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Table of Contents
About The Book
A colorful and fast-moving account of how postwar London became the global center of the art market—a story of Impressionist masterpieces, dodgy dealers, and ground-breaking financial transactions.
On October 15, 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 center 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 paved the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years.
Sotheby's had pulled off a massive coup by capturing the Impressionist market from Paris and New York—and now began its inexorable rise, opening offices all over the world. A huge expansion of the market followed, accompanied by rocketing prices, colorful scandals, and legal dramas. London transformed itself from a fusty place of old master painting sales to a revitalized center of contemporary art, crowned by the opening of Tate Modern in 2000. The Tate Modern successfully united new (and mostly foreign) money in London with the art world, offering its patrons a ready-made sophisticated social milieu alongside dealers in contemporary art.
In a vibrant and briskly-paced style, James Stourton tells the story of the London art market from the immediate postwar period to the turn of the millennium. While Sotheby's is the lynchpin of this story, Stourton populates his narrative with a glorious rogue's gallery of eccentric scholars, clever amateurs, brilliant emigrés, and stylish grandees with a flair for the deal.
On October 15, 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 center 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 paved the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years.
Sotheby's had pulled off a massive coup by capturing the Impressionist market from Paris and New York—and now began its inexorable rise, opening offices all over the world. A huge expansion of the market followed, accompanied by rocketing prices, colorful scandals, and legal dramas. London transformed itself from a fusty place of old master painting sales to a revitalized center of contemporary art, crowned by the opening of Tate Modern in 2000. The Tate Modern successfully united new (and mostly foreign) money in London with the art world, offering its patrons a ready-made sophisticated social milieu alongside dealers in contemporary art.
In a vibrant and briskly-paced style, James Stourton tells the story of the London art market from the immediate postwar period to the turn of the millennium. While Sotheby's is the lynchpin of this story, Stourton populates his narrative with a glorious rogue's gallery of eccentric scholars, clever amateurs, brilliant emigrés, and stylish grandees with a flair for the deal.
Product Details
- Publisher: Pegasus Books (February 4, 2025)
- Length: 432 pages
- ISBN13: 9781639368235
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Raves and Reviews
In Rogues and Scholars, James Stourton discusses how postwar London briefly became the center of the global art market. This is an absorbing story of how small dealers and experts were gradually replaced by large auction houses. If you find yourself paying attention to the stories about the high prices paid at art auctions, you will not want to miss this book.
– The Christian Science Monitor
“An erudite and authoritative history of the London art market from World War II to our century. Outstanding in its own field, Rogues and Scholars nears Anthony Bourdain’s tell-all Kitchen Confidential.”
– New York Times Book Review
"This rollicking history of the modern London art market takes us from World War II to the present day, charting the shift from a business of decorous private transactions to the glitz, hype and rivalry we know today. Stourton, a longtime director at Sotheby’s UK, brings an insider’s authority to this story of big money, bigger egos and great art."
– New York Times Book Review
"In James Stourton's new book, the history of London's art scene and how it became the big-money, cutthroat enterprise it is today, is explored with a gimlet eye and all of the necessary receipts."
– Town & Country
"A rare view into the art world, told wryly and authoritatively. This study will be of interest not just to art aficionados but also business-oriented readers who will want to know how a company creates a market, adapts to change, and thrives."
– Kirkus Reviews
"A remarkable story of a bygone world, well told by an insider. A former chairman of Sotheby’s UK, Stourton knowledgeably takes readers behind the scenes and describes the emptying of great British estates, London’s swinging ’60s, the rise of contemporary art, the overdue restitution of antiquities, and finally the market’s ultimate demise thanks to the internet."
– Library Journal
“Former Sotheby’s chairman James Stourton shares an insider’s glimpse into the murkier corners of a ‘gentlemanly’ world. Subtle subterfuge was indicative of a larger free-for-all in the postwar art scene, as James Stourton describes with considerable wit and pace in Rogues and Scholars. The author’s wry prose livens up an arcane subject. His survey is illuminating, as well as erudite and amusing. Stourton succeeds in capturing the enduring allure of a largely unregulated and mercurial market.”
– The Financial Times
“Stourton lucidly discusses various pivotal points, scandals, triumphs, booms, busts and disasters along the way. The lively pace and vast cast list may leave some readers breathless, but what a treat for art-market insiders.”
– Country Life
"James Stourton is an excellent art historian and brilliant storyteller; a heady combination that makes Rogues & Scholars the must-read art book of the year.”
– Will Gompertz, author of See What You're Missing: New Ways of Looking at the World Through Art
“Stourton’s book acts as an origin story for the momentous results—and shady intrigues—of the art world today. The author’s wry prose livens up an arcane subject. His survey is illuminating as well as erudite and amusing. Stourton succeeds in capturing the allure of a largely unregulated, mercurial market, one populated with go-betweens and fixers and peppered with beautiful things.”
– Apollo: The International Art Magazine
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