Warhol After Warhol: Secrets, Lies, & Corruption in the Art World - Hardcover

by Richard Dorment (Author)

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

Late one afternoon in the winter of 2003, art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from a stranger. The caller was Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector. He was ringing at the suggestion of David Hockney, his neighbour in Malibu. A committee of experts called the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board had declared the two Warhols in his collection to be fake. He wanted to know why and thought Dorment could help.

This call would mark the beginning of an extraordinary story that would play out over the next ten years and would involve a cast of characters straight out of a n novel. From rock icons and film stars; art dealers and art forgers; to a murdered Russian oligarch and a lawyer for the mob; from courtrooms to auction houses: all took part in a bitter struggle debating the authenticity of a series of paintings by the most famous American artist of the twentieth century.

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

Author Biography

Richard Dorment was born in America and studied at Princeton and Columbia before joining the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A distinguished art historian, scholar, journalist, and exhibition curator, he was Chief Art Critic on London's Daily Telegraph from 1986 until his recent retirement. He has been named Critic of the Year in the British Press Awards. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, his work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Review. In 2014 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Arts by Queen Elizabeth II.