Synopsis
Long-time art critic Richard Dorment reveals the corruption and lies of the art world and its mystifying authentication process.
Late one afternoon in the winter of 2003 art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from a stranger. The caller was Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector. He was ringing at the suggestion of David Hockney, his neighbour...
Details
09 November 2023288 pages
9781529081497Imprint: Picador
Reviews
Art critic Richard Dorment brings to vivid and fearsome life the characters in a protracted and hugely expensive legal battle over the authenticity of a Warhol printThe Observer
A pacy legal thriller, packed with a colourful cast of charactersThe Telegraph
In lucid prose, Dorment distils ideas that have dominated art theory for decades . . . The tale could easily have been arcane and legalistic in the telling, but Dorment disentangles the thicket of names, emails, off-the-cuff remarks, snatches of gossip and deposition transcripts with masteryThe Spectator
Funny, erudite and knowledgeable, Dorment enlivens what, by his own admission, is “an esoteric dispute on a rarefied subject” . . . This book feels germane to our cultural momentFinancial TImes
