MAKING GAME OF ART

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22111, 5 June 1937, Page 17

MAKING GAME OF ART

Secrets of an Art Dealer. By J. H. Duveen. Robert Hale and Co. (15/- net.) This is not an important book; indeed it is little more than a group of short stories or episodes such as one meets with in the popular magazines. Nevertheless, it is interesting and entertaining. It is, moreover, instructive in that it introduces the reader to a very strange world. If Mr Duveen’s narrative is to be taken au pied de la lettre, the world of the art dealer and his victims is little less exciting than that of the international crook. Men with highly specialised knowledge hunt through the civilised world for curios, gamble their reputation on a deal, cross and double-cross each other in their pursuit of the credulous connoisseur; and some of them, only a few, grow rich, “forswear sack,” and end their days as highly respected experts of international reputation. Here we have dashes across Europe in high-powered cars, drugs, hold-ups, train accidents, and all the paraphernalia of the detective novel. The most curious thing about this quite fascinating book is the real love of beautiful things which lies behind the rather sordid business of selling them.