció”. After asking Hobbs about the sketch, he informs George that he drew the image while restoring the painting that Medovsky legally owns. He mentions that a provenance (see in Trivia) was sent to Henri to prove the proprietorship, so Hector Laine must know about it. There is nothing else George and Nico need to know now, so they both exit the studio. George heads over to Navet’s reconstruction at the Gallery and Nico meets his boss for lunch.
Later in the story, truth comes to light. Even though Bijou Dubois denied everything at first, she knew everything about the painting scam, she was in charge of the paperwork. Influenced by Medovsky, She had Hobbs fake the provenance for ‘La Maledicció’, so that Laine would approve it for the insurance. Meanwhile, Medovsky would had an offer on 'La Maledicció' from Gehnen. Then Hobbs puts Medovsky in touch with Bijou and Henri so that the painting is placed in the exhibition. His intentions are to cash in on both the sale and the insurance. Bijou also reveals that Hobbs has 'La Maledicció' in his possession, presumably hid "behind Bijou's behind".
After discovering this breakthrough, George and Nico come back to the studio. By the time they enter Hobbs’ apartment, they find him dead lying on the floor. It seems that someone else has broken into the building before them surely looking for “La Maledicció”. But what the individual doesn’t know is that he or she has a forgery. Hobbs hid the painting and left a fake canvas painted by him at sight. The original is “Behind Bijou’s behind”.
While looking through the apartment, George notices some interesting notes in a pinboard on the wall. It looks that Hobbs was a lot cleverer that he seemed, due to the fact that he has managed to search most of the symbols on the painting and link them to a map of Catalonia. Then George notices that his answerphone has new unheard messages. The first one is from Medovsky who is deeply afflicted about Hobbs releasing from their agreement, thought he respects his decision he’ll send his man to tie up any loose ends. He is suspiciously about to take a plane to Barcelona. The other message is from Bijou, who lets Hobbs know that she is not leaving with him until Henri’s name is cleared. Bijou also warns him that she has told everything to George and Nico.
After recovering the painting, Nico notices smoke coming underneath the door which shows that the one who stole the reproduction has set the place on fire to cover all the evidences of the murder. Luckily, George and Nico find a way to exit the place through the roof only to see no one other than Richard Langham, the alleged Interpol Inspector, walking peacefully out of the property. Both try to scream for help, but not only he hears them but casually wives them back and walks away. Nico, disconcerted, asks George why Langham isn’t helping them. George explains her that clearly he is the one who broke into the building before them to kill Hobbs and steal the painting. Fortunately, he doesn’t have the original painting and is not succeeding in killing them either.
Wilfred Hobbs’ spirit is seen in George’s dream during the flight to Eden along with Father Simeon and Tiago Marqués. The vision is set in the Gnostic Chapel found inside Castell dels Sants in Catalonia, Spain. Hobbs has come to George in a spiritual form to bring him some advices on how to defeat Langham. The three ghosts don’t agree in anything the other say, but they try to give George a meaningful and helping advice.
Trivia[]
- Provenance: a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.
- Hobbs’ business card reads: “Wilfred Hobbs, Fine Art restoration”.
- Hobbs and Henri were in a band together back in the 75’s called The Hairy Lobsters. Bijou has been Hobbs’ lover since then.
- He has a thing for 70's psychedelic jams.
- Burroughs, Dick, Rand. Hobbs liked his litterature heavy and paranoid.
- Hobbs' favorite drink is whiskey to the point that he brings a bottle of it on his van.
- The sketch drawn by Hobbs that is later shown to Father Simeon, features a hidden symbol within “La Maledicció”. The Ouroboros shows a different content on the original painting, before Hobbs is able to restore it and discover what it looks like a face of a man with a symbol on his head that means “Tabula Veritatis”, the tablet of truth. On the forged painting of La Maledicció made by Hobbs, the man does not appear because the copy is exactly to the original version.
Gallery[]
