Bachelors of Art: Edward Perry Warren & the Lewes House Brotherhood

This is the story of how Edward Perry Warren cornered the world art market from the early years of this century onwards. His competitor at the British Museum declared in despair "there is nothing to be got nowadays, since Warren is always on the spot first". Warren almost single-handedly established the collections of the Boston Museum and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Apart from some of the finest Greek and Roman pieces in existence, Warren owned Rodin's "The Kiss". As well as art, Warren collected young men, establishing in Lewes a brotherhood devoted to the revival of classical ideals. This world was to impinge on the worlds of Oscar Wilde, Augustus John, Matisse, Gertrude Stein, and the wealthy benefactress, Isabella Stewart Gardner, amongst others. More shocking than his recreation of a society based on "Greek love" is Warren's blatant dealings with some of the most contrived art forgeries of the century.