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The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal
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Binding: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Amazon Remainders Account
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: May 03, 2005
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account
Studio: Amazon Remainders Account
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Editorial Review:
The definitive book on the price-fixing scandal that roiled the art world, from the reporter who Dominick Dunne says "knows more about the ins and outs of this story than anyone else" (Vanity Fair). The Art of the Steal is the explosive inside story-the only book to tell the whole truth and dish the dirt-of one of the most fascinating big-business trials of the new century-the price-fixing scandal that rocked the auction world and put one of the richest men in America behind bars. Brilliantly written and reported, it tells the story of larger-than-life figures-the billionaire tycoon Alfred Taubman; the most powerful woman in the art world, Diana "DeDe" Brooks; and the wily British executive Christopher Davidge-who quaffed champagne and dined on caviar while conspiring to cheat clients out of millions of dollars. The book also offers an unprecedented look inside this secretive, gold-plated industry, describing just how Sotheby's and Christie's grew from clubby, aristocratic businesses into slick, international corporations and showing how the groundwork for the most recent illegal activities was laid decades before the perpetrators were caught by federal prosecutors. Christopher Mason is the only reporter who has persuaded all the key figures (and hundreds more) to spill the beans. He has followed the trail of this story wherever it has led-from galleries and boardrooms in London, Paris, and New York to parties in Palm Beach and courtrooms in lower Manhattan. Evoking the best-known investigative narratives like Barbarians at the Gate and Den of Thieves, the hidden lives of the very rich described in Philistines at the Hedgerow, and the crime-and-high-society reporting of Dominick Dunne, The Art of the Steal is destined to become the hottest-and most entertaining-gossip-starter of the season.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Informative.
This was a close look at corporate London/New York greed within my world of antiques dealing, and it was nice to see comeupance for some amorality, but I'm not sure how much anybody or anything has really changed in the auction world. The stakes are just too high, so probably now the crooks are just more careful.
Rating: - "greed is good, greed works"
The Art of the Steal is a morality play but the morals we must draw from it differ somewhat from those proclaimed in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. (The book should have been dedicated "to those who got away with it".) True some of the sinners discover that the wages of sin are destruction (incomes, careers, reputation and in one instance, liberty). However, there are also less morally satisfying `morals' to be drawn. Chief of these is: if you must sin make sure you get it all down on paper and ... Read More
Rating: - For Gossip-hounds Only
Written like a particularly juicy and in-depth Vanity Fair tell-all, Christopher Mason's book, The Art of the Steal details the Christie's / Sotheby's price-fixing scandal that roiled the art world several years ago. Through meticulous research and countless interviews Mason brings to life for the average reading-joe the main players purported to be involved in the crime--Dede Brooks and Alfred Taubman of Sotheby's, and Christopher Davidge and Anthony Tennant of Christie's.
Mason is clearly ... Read More
Rating:  - Greed!
Vivid description of the eternal battle between old and new (money) and the rise and fall of some of the upstarts. A good example of what will happen if first generation money is allowed to take over a respectable business and to defile it with their greed and love of display. After all: it takes three generations to become a gentleman...
Special attention for the comments of Lord and Lady Hindlip.
Rating: - High society shows its greed in Mason's book
A great description of New York high life amidst one of the biggest money scandals of recent memory. Mason keeps the pace fast and sizzling. Lots of colorful details of the characters of high society and the art world make this a fast paced read. He even kees the business and legal side of the story scintilating. It kept me up late into the nights. A must read!
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