A riveting, whistleblowing narrative that illuminates the often-secret and underhand dealings of the modern art world.
Several years ago Richard Dorment, Chief Art for the Daily Telegraph in London, was approached by Joe Simon, a wealthy American art connoisseur who was deeply unhappy that his collection of Warhols had been pronounced as fakes by the secretive Warhol Authentication Board. Dorment explained to Simon that whatever the rights and wrongs of his case, as neither scholar nor gallerist, Dorment could be of no use to him. But Simon would not give up and eventually Dorment agreed to meet with him. To his surprise, Dorment was intrigued both by Simon and the story he had to tell, over the ensuing years, he found himself drawn into a complex story of intrigue and corruption that raised fascinating issues about art, its value, the significance of attribution, and how issues of aesthetics and financial worth interact and collide. This is the story of how Richard Dorment uncovered a fascinating and controversial scandal within the world of modern art that is still reverberating today.
