The Artful Partners: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen

About this book

This is an account of a secret partnership between a leading authority on Italian Renaissance painting Bernard Berenson and a successful and suspect art-dealer Joseph Duveen. Berenson was a respected man whose pupils included Kenneth Clark. They were an unlikely pair but their partnership continued until shortly before Duveens death. Their clients were American collectors and British aristocracy. The book traces each mans origins and their lives before they came together and describes many of the profitable coups in which they were involved. Finally it recounts the quarrels and intrigues which led to the breakdown of the partnership. A television series based on this book is planned for 1988. Colin Simpson was responsible for the articles which exposed the London antique dealers auction ring in 1964.