Description

‘A pacy legal thriller, packed with a colourful cast of characters’ – Telegraph

Long-time art critic Richard Dorment reveals the corruption and lies of the art world and its mystifying authentication process.

One winter afternoon in 2003, art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector, ringing at the suggestion of his neighbour, David Hockney. The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board had declared the two Warhols in Simon’s collection to be fake, and he thought Dorment could help.

So began a ten-year saga to prove the authenticity of a series of paintings by one of the most famous American artists of all time. Film stars, art forgers, a murdered Russian oligarch and a Mob lawyer would be swept up in the pursuit.

Part detective story, part art history, part memoir, part courtroom drama, Warhol After Warhol is a spellbinding account of the dark connection between money, power and art.

‘Sleuth-like in its plotting and with chapter headings which sometimes recall those of a Victorian thriller, Dorment’s book is at heart a morality tale, a story of egos, hubris and folly’ – Spectator

‘Riveting’ – Wall Street Journal

Publisher Review

Art critic Richard Dorment brings to vivid and fearsome life the characters in a protracted and hugely expensive legal battle over the authenticity of a Warhol print * The Observer * A pacy legal thriller, packed with a colourful cast of characters * The Telegraph * In lucid prose, Dorment distils ideas that have dominated art theory for decades . . . The tale could easily have been arcane and legalistic in the telling, but Dorment disentangles the thicket of names, emails, off-the-cuff remarks, snatches of gossip and deposition transcripts with mastery * The Spectator * Funny, erudite and knowledgeable, Dorment enlivens what, by his own admission, is “an esoteric dispute on a rarefied subject” . . . This book feels germane to our cultural moment * Financial Times *