William Boyd

A is for Artist, D is for Dealers

Is the art world run by a mafia? Philip Hook alphabetises the auction world in Breakfast at Sotheby's

Pictorially, railways sell: as the 19th century progressed, the station and the coach compartment provided new scope for narrative painting, as in Augustus Egg’s ‘The Travelling Companions’, 1862. Credit: The Bridgeman Art Library
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  • Breakfast at Sotheby’s: An A-Z of the Art World

    Philip Hook

    Particular Books, pp. 347

‘S is for Spoof.’ There it is on page 86, a full-page reproduction of a Nat Tate drawing, sold at Sotheby’s in 2011 for £6,500. A sum which, it is added,

with all due respect to [William] Boyd’s ability as an artist, probably proves the point about promotion being more important than talent.

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