Rogues and Scholars

""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 ""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 ""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 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 ""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 ""With panache and characteristically elegant narrative skill, James Stourton throws open the doors to a riveting chapter in the history of art in which glamorous eccentricities, serious scholarship and a good deal of swindling cohabit. It is a story of gentlemen and of crooks, told through witty firsthand accounts about colorful characters sailing dangerously close to the wind. Stourton brings us a gripping and thoroughly researched chronicle of the post-war art market, punctuated with the occasional 'you couldn't make this up' moment. Rogues & Scholars is just as entertaining as it is educational.""--Wolf Burchard, curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ""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 ""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 ""A perceptive, authoritative, and highly readable account of the golden age of the British art market.""--Philip Hook, author of Modern: Genius, Madness, and One Tumultuous Decade that Changed Art Forever