Laney Salisbury - Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art

Table of Contents

ALSO BY LANEY SALISBURY

The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men
In a Race Against an Epidemic
(coauthor Gay Salisbury)

THE PENGUIN PRESS
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First published in 2009 by The Penguin Press,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo, 2009

All rights reserved

Excerpt from House of Cards by David Mamet. Copyright 1985, 1987 by David Mamet.
Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Salisbury, Laney.
Provenance: how a con man and a forger rewrote the history of modern art / Laney Salisbury
and Aly Sujo.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-101-10500-9

1. Myatt, John, 1945- 2. Art forgersEnglandBiography. 3. Drewe, John, 1948-
4. Impostors and impostureEnglandBiography. I. Sujo, Aly. II. Title.
ND1662.M93S26 2009
364.163dc22
[B]
2009003552

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FOR ALY SUJO, WITH LOVE.
AUG. 26, 1949-OCT. 4, 2008

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

THE GENESIS OF A SCAM

John Drewe

professor, physicist, man of many guises, and the brilliant mastermind of one of the great art frauds of the twentieth century.

Batsheva Goudsmid

Drewes common-law wife; once loyal, she is eventually the key to his downfall.

John Myatt

impoverished painter and single father who sees Drewe as his savior.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE ARCHIVES

Bill McAlister

head of the Institute of Contemporary Arts; cannot believe his good fortune when Professor John Drewe shows up with an interest in funding the upkeep of the ICAs rich archive.

Sarah Fox-Pitt

formidable doyenne of archive acquisition at the Tate Gallery whom Drewe reels in with lunches at Claridges and promises of historical documents.

THE ART DEALERS

Adrian Mibus

respected Australian gallery owner who falls for Drewes smoke and mirrors and buys several of Myatts fakes.

David Stern

Notting Hill dealer who unwittingly helps Drewes scam reach across the Atlantic to New York.

Armand Bartos Jr.

debonair New York dealer who still insists the Giacometti he bought is the best hes ever seen.

Dominic Taglialatella

New York dealer who is taken in by one of the more expensive Giacomettis.

Rene Gimpel

fourth-generation art dealer nagged by misgivings about a Ben Nicholson until his restoration expert, Jane Zagel, confirms his worst fears.

Peter Nahum

London dealer; among the first to alert Scotland Yards Art and Antiques Squad that hes been hoodwinked by a rogue.

THE UNWITTING PROVIDERS OF PROVENANCE

John Sperr

elderly antiquarian bookstore owner whose shop becomes a source of material and inspiration for Drewes elaborate provenance.

Father Paul Addison

head of a Roman Catholic religious order in England whose goodwill Drewe abuses to claim provenance of works from centuries-old priories.

Alan Bowness

former head of the Tate Gallery and son-in-law of the painter Ben Nicholson who innocently authenticates several fake Nicholsons.

Jane Drew

renowned British architect with close ties to Le Corbusier whom Drewe befriends, lending him a different kind of provenance: personal cachet.

Terry Carroll

physicist sufficiently impressed by the professor that he never questions Drewes professional provenance as a physicist until close to the end.

Daniel Stoakes

down-on-his luck childhood friend who agrees to pose as owner of a few works, only later to bemoan, I was like a ripe plum ready to be picked from the tree.

Peter Harris

larger-than-life personality with an early morning paper route and a penchant for war tales who Drewe fictitiously transforms into a fabled arms dealer and art collector.

THE SALES FORCE

Danny Berger

neighbor recruited by Drewe to expand his operation who successfully sells modern masters out of his garage.

Clive Belman

unemployed former jewelry salesman and actor who joins Drewes operation unaware that the product line he is hawking is the equivalent of costume jewelry.

Stuart Berkeley

a London-based runner who takes the operation worldwide.

Sheila Maskell

independent and reputable New York-based art runner who sends Armand Bartos the Giacometti Standing Nude that will eventually help break the case.

THE SKEPTICS

Mary Lisa Palmer

indefatigable director of the Giacometti Association whose persistent detective work puts her in conflict with the auction houses and galleries.

Jennifer Booth

Tate archivist who refuses to be swayed by Drewes benefactor status.

THE SLEUTHOUNDS

Richard Higgs

London detective who cannot pin a case of arson on John Drewe but knows a scam artist when he sees one.

Miki Volpe

scrappy detective from the Yards Organised Crime Unit who has never heard the word provenance but knows how to build a case, brush stroke by brush stroke.

Jonathan Searle

Scotland Yard detective with a Cambridge pedigree in art history who proves as skilled at spotting fakes as in tracking down thugs.