The plot of this novel is completely unlikely, and yet it actually happened: for its inauguration in 1986, a museum with an international reputation —the Reina Sofía—commissions a piece by the North American superstar Richard Serra. A sculpture weighing thirty-eight tons that one day… vanishes. Somewhere between a non-fiction novel, novelised reportage, and the absurd, Masterpiece reconstructs, to the rhythm of a fast-paced thriller, a case that gives rise to perturbing questions. How could something like that have happened? How did a copy become an original? What is the art in contemporary art? Is it possible for a famous steel sculpture to vanish into thin air? In reply to these questions, the work brings together a wide variety of voices, including Richard Serra himself. The mysterious disappearance also becomes a masterpiece.