Rogues and scholars : boom and bust in the London art market, 1945-2000
Stourton, James2024
Book
On 15th October 1958 Sotheby's of Bond Street staged an 'event sale' of seven Impressionist paintings belonging to Erwin Goldschmidt: three Manets, two Cézannes, one Van Gogh and a Renoir. Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn and Somerset Maugham were there as celebrity guests. The seven lots went for £781,000 - at the time the highest price for a single sale. The event established London as the world centre of the art market and Sotheby's as an international auction house. It began a shift in power from the dealers to the auctioneers and pointed the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years. While Sotheby's is the lynchpin of the story, Stourton populates his narrative with a glorious rogue's gallery of clever amateurs, eccentric scholars, brilliant emigrés, cockney traders and grandees with a flair for the deal.
Main title:
Rogues and scholars : boom and bust in the London art market, 1945-2000 / James Stourton.
Author:
Stourton, James, author
Imprint:
London : Apollo, 2024.
Collation:
448 pages : illustrations (colour) ; 24 cm
Audience:
Specialized.
ISBN:
9781804541975 (hbk)
Dewey class:
381.457
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
1498866