Victor Hugenay (born Ignace Chander Jaccard) is an internationally wanted art thief and self-proclaimed "art expert". His plans are often foiled by the Three Investigators and he sees them as his biggest opponents.
Appearance[]
Victor Hugenay is described as being relatively tall and between 50 and 60 years old.
Personality[]
Hugenay is often described as being Jupiter Jones criminal counterpart. Like Jupiter, he is blessed with extraordinary intelligence and is the only person to ever fool and escape Jupiter.
While he actively attacks the Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, he has an avid aversion towards violence in the rest of the series. In the movies, however, that aspect of his personality was completely inverted to the point where he even threatens to shoot Chris, a friend of the Three Investigators, to get what he wants.
Biography[]
Childhood and assuming a new identity[]
Victor Hugenay was born Ignace Chander Jaccard. His father was the famous painter and sculptor Jean Marie Jaccard and his mother was an Indian woman who used to be employed by his father. Due to his father's work, Hugenay was often neglected by him and started to resent him.
Eventually, Hugenay fell for a woman called Julianne Wallace who was a fan of the painter Raul Hernandez. When Hugenay found out that Hernandez was his father's alias, which he used to paint pictures using different styles and techniques, he stole one of his father's works from his studio and gifted it to Julianne to impress her.
As soon as he became of age, Ignace Chander Jaccard moved out of his father's home and assumed the identity of Victor Hugenay, a deceased family member of his long-time friend Lydia Cartier. With this new identity, he began his activities as an art thief.
Career as an art thief[]
Hugenay makes his first appearance in The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, where he is portrayed vastly different than in the rest of the series. He meets the Three Investigators as they are in possession of one of the birds that are the key to finding the stolen artwork his acquaintance, Claudius, hid from him. To get the artworks, he tails the Three Investigators and lets them solve the mystery for him. When they finally find the stolen good, he threatens and even attacks them to get what he wants. However, he ultimately loses the artwork to the detectives again.
Upset about the fact that they managed to interfere with his plan, he decides to keep an eye on them. He reappears again in The Mystery of the Screaming Clock, wherein he proposes an alliance to Jupiter Jones. In return for helping Jupiter free his kidnapped friends, Jupiter has to help him steal something. Jupiter reluctantly accepts and Hugenay indeed keeps his promise, although he once again fails to acquire what he wants.
Hugenay tries to convince Jupiter to join him on various occasions but fails every time except for in Mysterious Testament, where he creates an elaborate scheme to avert suspicion from himself and trick Jupiter into helping him. He hires a woman named Brittany to seduce Jupiter, which she does successfully. When Brittany then tells him that she suffers from an eye condition and that she needs the money from the paintings Jupiter found to pay for her surgery, he almost believes her and is even willing to become a criminal himself by giving the paintings to Brittany.
Relationships[]
Jupiter Jones[]
Hugenay values Jupiter's deductive abilities and versatile mind and sees him as his equal intellectually. He tries to get Jupiter to work with him on multiple occasions but is only successful once. And even then, Jupiter only decides to work with him because his friends, Bob and Peter, have been kidnapped and he needs Hugenay's help to rescue them.[1]
Although Hugenay greatly admires Jupiter, he also sees his flaws and criticizes him for coming to wrong conclusions at times.[2] He also enjoys teasing Jupiter by mentioning said flaws and bringing up the fact that he can never catch him.
In the movies, Hugenay seems to be somehow involved in the death of Jupiter's parents, although something like that is never referenced in the books.
Skills[]
- Master Thief: He is a prolific art thief to the point where he is internationally wanted. It is also mentioned that his quick wits and cleverness held him to smoothly escape arrest at least four times.
- Disguise: Hugenay is a master of disguise and even possesses an acting license, which legally allows him to purchase and wear clothing like police uniforms for his disguises.[3]
List of appearances[]
| No. | Novel | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot | Appears |
| 2. | The Mystery of the Screaming Clock | Appears |
| 3. | Poltergeist | Appears |
| 4. | Mysterious Testament | Appears |
| 5. | Moon of Fire | Appears |
Trivia[]
- "Ignace" is a French name meaning "fiery" and "Chander" is a Hindu name meaning "moon". The meaning of Hugenay's birth name was also referenced in the title of Moon of Fire.
- While his surname is spelled "Hugenay" in all the other books, it is spelled "Hugenay" in The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot.
- He is the only antagonist in the series to appear in more than one book.
- In the movies, he is an art forger instead of an art thief.