Art Dealers

The "Art Dealers is the engrossing story of the whole art market, from the small local"antique shop"which is not match more then a junk shop, right up to the fashionable commercial galleries and the great international salerooms - Sotheby's, Parke-Bernet, Christie's, Hotel Drouot and others.It tells how sales are made, how promotion is handled and takes a backward look at changes in taste as well as fluctuations in prices during the last one hundred and fifty years. The picture would not be complete without a glimpse of the shady side of the business - the fakes,forgeries and thefts - and some famous recent cases are recounted.But this is only one facet of the subject and actually the whole story of the busy art world is on a high level of excitement and interest. Art today can be a status symbol,a marketable commodity and a basis for tax deductions; owning an important example can give aesthetic pleasure but more often it is valued as a convenience. Dealing on all levels has come to be big business, something to be reckoned with not only by buyers and sellers but by every informed reader.