As an art historian and former art consultant I found this book deeply fascinating. Barry Avrich, director of the Netflix's documentary "Made you Look' based on the same events, uncovers the Knoedler Gallery art scandal in details without being boring or biased.
I really appreciated the neutrality stance he tried to keep through the whole narration of the events, as a reader knowing (or not knowing) the story you start making up your mind, you can decide whether one of the main player of the whole scandal, Ann Freedman, is a player or a victim, and the author lets you do that without forcing his hand one way or the other.

The scandal itself is fascinating, you don't have to be an art historian or specialist, to be enraptured by the whole thing, and it's one of the aspects Avrich highlight in his preface and I think he delivered. The narration flows easily even with the array of facts, dates and quotes mentioned. Even if there's not much suspense as it's known from the beginning how the events will develop, I almost couldn't put the book down. I can't wait to watch the documentary to have an even more complete picture about the whole story (shame it's not available on Netflix UK anymore...)

I've received the ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The author really starts off on the wrong foot: “This book was not written for art experts, art world journalists, or historians, so spare me the clichéd critiques about omissions and what you already knew before reading the book. I wrote this for anyone ho loves a great crime caper.”
Even with that I was interested in the Knoedler Gallery and them selling $80 million dollars work of faked/forged art.
This book is not even really that. It is what Avrich thinks and feels and has experienced while making the documentary.
Even in pieces of this story long before he got involved there are odd and unnecessary interjections by him.
Overall I did find making inaccurate claims or coming away with odd points. I DNFed at 32%. A pity, because parts of the book that are just historically accurate are interesting.

4 stars
I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read this book. I remembered a bit of this story from an American Greed episode, yet this book filled in many of the holes left out by the show. I was utterly fascinated by the greed and the world of high dollar art. Furthermore, I was baffled by the fact someone paid $17 million dollars for a Jackson Pollock painting that had the artist's name spelled incorrectly.
The author guides the reader step by step into a world where a crime of this magnitude happened and will likely happen again. A baffling case of greed, ineptitude or perhaps both? What an intriguing story that includes money, celebrities, scams and more.

I recommend this book as it will most definitely appeal to many readers.



I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley and the Publisher.

I am a fan of true crime documentaries. As a fiction writer myself, I like it when life shows fiction a finger in unbelievable stories and plot twists that I’d get skewered for as simply unrealistic. Here is one: a stranger walks into a renowned gallery carrying something wrapped in brown paper. It turns out to be a missing Mark Rothko painting worth millions. As it turns out, there are more masterpieces, all of them from a private collection of Mr. X (not kidding), who is extremely elusive and only communicates via the means of producing 40 exquisite and very, very expensive works of art. Producing being the key.

The Devil Wears Rothko has it all. A beguiling, somewhat narcissistic heroine. The amazing worldbuilding, where ‘world’ stands for ‘the ultra rich’. People who want to be coddled, reassured, and buy the right things. During the lawsuit portion of the book, the dealer’s lawyer argues that the client should have done their own due diligence. So should have the dealer, who insisted that she believed the works were real. “[T]he profits were obscene and Mirvish was sufficiently seduced to not ask too many questions. Then again, no one had ever asked too many questions.”

As for modern art, I’ve never been a fan, so this amuses me: “The art market is now at a nexus where forgeries comprise a large portion of the market. European law enforcement experts suggest "as much as half of the art in circulation is fake." Thomas Hoving, the former director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, stated that a shocking 40 percent of the pieces at The Met are fake.” Not bad, not bad at all. But when you look at Rothko in particular (and I like Rothko) and read about his work methods in the last years of his life, is there really such a thing as real or fake Rothko? Why does an exquisite (the owner’s word) painting suddenly turn from $18 million to worthless piece of cardboard just because it was made by somebody else? Because it’s not about owning something that speaks to the soul, or something beautiful, it’s about owning a Rothko. “How do people think about a situation where a work of art is being sold for $8 million, for $17 million, and they think that their kid could paint it?”

This may be reality, but it’s not reality as most of us will ever know it, and it’s written like a legal thriller set in the world of art. In short, it’s a damn good, very entertaining book, and I shed a tear or two (LOLOL I do not) for the poor billionaires who must now live with the pain of knowing they bought and loved (and showed to their billionaire friends) paintings that were made in someone’s basement and later aged using sophisticated techniques such as tea bags. As for the… protagonist, let’s say, Ann Freedman? She owns a gallery of her own now, seemingly impervious to whispers behind her back, and supposedly sells real art in there. If ‘real art’ is a thing that exists, anyway.

I received a free copy of the book via NetGalley. This did not influence my opinions.

My ratings:
5* = this book changed my life
4* = very good
3* = good
2* = I should have DNFed
1* = actively hostile towards the reader*

Captivating
Based upon the Netflix documentary, Made You Look, which I will admit I haven’t seen, this book looks at the often mysterious art world and the demise of one of the most renowned galleries in New York, the Knoedler Gallery, following a multi million dollar art forgery revelation
This book is one that looks at the art world and the forgers in a different light, it shows the side of the gallery that the public don’t normally get to see but it also uncovers the shadiness of some of the players involved. The main person the book focuses on is Ann Freedman and her role in the scandal as the gallery director and the person who bought and sold on the fakes with some of the other characters not really being mentioned which I did find was a bit of an oddity but I did come to understand why as I read through and started to understand more about the art world. I did also find that some things were skipped over or not given the focus that I would have liked but I think that’s probably just me!
The book does also mention some of the other art world forgery scandals and how it could be possible for one to happen, especially if the paintings may have been in Nazi hands during WW2, but it doesn’t make any conclusions about the guilt of Freedman but leaves that up to the reader. There is a huge amount of detail and research that has gone into this book and I did enjoy reading it and learning more about the dark side of the art market. The writing style flowed well and it did pull me in quite quickly, even keeping me reading past bedtime and on the train the next day
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a real life crime drama in a shady world full of secrets that will draw you in and keep you reading