The Maltese Falcon

Spade gives Wilmer’s guns to Gutman, and Wilmer, chagrined, disappears into one of the back rooms. Spade cuts off any small talk and Gutman launches into a detailed history of the falcon to explain its ostensibly priceless value. He claims the statuette originates from the 1500s and was originally given to Emperor Charles V by the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, a group of Catholic crusaders, after he gave them the island of Malta. Each year, they were to pay a tribute of one falcon to the emperor as a sign of loyalty to Spain, but given the immeasurable wealth of the Order, they decided to give a golden jewel-encrusted falcon instead of a live one for the first year. However, this golden falcon never arrived in Spain, and passed through a series of other owners until it was eventually covered in black enamel and ended up in the hands of a Russian general named Kemidov in Constantinople.

Believing Kemidov had no idea of the falcon’s real value, Gutman tried to buy it from him, but he refused. Gutman then had his agents—which included O'Shaughnessy—steal it from him, who never turned it over after acquiring it.