Rogues and Scholars: Boom and Bust in the London Art Market, 1945–2000

by James Stourton

A Times Best Art Book of the Year, 2024
'A riot of a book' – Country Life's Books of the Year, 2024

The modern art market was born on a single night. On 15 October 1958 Sotheby's of Bond Street staged an 'event sale' of Impressionist paintings from the collection of an American banker, Erwin three Manets, two Cézannes, one Van Gogh and a Renoir. Movie stars and other celebrities attended in black tie and saw the seven lots go for £781,000 – at the time the highest price for a single art sale.

Overnight, London became the world centre of the art market and Sotheby's an international auction house. The event signalled a shift in power from dealers to auctioneers and pointed the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years. In this climate Sotheby's and Christie's became a great business duopoly – as aggressive, dominant and competitive in the field of art sales as Pepsi and Coca-Cola were in soft drinks. The resulting expansion of the market was accompanied by rocketing prices, colourful scandals and legal dramas. Over the decades, London transformed itself from a place of old master sales to a revitalised centre of contemporary art, a process crowned by the opening of Tate Modern in 2000.

James Stourton tells the story of the London art market from the immediate postwar period to the turn of the millennium in engaging and fast-paced style, populating his richly entertaining narrative with a glorious rogues' gallery of clever amateurs, eccentric scholars, brilliant emigrés, cockney traders and grandees with a flair for the deal.

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

432 pages, Paperback

Published October 9, 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

[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.