Christopher Mason

Journeys inside the price-fixing scandal that rocked the art auction world, describing how billionaire Alfred Taubman; Diana Brooks, the most powerful woman in the art world; and British executive Christopher Davidge conspired to cheat clients out of millions, while offering a revealing look at the inner operations of Sotheby's and Christie's. Reprint.

Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal

The Art of the Steal

Lords and Liars is the only narrative to tell the whole truth about 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 world's richest billionaires behind bars. Brilliantly written and reported, it tells the story of several larger-than-life figures-the billionaire tycoon Alfred Taubman; the most powerful woman in the art world, Dede Brooks; and the wily British executive Christopher Davidge-who conspired to cheat their clients out of millions of dollars. It offers an unprecedented look inside this secretive, glamorous, gold-plated industry, describing just how Sotheby's and Christie's grew from clubby, aristocratic businesses into slick, international corporations. And it shows how the groundwork for the most recent illegal activities was laid decades before the perpetrators were caught by federal prosecutors. (and hundreds more) to spill the beans and who 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 to courtrooms in Lower Manhattan. Evoking some of the best-known investigative narratives like Barbarians at the Gate and Den of Thieves, Lords and Liars is destined to become one of the most revealing and entertaining books of the summer season.

Christopher Mason

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