Rogues and Scholars: A History of the London Art World: 1945-2000

by James Stourton

A colorful and fast-moving account of how postwar London became the global center of the art market—a story of Impressionist masterpieces, dodgy dealers, and ground-breaking financial transactions.

On October 15, 1958, Sotheby's of Bond Street staged an "event sale” of seven Impressionist paintings belonging to Erwin three Manets, two Cézannes, one Van Gogh, and a Renoir. Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, and Somerset Maugham were there as celebrity guests. The seven lots went for £781,000—at the time the highest price for a single sale. The event established London as the world center of the art market and Sotheby's as an international auction house. It began a shift in power from the dealers to the auctioneers and paved the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years.

Sotheby's had pulled off a massive coup by capturing the Impressionist market from Paris and New York—and now began its inexorable rise, opening offices all over the world. A huge expansion of the market followed, accompanied by rocketing prices, colorful scandals, and legal dramas. London transformed itself from a fusty place of old master painting sales to a revitalized center of contemporary art, crowned by the opening of Tate Modern in 2000. The Tate Modern successfully united new (and mostly foreign) money in London with the art world, offering its patrons a ready-made sophisticated social milieu alongside dealers in contemporary art.

In a vibrant and briskly-paced style, James Stourton tells the story of the London art market from the immediate postwar period to the turn of the millennium. While Sotheby's is the lynchpin of this story, Stourton populates his narrative with a glorious rogue's gallery of eccentric scholars, clever amateurs, brilliant emigrés, and stylish grandees with a flair for the deal.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, 21st Century, Audiobook

432 pages, Hardcover

Published February 4, 2025

Reviews

[Mervyn Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Struggling with this a bit. It isn't gossipy enough to be entertaining, and Stourton has a tendency to cram as many names and as much information as he can into each - short - chapter. For the general reader, I'm not sure what this brings. It feels too much like a reference book or an encyclopedia. I'm going to plough on, but with no real enthusiasm. It is well written. And Stourton obviously knows his stuff. I just thought it'd be more roguish and less scholarly.

[Benedict Ness 📚 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a 3.5. After a good run of really good narrative history, this came across as a little dry. I understand the man had a lot to fit in, but a lot of it was listing names and dates. The saving grace was the short chapters. Kept some semblance of flow and an optimism for the next page.

[Roberta Nebel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An in depth, gossipy book regarding the London art scene since the end of WW2. Lots of information if it’s your thing; otherwise very dry

[Emily Suchanek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rogues and Scholars is the kind of cultural history that reads like gossip with footnotes, in the best possible way. James Stourton takes us through the postwar London art market, where aristocrats, dealers, scholars, collectors, and the occasional scoundrel shaped what art was worth and who got to decide. The title is perfect: this is a world of connoisseurs and opportunists, high ideals and higher price tags. Stourton writes with an insider’s ease, clearly fascinated by the personalities who turned dusty auction rooms into theatres of ambition. You can almost hear the murmurs before a bid lands, feel the ego in the air as reputations are made and unmade.

What makes the book so absorbing is how human it is. Beneath the sums of money and shifting markets are people driven by taste, rivalry, instinct, and sometimes sheer nerve. Stourton captures the transition from a gentlemanly, club-like art scene to a globalized, investment-fueled machine, and he does it with wit and affection for the characters involved. The scholarship is there, solid and reassuring, yet the storytelling keeps everything lively and accessible. You finish Rogues and Scholars with a sharper eye for how value is constructed—how art becomes currency, myth, and legacy and with the distinct pleasure of having wandered through a world where beauty and bravado were always in conversation.

[Jack Cowap · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s difficult to criticise this book too harshly. It is thoroughly researched and manages to fit in an impressive depth and breadth of information about the changing face of the art market. You’ll definitely come away having learnt a massive amount and always feel in capable hands.

This, however, was simultaneously my main issue with it. There is a huge cast of characters that are often introduced rapid-fire as well as dates and names of galleries that feel impossible to keep up with. It felt far more concerned with hitting each data point than stepping back and allowing key examples to stand as a representation of the wider industry changes.

There are times when a story is allowed to unfold and these are likely to be the most enjoyable passages for those with a more causal relationship with the subject matter. While likely more suited to readers who are closer to the industry, I felt it could have done with more rogue and less scholar.

[Tabish Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rogues and Scholars by James Stourton charts the London art market from post-Second World War to 2000. It’s full of fascinating stories and eccentric characters. It’s probably one for art world folk only and I was drawn more to the contemporary art chapters than the ones concerning antiquities.

[Mary Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a review of this book that made it sound interesting. It's a kind of tell-all about the London art market--Christie's and Sotheby's. It was out of my league. I skimmed it.

[Georgina Way · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic and an eye opening insight into the art and auction world in this country post war.

[Susan Cornish · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be a ripping yarn instead it’s a quite tedious who’s who of the art world, nothing roguish or scholarly

[Greynomad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new history of the London Art Market - think very expensive paintings, sculptures, furniture, silver, antiquities, and the like - the period during which London came to be seen as the center of the art business. What interested me the most about this was that it is an extended story of the duopoly between Christie’s and Sotheby’s and the related sets of smaller and/or less specialized galleries and dealers that filled in the business during this time. I know many people who were interested in pursuing this work in the US or Europe during college - put your art and art history degrees to work - but who were deterred by the dependence of the business on social status, connections, and family wealth. After reading James Stourton’s book, there seems to be something to that. Many of the stars in this history had relatively little formal education but most if not all were skilled and even adept at servicing the wealthy seeking to dispose of family wealth or the nouveau riche seeking to build their collections. It is a highly complex business, with more than a little collusion, corruption, and even downright fraud. That is not surprising. Also interesting is the role of technology (jet planes, telecom, computers, and the internet) in bracketing the period. Before the 1950s there was little basis for London’s dominance, even with leadership; while after the arrival of the internet, there was less need for all the top deals to occur in one or a few places.

The one downside of the book is the extreme dependence on particular niches in the business (each with its own set of masters) and particular star dealers and gallery owners who prospered as their niches survived and grew. There is a lot going on in the book and a lot to remember and try to organize in making sense of the art world. It is a good starting point, however, and can be updated with later works as needed.

Overall, this was an interesting and fun book for art lovers.

[Alec Piergiorgi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is based off of the Audiobook narrated by Charles Armstrong.

This was complete surprise, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I know very little about the active art market of buying and selling, and a I know even less when it has to do with the London art market. But Stourton kept me entertained and engaged for the entire length of the book. Now, I would guess a measure of enjoyment is removed from my experience because of my lack of familiarity with most of these characters and particularly with the art pieces themselves.

So, I am not able to judge the accuracy of Stourton's retelling of events and most take everything at face value. Regardless, I appreciated the book's structure of flowing chronologically for the most part but also dedicating certain chapters to the development to specific trades like with silver or porcelain. As well, the chapters he would dedicate entirely or mostly to one curator or art trader were often fun and informative in providing a profile of the person and a recap of their accomplishments. Use Sotheby’s and Christie’s as kind of the two poles to base a lot of the story around was a smart choice and I, because of both of their long and adventurous histories, it never gets dull.

It also got me excited and sad at the same time. While he doesn't capture a lot of the energy during those early times in the 1960s and 1970s, I think Stourton does a good job of expressing the sadness that those times are gone. Things are clearly a lot more boring now.