Peter Watson exposes smuggling and the evasion of customs and national laws--and questions certain practices within and around the venerable art auction house. Using leads provided by the tip, and a huge cache of stolen documents, Watson details genuine experts, tomb robbers, as well as false names and claims, evaluations, despoilation of national treasures, and more.

Peter Watson

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Random House AudioBooks

New York: Random House

United States, United States of America

1st U.S. ed edition, November 13, 1997

1st U.S. ed, New York, c1997

First Edition, PS, 1997

Originally published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury Pub., in different form.
Includes index.

In 1995, the art world was electrified by a British TV documentary and its sequel that detailed rigged sales at the prestigious international auction house of Sotheby and its complicity in smuggling and selling old-master paintings and ancient artifacts from Italy, Greece and India. Although these practices were not news to many art world professionals, their impact was shocking when confirmed on film. The revelations resulted from more than five years of undercover investigation by journalist and art researcher Watson (The Caravaggio Conspiracy). Tipped off by a disgruntled Sotheby employee who provided damning internal documents, the author undertook an investigation worthy of Scotland Yard. He followed a labyrinthine trail that led to secret buyers, dealers, museum officers, couriers, Sotheby factotums and, ultimately, to the auction floor. Watson's book, an expansion of his TV scripts, provides such dizzying masses of detail that the moral drama is, for the general reader, overwhelming. The auction house maintains it has done nothing illegal, but Watson's expose may have an effect on its practices and alert otherwise unsuspecting buyers and governments attempting to protect their national treasures

A provocative expose of the great American auction house of Sotheby's explores the underhanded dealings, questionable practices, and shadowy figures that underly the glitter and glamour of the art world. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

Originally published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury Pub., in different form
Includes index

2023-06-28