Painting

The Painting
Information
Reading	"A painting! The artist's clearly no master... Take it away! It makes me uncomfortable!"
Owners	Sasha Barbicon
Importance	One of four items needed to obtain a Perfect Game
Usage	Artwork
Location	Cargo Hold

The Painting is an important object in Titanic: Adventure Out of Time and is one of the four key items needed in order to achieve the best ending. The canvas itself is a street scene watercolor of a grand manor house in Austria, painted by a young Adolf Hitler.

Gameplay

The painting is being shipped on board the Titanic to be exchanged for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Sasha Barbicon and Colonel Zeitel. The Colonel wants the painting desperately for its true value - the rear of the painting contains secret plans detailing British troop deployments and positions in northern France and the Low Countries. Such information would give the Germans a vital advantage should war break out.

Unknown to Zeitel, his traveling companion Willi von Haderlitz is also in pursuit of the painting, but not to assist in the German cause.

How To Obtain

During Frank Carlson's efforts to claim the Rubaiyat, he discovers that the stolen book is one half of a trade between Zeitel and Sasha, with the painting as the other half. After obtaining or failing to obtain the Rubaiyat and speaking with Penny Pringle, she suspects that Zeitel's true objective is the painting itself, though the reasons as to why are initially uncertain. Penny assumes that the painting is located in the Cargo Hold and that Carlson must visit the Purser's Office to look at the cargo manifest to confirm it.

When Carlson meets with the Purser, he will be muttering the name "Thayer" under his breath. If Carlson questions him on this, the Purser will tell him that he has to send a telegram on behalf of a Mr. Thayer but could not leave his post to do it himself. Carlson offers to send it for him and must enter the Wireless Room in order to send the message. Depending on actions earlier in the game, Carlson may have to speak with Officer Morrow in order to gain entry. Following the instructions in the Wireless Room will let Carlson send the message, though what the player actually types does not exactly have to match the telegram itself.

Returning to the Purser's Office to inform him that the telegram has been sent, the Purser leaves his post to inform the Thayers. The cargo manifest can then be examined and the painting is being shipped under the name Lemke & Buechner Shipping and lists Barbicon Galleries as the owner.

When the Purser returns to his post, Carlson requests entry into the cargo hold, but the Purser instructs him to leave as he is attempting to locate a missing cufflink for Isidor Straus. Again, Carlson offers to locate it for him. Speaking with Max Seidelmann in the First Class Reception will reveal that the Strauses were sitting at the foot of the stairs. Examining the chair on the left will find the cufflink. When Carlson returns the cufflink, the Purser leaves again to return it to the Strauses. With the window left open, Carlson can take the set of car keys, allowing him to enter the hold.

Travelling to the Cargo Hold beneath the Forecastle Deck, a crew member sees the keys and mistakes Carlson for the owner of the car. Carlson must find the correct holding area, which can be found by moving forward 3 times from the entrance and then entering through the door on the right. Once inside, the car's headlights must be turned on in order to illuminate the crate containing the painting, allowing Carlson to retrieve it.

Time Limit

Unlike the other three objects that must be obtained in the game, the painting has a time limit placed on its retrieval. The player has 10 minutes to complete the tasks above in order for the painting to still be in the crate, a timer which starts after Penny has instructed Carlson to look at the cargo manifest. If the player exceeds this time limit, Carlson will discover the painting has already been removed from the crate because someone has got there before him.

If the painting is missing, it can be obtained again later in the game during the ship's sinking - Jack Hacker was given the painting by Willi and he will turn it over to Carlson if he rescues Shailagh's baby from Beatrix Conkling. This can be done by exchanging Conkling's letter with Beatrix for the baby. Returning Shailagh's baby is only necessary to the mission if Carlson failed to retrieve the painting from the cargo hold earlier in the game.

The painting may be traded with Zeitel later on as well in exchange for the Antidote to save Georgia. Carlson can reclaim it from Zeitel by exchanging the Boat Pass for it. However, saving Georgia is not necessary for the mission to be completed.

Fate

• If the painting was recovered:

"As for the painting, it left with me. The plans proved useless. In the month following the sinking, the War Office scrapped the proposed deployments in a cost cutting measure. But the canvas? As the only artifact saved from the Titanic, the painting became famous. Along with its creator, a rather excitable Austrian named Adolf Hitler, who makes a lucrative career to this day peddling overpriced alpine vistas to the carriage trade."

• If the painting was not recovered:

"Though Zeitel took the painting, its plans proved useless to the Germans. In the month following the sinking, the War Office scrapped the proposed deployments in a cost-cutting measure. They were soon forgotten in a dusty Whitehall file."

"As for the painting, it went down with the ship."

Trivia

• The painting itself is an anachronism as it was not actually painted by Hitler until 1914 — two years after the Titanic's sinking.
• In real life, the painting is mirrored from its depiction in-game, as seen here .