AS the Howard Hughes-Clifford Irving investigation continued to twist like a whodunit written on a helix, the editors realized that a cover story on Irving was in the offing. Which artist should paint de portrait? The ideally ironic choice seemed to be Elmyr de Hory, Irving's neighbor on the Balearic isle of Ibiza and the subject of Fake!, Irving's book about a master art forger.
On Feb. 5, word went to Correspondent Roger Beardwood in Brussels to commission the painting. "There were only two problems," recalls Beardwood. "I didn't know where De Hory was, and the portrait had...
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