What do you think?
Rate this book
The conman : chasing after the mastermind behind Britain's most audacious art fraud
How does the art market work? It is a mystery to most, but this did not deter conman John Drewe. This meticulously researched book uncovers both the day to day business of art galleries and, in a riveting tale, how the conman perpetrated his decade-long fraud.
357 pages, Paperback
First published July 9, 2009
175 people are currently reading
9548 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 587 reviews
December 14, 2015
For those that don’t know, a provenance is a document (or documents) that chronologies the ownership of a historical object. In the art world, the provenance serves almost like a certificate of authenticity as well as a historical document of the ownership, custodies or locations the piece has been displayed. The problem was, there was a time in art history where authenticating a provenance was all you needed to prove the art was genuine. This lead to all kinds of problems, in the world of computers and photocopiers it became very easier to make a document look authenticate than it was to forge a painting. This book explores this very problem; Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art tells the story of what was described as ‘the biggest art fraud in the 20th century’.
Provenance has one of the most extraordinary narratives I’ve ever read in a non-fiction book; it reads like an art thriller, full of suspense and mystery. It wasn’t what I expected from a true crime book on art history, I was hooked in this world and on the edge of my seat to find out what will happen next. The authors of this book, Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo are both investigative reporters and spent the time to research and tell us the story of John Drewe, a villainous con man that set out to defraud the art world. Recruiting a struggling artist, John Myatt, to paint the forges, it is estimated that over 200 forgeries were made and only about 60 of them recovered. This means there is about 140 paintings still out there been accredited to artists like Giacometti, Dubuffet and so on.
If I may, I want to quickly touch on the problematic approach to authenticating a provenance rather than a painting. As I said before the use of computers and photocopiers made it easy to fake these documents, but John Drewe went further by sneaking forged documents of auctions, gallery displays and so on into the archives of museums and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. What was scary about the elaborate efforts Drewe went to to make this provenance real is the fact a test on the painting might have been so much quicker. If they took the effort to test the paint they would have found that Myatt used a combination of emulsion paint, K-Y Jelly and then vanish to make the paintings look like oil paintings.
All my knowledge on art forgery came from people like Neal Caffrey (White Collar) so I’m not nearly knowledgeable on the topic, as I’d like to be. Art history and art crimes can be fascinating topics and what I loved about Provenance is how it showed how crime seeps in and becomes part of the history. When John Myatt served his time he decided not to point out any paintings that he had done, and that raises an interesting question. Is it better to point out the 140 or so fakes still out there and have the owners lose all that money or not? If a fake is just going to be burnt is it better to own up to the forgery or let it remain a piece of art? The financial and artistic costs would be devastating but what about the moral code that Myatt wished to live by?
This is what made for a fascinating read, I learned a small part of art history, art crimes and it also raised some philosophical questions. I know I might have said a little too much but this is history, can you give spoilers on historic events? It is a great piece of narrative non-fiction and a great way to learn more about art crimes.
This review this review appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/...
Provenance has one of the most extraordinary narratives I’ve ever read in a non-fiction book; it reads like an art thriller, full of suspense and mystery. It wasn’t what I expected from a true crime book on art history, I was hooked in this world and on the edge of my seat to find out what will happen next. The authors of this book, Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo are both investigative reporters and spent the time to research and tell us the story of John Drewe, a villainous con man that set out to defraud the art world. Recruiting a struggling artist, John Myatt, to paint the forges, it is estimated that over 200 forgeries were made and only about 60 of them recovered. This means there is about 140 paintings still out there been accredited to artists like Giacometti, Dubuffet and so on.
If I may, I want to quickly touch on the problematic approach to authenticating a provenance rather than a painting. As I said before the use of computers and photocopiers made it easy to fake these documents, but John Drewe went further by sneaking forged documents of auctions, gallery displays and so on into the archives of museums and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. What was scary about the elaborate efforts Drewe went to to make this provenance real is the fact a test on the painting might have been so much quicker. If they took the effort to test the paint they would have found that Myatt used a combination of emulsion paint, K-Y Jelly and then vanish to make the paintings look like oil paintings.
All my knowledge on art forgery came from people like Neal Caffrey (White Collar) so I’m not nearly knowledgeable on the topic, as I’d like to be. Art history and art crimes can be fascinating topics and what I loved about Provenance is how it showed how crime seeps in and becomes part of the history. When John Myatt served his time he decided not to point out any paintings that he had done, and that raises an interesting question. Is it better to point out the 140 or so fakes still out there and have the owners lose all that money or not? If a fake is just going to be burnt is it better to own up to the forgery or let it remain a piece of art? The financial and artistic costs would be devastating but what about the moral code that Myatt wished to live by?
This is what made for a fascinating read, I learned a small part of art history, art crimes and it also raised some philosophical questions. I know I might have said a little too much but this is history, can you give spoilers on historic events? It is a great piece of narrative non-fiction and a great way to learn more about art crimes.
This review this review appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/...
January 8, 2012
An Archival Case Study
A successful con artist does not break the system. He exploits an inherent weakness in the system which many may not know is at risk. This is exactly what con man John Drewe did to the British art world for nearly a decade in the 1980s and 1990s. In this case, Drewe exploits the heavy reliance on provenance, the documented “life” of a work of art from studio to current owner. Provenances take the forms of sales receipts, correspondence, photographs of works, shipping labels, auction catalogs--anything that can provide evidence that a work is what it claims to be. To do this, Drewe visited and planted false documents in gallery archives throughout London, such as the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art.
The text reads more like a thriller than a case study. There is a con and a mark. It is evident early on that Sujo and Salisbury’s main source of information was forger John Myatt himself, a hard-working artist who was "set-up." While the opportunity to have a first-hand source is probably titillating, I think these two didn’t take the trouble to offer an unbiased view of the story. I noticed that not once are the works called “forgeries” while they are in Myatt‘s possession. Salisbury and Sujo refer to Myatt’s works by the artists whose styles Myatt forges. He delivers “Bisseres” on time, but never the fakes. In fact, the title is the only place in which Myatt is called a “forger” within the text. So even when Myatt delivers his reproductions in the full knowledge that Drewe is selling them off to dealers and auction houses as the artists’ genuine works, he is still the victim of this tale. When Myatt becomes disgusted with the blatant refusal of art dealers, gallery owners, and auction houses to perform due diligence by examining suspect works rather than hurrying them through sales, he is practically doing the industry some sort of service by diluting the art world with fakes. So if John Myatt is the victim, the mark, the unsung hero of this tale, why does his web site (www.johnmyatt.com) say “the biggest art fraud of the 20th century” in bold, golden letters across the top of the page? While the work was certainly entertaining, the depiction of Myatt as the courageous, industrious, single-father unwittingly drawn into the seedy world of shady art dealings seems highly stylized.
Much time and text was spent defending Myatt when it should have been spent examining the weaknesses in this system. Weaknesses such as how stolen and forged art sales run the same routes that drugs and illegal arms run; the desperation for funds that allows dealers and auction houses to rush works of questionable authenticity to the auction block; reliance on provenance from archivists who, although may have some knowledge of the art world from the content of their collections, are not subject specialists. A better look at the case from the archival perspective is Rodney G. S. Carter's article "Tainted Archives: Art, Archives and Authenticity" from the journal Archivaria (vol. 63).
Provenance is a core principle of archival science. Despite differing opinions and approaches to the archivist’s role in protecting documents for cultural, evidential, and sustaining value, each archivist has a duty to protect the documents entrusted to his or her institution. This seems to be at odds with another archival value: access. For what is the purpose of protecting and preserving documents if no one can utilize the information held within? This is only one of the many seemingly contradictory duties that the archivist undertakes with each acquisition. In this case, protection meant preventing Drewe (and his cohorts) from removing documents AND inserting false documents. Unlike a library whose holdings include individual works, archives hold collections -- series of items that are related by creation. By planting false documents, the integrity of the entire collection has been compromised. The extent of the corruption of these archival holdings may never fully be known.
A successful con artist does not break the system. He exploits an inherent weakness in the system which many may not know is at risk. This is exactly what con man John Drewe did to the British art world for nearly a decade in the 1980s and 1990s. In this case, Drewe exploits the heavy reliance on provenance, the documented “life” of a work of art from studio to current owner. Provenances take the forms of sales receipts, correspondence, photographs of works, shipping labels, auction catalogs--anything that can provide evidence that a work is what it claims to be. To do this, Drewe visited and planted false documents in gallery archives throughout London, such as the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art.
The text reads more like a thriller than a case study. There is a con and a mark. It is evident early on that Sujo and Salisbury’s main source of information was forger John Myatt himself, a hard-working artist who was "set-up." While the opportunity to have a first-hand source is probably titillating, I think these two didn’t take the trouble to offer an unbiased view of the story. I noticed that not once are the works called “forgeries” while they are in Myatt‘s possession. Salisbury and Sujo refer to Myatt’s works by the artists whose styles Myatt forges. He delivers “Bisseres” on time, but never the fakes. In fact, the title is the only place in which Myatt is called a “forger” within the text. So even when Myatt delivers his reproductions in the full knowledge that Drewe is selling them off to dealers and auction houses as the artists’ genuine works, he is still the victim of this tale. When Myatt becomes disgusted with the blatant refusal of art dealers, gallery owners, and auction houses to perform due diligence by examining suspect works rather than hurrying them through sales, he is practically doing the industry some sort of service by diluting the art world with fakes. So if John Myatt is the victim, the mark, the unsung hero of this tale, why does his web site (www.johnmyatt.com) say “the biggest art fraud of the 20th century” in bold, golden letters across the top of the page? While the work was certainly entertaining, the depiction of Myatt as the courageous, industrious, single-father unwittingly drawn into the seedy world of shady art dealings seems highly stylized.
Much time and text was spent defending Myatt when it should have been spent examining the weaknesses in this system. Weaknesses such as how stolen and forged art sales run the same routes that drugs and illegal arms run; the desperation for funds that allows dealers and auction houses to rush works of questionable authenticity to the auction block; reliance on provenance from archivists who, although may have some knowledge of the art world from the content of their collections, are not subject specialists. A better look at the case from the archival perspective is Rodney G. S. Carter's article "Tainted Archives: Art, Archives and Authenticity" from the journal Archivaria (vol. 63).
Provenance is a core principle of archival science. Despite differing opinions and approaches to the archivist’s role in protecting documents for cultural, evidential, and sustaining value, each archivist has a duty to protect the documents entrusted to his or her institution. This seems to be at odds with another archival value: access. For what is the purpose of protecting and preserving documents if no one can utilize the information held within? This is only one of the many seemingly contradictory duties that the archivist undertakes with each acquisition. In this case, protection meant preventing Drewe (and his cohorts) from removing documents AND inserting false documents. Unlike a library whose holdings include individual works, archives hold collections -- series of items that are related by creation. By planting false documents, the integrity of the entire collection has been compromised. The extent of the corruption of these archival holdings may never fully be known.
December 25, 2013
Provenance is the story of a very long con: John Drewe (only one of his names), a pathological liar with a phenomenal memory for trivia, gleefully trashed the modern history of European art through the 1990s while moving hundreds – perhaps thousands – of forged paintings through major galleries and auction houses, all the while being feted by the art establishment. And it’s all true.
Drewe didn’t forge the paintings himself. He outsourced that job to John Myatt, an amateur painter and general sad sack who whipped up new works by Modernist artists using house paint and scrap lumber. Drewe wasn’t even the first to devise fake provenances (collection histories) for fake paintings. His innovation was to hack the archives of major museums (such as London’s Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum) to insert the fakes into the very fabric of art history. The lengths he went to in order to pass off the phonies as realies are almost as amazing as the fact that so many reputed art experts and galley owners swallowed the scam whole. This will not be comfortable reading for art insiders.
Authors Salisbury and Sujo tell the tale in almost novelistic form. The players aren’t just names but full-fledged characters, with their thoughts and dialog recreated convincingly. The authors dole out background information as needed, avoiding the lengthy infodumps that often plague even popular histories. The outline of the story itself is almost cinematic; you can find all the major beats of a crime film in the plot, and the same momentum. The only things missing are the car chases and the climactic shootout.
There are a few stumbles along the way. There’s a certain amount of repetition, especially in the final quarter of the book when the police are on the case and are discovering the same facts from different sources. The close focus on the major players loosens during the trial scenes, which become reportage rather than storytelling. A glossary would be helpful for non-specialist readers. And if there was ever a true-crime book that screamed out for pictures, this is it: unless you’re familiar with the works of Giacometti, Nicholson or Dubuffet, you won’t have any idea what the real (or fake) paintings look like.
If con artists are your cuppa, Provenance is for you. The same goes if you enjoy seeing privilege with egg on its face. Even if you know nothing about Modern art, you’ll be able to connect with the characters and go along on their long, strange ride. You can’t hope to find a fictional character as outlandish as the real-life John Drewe. And at the end, you’ll never look at a painting in a museum the same way again.
Drewe didn’t forge the paintings himself. He outsourced that job to John Myatt, an amateur painter and general sad sack who whipped up new works by Modernist artists using house paint and scrap lumber. Drewe wasn’t even the first to devise fake provenances (collection histories) for fake paintings. His innovation was to hack the archives of major museums (such as London’s Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum) to insert the fakes into the very fabric of art history. The lengths he went to in order to pass off the phonies as realies are almost as amazing as the fact that so many reputed art experts and galley owners swallowed the scam whole. This will not be comfortable reading for art insiders.
Authors Salisbury and Sujo tell the tale in almost novelistic form. The players aren’t just names but full-fledged characters, with their thoughts and dialog recreated convincingly. The authors dole out background information as needed, avoiding the lengthy infodumps that often plague even popular histories. The outline of the story itself is almost cinematic; you can find all the major beats of a crime film in the plot, and the same momentum. The only things missing are the car chases and the climactic shootout.
There are a few stumbles along the way. There’s a certain amount of repetition, especially in the final quarter of the book when the police are on the case and are discovering the same facts from different sources. The close focus on the major players loosens during the trial scenes, which become reportage rather than storytelling. A glossary would be helpful for non-specialist readers. And if there was ever a true-crime book that screamed out for pictures, this is it: unless you’re familiar with the works of Giacometti, Nicholson or Dubuffet, you won’t have any idea what the real (or fake) paintings look like.
If con artists are your cuppa, Provenance is for you. The same goes if you enjoy seeing privilege with egg on its face. Even if you know nothing about Modern art, you’ll be able to connect with the characters and go along on their long, strange ride. You can’t hope to find a fictional character as outlandish as the real-life John Drewe. And at the end, you’ll never look at a painting in a museum the same way again.
May 25, 2011
This is a mind-bending walk through The Art of the Con as practiced by con-master John Drewe, simultaneously and serially known as John Cockett, a different Mr. Cockett, Mr. Sussman, Mr. Green, Mr. Atwood, Mr. Martin, Mr. Bayard, and Mr. Coverdale.
John Drewe and the skilled painter John Myatt together perpetrated one of the longest-running and most extensive art frauds of the late 20th century, extending from London to America and the continent, and from there around the world. Breathtaking high-wire stunts of impersonation and art forgery, archive-diving and modification, provenance creation and solicitation all came to a halt nearly a decade after it had begun when a few of the more than two hundred paintings Myatt had forged and sold came to the attention of New Scotland Yard’s chief of The Art and Antiques Squad, Dick Ellis.
The discussion of the fraud holds one kind of fascination; the gathering of evidence and the actual trial holds different thrills. John Drewe was undoubtedly one of the finest liar-performers ever uncovered, and in fact, the con has become known as John Drewe's "performance piece" by insiders and investigators. Drewe kept such an enormous cache of personae in the air at the same time and convinced so many of his rectitude that one would simply love to see him act, as long as his mental acuity was not aimed at one’s life savings, nor one’s unprotected heart.
While all of this completely absorbing story holds interest for the reader, I especially loved the graceful way it ended. We learn of the take-down, the trial, the sentencing, and the after-trial outcomes. This is a marvelously-told story with lessons for us all. I can heartily recommend the audiobook narrated by Marty Peterson, though I did listen to it on slow speed. At normal speed I was getting so much info I couldn’t keep track of names and places.
John Drewe and the skilled painter John Myatt together perpetrated one of the longest-running and most extensive art frauds of the late 20th century, extending from London to America and the continent, and from there around the world. Breathtaking high-wire stunts of impersonation and art forgery, archive-diving and modification, provenance creation and solicitation all came to a halt nearly a decade after it had begun when a few of the more than two hundred paintings Myatt had forged and sold came to the attention of New Scotland Yard’s chief of The Art and Antiques Squad, Dick Ellis.
The discussion of the fraud holds one kind of fascination; the gathering of evidence and the actual trial holds different thrills. John Drewe was undoubtedly one of the finest liar-performers ever uncovered, and in fact, the con has become known as John Drewe's "performance piece" by insiders and investigators. Drewe kept such an enormous cache of personae in the air at the same time and convinced so many of his rectitude that one would simply love to see him act, as long as his mental acuity was not aimed at one’s life savings, nor one’s unprotected heart.
While all of this completely absorbing story holds interest for the reader, I especially loved the graceful way it ended. We learn of the take-down, the trial, the sentencing, and the after-trial outcomes. This is a marvelously-told story with lessons for us all. I can heartily recommend the audiobook narrated by Marty Peterson, though I did listen to it on slow speed. At normal speed I was getting so much info I couldn’t keep track of names and places.
April 29, 2018
In the 1980s-90s, a smooth-talking sociopath and self-proclaimed physicist (he had actually dropped out of high school) named John Drewe hired an impoverished single father, John Myatt, to paint fake 20th century artworks and foist them off on unsuspecting buyers and galleries. Drewe's success depended not only on Myatt's skill, but on creating fake provenances for many of the works. He forged letters and signatures, forged the stamps of museums and a priory library, and gained access to the archives of the Tate Museum, the Victoria & Albert, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, where he did the most damage of all, inserting fake records, documents, and exhibition catalogs so that any buyer checking up on him would be fooled by a manufactured art historical record. It's a fascinating story and the authors tell it well. Unfortunately, the book contains no images of any of these faked Giacomettis, Dubuffets, Nicholsons, or Bissières, and what we want most is to look at the fakes and some originals side by side.
Typo: Shawn Scully for Sean Scully.
October 22, 2011
Oh yeah, the White Collar writers totally read this and went “yeah, let’s do that! Only sexier and without the mental illness.”
It’s a compelling story of con artistry and, glancingly, of the art world where “real” doesn’t mean nearly as much as everyone says it does. But mostly I was too distracted by the style. This is what happens when a particular breed of reporters write nonfiction, every single time, I swear. They are so focused on hiding the ball, on digesting all of their research into appropriately textured lumps for mass consumption, that they end up producing something that reads more like a novel. I don’t know where they got a single bit of this information. Not specifically, I mean – I have a vague idea who they interviewed and what they read, but they really don’t want me to know where they got what, or how reliable any given piece of information was, or really that any interviewing or information-gathering happened at all. They want me to swallow this down whole with no analysis from me, thank you very much.
I might appreciate that on a Monday morning in the WSJ, but I really don’t in my nonfiction books.
It’s a compelling story of con artistry and, glancingly, of the art world where “real” doesn’t mean nearly as much as everyone says it does. But mostly I was too distracted by the style. This is what happens when a particular breed of reporters write nonfiction, every single time, I swear. They are so focused on hiding the ball, on digesting all of their research into appropriately textured lumps for mass consumption, that they end up producing something that reads more like a novel. I don’t know where they got a single bit of this information. Not specifically, I mean – I have a vague idea who they interviewed and what they read, but they really don’t want me to know where they got what, or how reliable any given piece of information was, or really that any interviewing or information-gathering happened at all. They want me to swallow this down whole with no analysis from me, thank you very much.
I might appreciate that on a Monday morning in the WSJ, but I really don’t in my nonfiction books.
January 10, 2015
I heartily and thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is not a scholarly examination of the subject, but it covers the importance of why this particular forgery con was more damaging than others. And now I know the reasons why, when I go to the National Archives in the US, they make sure you're not bringing anything in as well as not leaving with anything.
You do get a false impression from movies like "Catch me if you Can" and shows like "White Collar" that con-men aren't such bad guys, but this book really does correct that impression with Drewe, who conned the people working for him in the forgery ring just as much as the people they were all conning.
So all in all, this is not a dry book, it's very narrative and accessible, and anyone interested in art crimes should find this a great read.
You do get a false impression from movies like "Catch me if you Can" and shows like "White Collar" that con-men aren't such bad guys, but this book really does correct that impression with Drewe, who conned the people working for him in the forgery ring just as much as the people they were all conning.
So all in all, this is not a dry book, it's very narrative and accessible, and anyone interested in art crimes should find this a great read.
May 30, 2019
What a great read. My review is here: http://patricksherriff.com/2019/05/30...
May 8, 2019
Amazingly good read and a real page-turner.* I admit that I read the book primarily because of an interest in John Myatt, the art forger. While Myatt figures prominently, the book is mainly about John Drewe, the mastermind behind an incredible and widespread art fraud involving hundreds of paintings and dozens of people who, wittingly or unwittingly, participated in the events over a period of ten years. Drewe was also a forger, but of provenance, the paper trail that documents the authenticity of a work of art. And he was one amazing and self-confident con-man. The details are mind-boggling. I felt a good deal of sympathy for Myatt, who got conned too. He got sucked into Drewe’s scheme when destitute and particularly vulnerable. He didn’t even realize that his paintings were being passed off as the real thing at first. By the time he did, he was pretty far into it. But there was point at which he knew he was crossing a line. He eventually extricated himself from Drewe and his scheme and cooperated fully with the long police investigation and eventual trial.
I got interested in Myatt after watching a 10-episode series called “The Forger’s Masterclass” (all on YouTube) in which Myatt teaches students to paint in the style of various famous artists, e.g., Hockney, Monet, Cezanne, etc. It’s great fun and I liked Myatt so much after watching that I was already sympathetic to him when I read the book.
_________________________________________________
*I read this at least as fast as Carreyrou’s Bad Blood!
I got interested in Myatt after watching a 10-episode series called “The Forger’s Masterclass” (all on YouTube) in which Myatt teaches students to paint in the style of various famous artists, e.g., Hockney, Monet, Cezanne, etc. It’s great fun and I liked Myatt so much after watching that I was already sympathetic to him when I read the book.
_________________________________________________
*I read this at least as fast as Carreyrou’s Bad Blood!
June 17, 2014
From the book cover: “Filled with extraordinary characters and told at breakneck speed, Provenance reads like a well-plotted thriller. But this is most certainly not fiction. It is the astonishing narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate cons in the history of art forgery. Stretching from London to Paris to New York, investigative reporters Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo recount the tale of infamous con man and unforgettable villain John Drewe and his accomplice, the affable artist John Myatt.”
One always expects the cover description to be complimentary to the book. All too often, however, it is similar to a movie trailer that highlights the only the very best part of the whole story. Not the case with Provenance. This book truly does read like a thriller. It is indeed fast paced. The authors certainly did their research and managed to wrangle the very, very convoluted escapades of John Drewe into a readable (and quite exciting) look into the world of art and art forgery. I have been reading a fair bit of non-fiction lately and Provenance is the most “current” of the books I have read. It certainly makes for interesting reading when the authors were able to interview the people involved (because they were still alive) and know that the information was reasonably fresh in their recollections.
“Frequently there is a tender complicity between faker and victim: I want you to believe that such and such is the case, says the faker; if you want to believe it, too, and in order to cement that belief, you, for your part, will give me a great deal of money, and I, for my part, will laugh behind your back. The deal is done.” – from a letter by Julian Barnes, June 11, 1990.
The above quote pretty much sums up how cons like the one perpetuated by John Drewe can go on as long as it did. Yes, the talent of the “con man” makes it happen but the complicity of the those wanting to believe in his story allow it to go on for such a very long time. While reading this book the “what if” question was constantly in the back of my mind …
What if …. John Drewe had turned his considerable talents to a legitimate enterprise? What if … John Myatt used his considerable talents not for forgery but for original art? What if … John Drewe’s marriage had not hit the rocks and his wife not become angry enough to go to the police with her suspicions?
Definitely the art world would have been turned inside out even more, but we also would have been left without a wonderful telling of the caper. I enjoyed this book a great deal.
One always expects the cover description to be complimentary to the book. All too often, however, it is similar to a movie trailer that highlights the only the very best part of the whole story. Not the case with Provenance. This book truly does read like a thriller. It is indeed fast paced. The authors certainly did their research and managed to wrangle the very, very convoluted escapades of John Drewe into a readable (and quite exciting) look into the world of art and art forgery. I have been reading a fair bit of non-fiction lately and Provenance is the most “current” of the books I have read. It certainly makes for interesting reading when the authors were able to interview the people involved (because they were still alive) and know that the information was reasonably fresh in their recollections.
“Frequently there is a tender complicity between faker and victim: I want you to believe that such and such is the case, says the faker; if you want to believe it, too, and in order to cement that belief, you, for your part, will give me a great deal of money, and I, for my part, will laugh behind your back. The deal is done.” – from a letter by Julian Barnes, June 11, 1990.
The above quote pretty much sums up how cons like the one perpetuated by John Drewe can go on as long as it did. Yes, the talent of the “con man” makes it happen but the complicity of the those wanting to believe in his story allow it to go on for such a very long time. While reading this book the “what if” question was constantly in the back of my mind …
What if …. John Drewe had turned his considerable talents to a legitimate enterprise? What if … John Myatt used his considerable talents not for forgery but for original art? What if … John Drewe’s marriage had not hit the rocks and his wife not become angry enough to go to the police with her suspicions?
Definitely the art world would have been turned inside out even more, but we also would have been left without a wonderful telling of the caper. I enjoyed this book a great deal.
March 20, 2020
A real page-turner, this book is paced so well that it feels like I wasn't reading it and instead it was being beamed directly into my mind. John Drewe is an absolute nut job and manages to continually one-up himself in this story, you can't help but love it. I'm not sure if this book gives a good enough overview of the distance between the primary and secondary art market - this scam, alongside most forgeries, was part of the second. For those without personal experience with the art world at large, this paints a pretty bleak picture of a shallow arts market - which is true but not to the degree this book implies. But then again, this was the 90s so who knows.
September 29, 2012
I don't read very much non-fiction in book format; though I do read a bunch of magazines. I read something about this book (an excerpt?) in one of said magazines, and it intrigued me enough to get the book.
Having worked in a museum archive, I was fascinated by this true story of how this art-forgery-fraud duo used falsification of archives in order to pass off their fakes as the genuine article - complete with historical documentation, to be found in multiple, respected repositories. The truly amazing part was how truly crappy some of their work was, and how long no one noticed it for. It really makes you wonder - if someone bothered to do a less shoddy job; would they ever be caught? Have people done so? The estimates some interviewees give on what percentage of the art market is false or misattributed merchandise is shocking.
So - interesting book, mainly because of the content. Like so much non-fiction, though, the prose is unexceptional. It simply gets the job done.
Having worked in a museum archive, I was fascinated by this true story of how this art-forgery-fraud duo used falsification of archives in order to pass off their fakes as the genuine article - complete with historical documentation, to be found in multiple, respected repositories. The truly amazing part was how truly crappy some of their work was, and how long no one noticed it for. It really makes you wonder - if someone bothered to do a less shoddy job; would they ever be caught? Have people done so? The estimates some interviewees give on what percentage of the art market is false or misattributed merchandise is shocking.
So - interesting book, mainly because of the content. Like so much non-fiction, though, the prose is unexceptional. It simply gets the job done.
March 3, 2023
Another solid addition to my art fraud/history bookshelf! This focused more on the forgery of provenances than the contemporary artworks themselves, with lots of insight on the trading/selling of fine art. I did feel like it was a bit drawn out towards the end, but overall I enjoyed this.
3.5/5 stars
3.5/5 stars
July 22, 2015
Very helpful for research. I learned a lot about forgeries and art archives, etc.
October 10, 2022
I'm a sucker for stories about art forgery, and this is a good one. Provenance tells the story of John Drewe, a fabulist, conman, and compulsive liar who convinced a struggling artist named John Mayatt to paint forgeries that Drewe then sold (or had others sell) for large sums.
Mayatt's fakes weren't even that great. I've been reading a lot about art forgery and after finding out about all the devious methods used by forgers over the centuries it seemed weird to me that Myatt couldn't even be bothered to use oil paints. He'd just slap house paint on canvasses and call it good. The reason the forgeries worked is that Drewe was able to infiltrate the archives of respected museums like the Tate and plant false documents. If the documents look good the collectors and experts are apparently unwilling to take a deep look at the picture in question.
To me, the appeal of an art forgery story is watching high-hatting, hoity-toity, rich art collectors and art snobs get their noses tweaked. Usually, I find myself sympathizing and rooting for the forgers, but John Drewe is a repulsive psychopath who should have been sentenced to prison for eternity. Mayatt is more sympathetic, but it's still strange how the art world tends to reward the people who prey on it the way Mayatt did. Mayatt has, since being discovered, hosted a couple television shows and his paintings, which before his crimes sold for 150 pounds, now sell in the five figures because of his notoriety.
Every story of art forgery exposes the entire art market for the pretentious absurdity that it is. So, we can thank John Drewe for that much at least.
Mayatt's fakes weren't even that great. I've been reading a lot about art forgery and after finding out about all the devious methods used by forgers over the centuries it seemed weird to me that Myatt couldn't even be bothered to use oil paints. He'd just slap house paint on canvasses and call it good. The reason the forgeries worked is that Drewe was able to infiltrate the archives of respected museums like the Tate and plant false documents. If the documents look good the collectors and experts are apparently unwilling to take a deep look at the picture in question.
To me, the appeal of an art forgery story is watching high-hatting, hoity-toity, rich art collectors and art snobs get their noses tweaked. Usually, I find myself sympathizing and rooting for the forgers, but John Drewe is a repulsive psychopath who should have been sentenced to prison for eternity. Mayatt is more sympathetic, but it's still strange how the art world tends to reward the people who prey on it the way Mayatt did. Mayatt has, since being discovered, hosted a couple television shows and his paintings, which before his crimes sold for 150 pounds, now sell in the five figures because of his notoriety.
Every story of art forgery exposes the entire art market for the pretentious absurdity that it is. So, we can thank John Drewe for that much at least.
April 12, 2025
Fascinating in every way. Tracy had found it on a bookshelf at a place she was visiting. Got hooked on the story, but did not finish it. So, when she got home she ordered an old copy (From the Walnut Creek, CA library somehow), in order to finish it. Again, it is a fascinating "in" to the world on art- dealers, galleries, artists...and the depth of the forged work out there. The book centers on a man who is a pathological lair, but who is also brilliant. Read this. It was published in 2009, so might be hard to get your hands on.
December 28, 2018
I just—what?! This book is bonkers, page-turning. It’s a true story involving one of the most pathological liars I’ve ever heard of (oh the irony). Five stars for being fantastically well-written nonfiction, narrative that reads like novel. Five stars for presenting a truth that is stranger than fiction. Five stars for actually getting me to enjoy a book that deals with modern art—that might just be the most impressive feat of all.
February 14, 2021
I found Provenance to be a fascinating read. The authors did an excellent job weaving together this story which included elements of true crime, art history, criminal psychology, and detective story. It felt like all the tangents were necessary to understanding the whole picture and it never felt dull.
August 21, 2020
I really enjoyed this book; could not put it down, and that’s rare for me to find with nonfiction. Fast-paced and fascinating without being Hollywood-esque.
Another upside is that the authors don’t tell you how/what to think; they just give you the facts.
Overall, an immensely satisfying read.
Another upside is that the authors don’t tell you how/what to think; they just give you the facts.
Overall, an immensely satisfying read.
February 9, 2022
read it for story research
October 21, 2017
"It occurred to [Myatt] that Drewe was addicted to the con, that every sale was like a junkie's rush to him. The money wasn't the object, it was the scam itself. Drewe had begun to believe in his imaginary status as a collector and to speak about the paintings as if they were authentic. Like every bad drug run, this would all come to a dreadful end. The market could not absorb the number of fakes they were producing. If they continued as usual, they would almost certainly get pinched."
Provenance was a whirlwind of a read from beginning to end. The building up of characters, much like a play, created the perfect setting to recount this tale of fraud and deception. As the story went on, more people were pulled into the con, real and imaginary. Drewe's ability to spin lies and keep them sorted out is truly unbelievable, and that that many people ate them up is even more unbelievable.
It began with an artist down on his luck, just looking for a way to earn some extra cash. John Myatt put an add into a local paper advertising his talents, hoping just to keep food on his table and to pay his bills. John Drewe, who soon came to be the perpetrator of this whole scam, commissioned a painting. Once he realized Myatt was incredibly talented, the scam was born.
There have been many art fakes and forgeries done through out the years since art was recognized as a commodity, but none have been so thought-out as this one. The Victoria and Albert Museum as well as the Tate Gallery have permanent warnings on their websites about the archives being corrupted. Many first hand documents from artists, galleries, and patrons can no longer be relied upon. Provenance makes a great point in saying that sometimes the provenance of a piece has greater weight than what the piece actually looks like. Sometimes though, you need to go with your gut feeling.
This is definitely worth a read, especially if you are interested in the art world. Fakes and forgeries are a serious problem, and should not be taken lightly. I don't agree with France's and Belgium's policy of destroying them outright. There should be the option of destruction, or the art piece being marked. The owner should be allowed a choice in the matter since they paid big money for it.
As technology becomes more advanced, criminals will too. John Drewe pulled this whole scam off in the early nineties, when there wasn't even internet. Provenance serves as a good warning to all museum professionals out there about the ingenuity some criminals have and the lengths they are willing to go to carry out their scheme.
Provenance was a whirlwind of a read from beginning to end. The building up of characters, much like a play, created the perfect setting to recount this tale of fraud and deception. As the story went on, more people were pulled into the con, real and imaginary. Drewe's ability to spin lies and keep them sorted out is truly unbelievable, and that that many people ate them up is even more unbelievable.
It began with an artist down on his luck, just looking for a way to earn some extra cash. John Myatt put an add into a local paper advertising his talents, hoping just to keep food on his table and to pay his bills. John Drewe, who soon came to be the perpetrator of this whole scam, commissioned a painting. Once he realized Myatt was incredibly talented, the scam was born.
There have been many art fakes and forgeries done through out the years since art was recognized as a commodity, but none have been so thought-out as this one. The Victoria and Albert Museum as well as the Tate Gallery have permanent warnings on their websites about the archives being corrupted. Many first hand documents from artists, galleries, and patrons can no longer be relied upon. Provenance makes a great point in saying that sometimes the provenance of a piece has greater weight than what the piece actually looks like. Sometimes though, you need to go with your gut feeling.
This is definitely worth a read, especially if you are interested in the art world. Fakes and forgeries are a serious problem, and should not be taken lightly. I don't agree with France's and Belgium's policy of destroying them outright. There should be the option of destruction, or the art piece being marked. The owner should be allowed a choice in the matter since they paid big money for it.
As technology becomes more advanced, criminals will too. John Drewe pulled this whole scam off in the early nineties, when there wasn't even internet. Provenance serves as a good warning to all museum professionals out there about the ingenuity some criminals have and the lengths they are willing to go to carry out their scheme.
July 28, 2010
A terrific history of a crime, Salisbury and Sujo cover all the bases cleanly and entertainingly. They follow the fraud of John Drewe, the artist he worked with, some of the art world figures who weren't taken in and several more who were, and eventually the painstakingly crafted police investigation.
Drewe took paintings made by an English artist named John Myatt in the style of various 20th century artists (like Giacometti and Ben Nicholson), and passed them off as fakes. But his masterstroke was to create fake documents making the frauds seem legitimate and inserting them into the archives of museums.
But what makes this book particularly good is the way the authors examine the environment that made all this possible. The lack of support for the policing of art crimes, the way art world luminaries would bend over backwards at the prospect of donations, and the archivists who consider record keeping not just a job, but a calling. Honestly, I started reading this as a fan of art, looking to understand the "Modern" art period better. But as the proud son of two librarians, my new hero is Jennifer Booth, the archives curator who realized early on what was being done to her archives and fought long and hard to get her museum to see the danger of a donor they were courting.
The authors do spend a great deal of time excusing the behavior of Myatt, who actually painted the fakes. They go into great detail about how Drewe seduced him and how he was merely doing this, as a divorced father, to provide for his children. But the man did spend several years helping Scotland Yard build a case against Drewe, and Drewe's many crimes beyond simple forging (potentially having set a fire that killed someone, faking documents to steal money and their children from his first wife, etc.) mean that he is clearly, unmistakably the villain of this piece.
This is a compelling, fascinating book that will leave you better informed about 20th century art and art crime, but also about the psychology of the con-man and the con itself. It's a terrific, easy read and I highly recommended it.
Drewe took paintings made by an English artist named John Myatt in the style of various 20th century artists (like Giacometti and Ben Nicholson), and passed them off as fakes. But his masterstroke was to create fake documents making the frauds seem legitimate and inserting them into the archives of museums.
But what makes this book particularly good is the way the authors examine the environment that made all this possible. The lack of support for the policing of art crimes, the way art world luminaries would bend over backwards at the prospect of donations, and the archivists who consider record keeping not just a job, but a calling. Honestly, I started reading this as a fan of art, looking to understand the "Modern" art period better. But as the proud son of two librarians, my new hero is Jennifer Booth, the archives curator who realized early on what was being done to her archives and fought long and hard to get her museum to see the danger of a donor they were courting.
The authors do spend a great deal of time excusing the behavior of Myatt, who actually painted the fakes. They go into great detail about how Drewe seduced him and how he was merely doing this, as a divorced father, to provide for his children. But the man did spend several years helping Scotland Yard build a case against Drewe, and Drewe's many crimes beyond simple forging (potentially having set a fire that killed someone, faking documents to steal money and their children from his first wife, etc.) mean that he is clearly, unmistakably the villain of this piece.
This is a compelling, fascinating book that will leave you better informed about 20th century art and art crime, but also about the psychology of the con-man and the con itself. It's a terrific, easy read and I highly recommended it.
June 18, 2012
This book was fascinating. It's part art historical, part true crime and detective work, part human interest and insanely well written. The authors put their journalism backgrounds to good use and did (what I'm sure was) an insane amount of research. Their account was thorough, but not tedious. In regards to art, a provenance is essentially the paper trail that accompanies any given work. So and so bought this painting from the artist in this year, 12 years later put it up for auction at Sotheby's, it was bought by this museum, etc. It allows potential collectors and buyers to verify the authenticity of a work of art as well as preserves a piece of history/cultural patrimony.
This book covers a nine year period in the 90s in and around London where John Drewe and John Myatt produced massive amounts of forgeries and infiltrated the upper echelons of the the art world. Their crime was unique because while Myatt, more of an unfortunate pawn in the scheme, produced the paintings, Drewe wormed his way into the carefully guarded archives of major museums such as the Tate to alter the already existing provenances. I thought Provenance was extremely well done and I found myself thinking about it constantly, even when I wasn't reading. I came away from this book having learned a great deal and formulated more of my own opinions on the modern art market.
I highly recommend it although I would say to be prepared... the writing gets a bit wordy and long winded. I often found I could read only a few chapters at a time and then had to take a break because it was mentally tiring. Not your light summer read, but deeply informative and well done.
This book covers a nine year period in the 90s in and around London where John Drewe and John Myatt produced massive amounts of forgeries and infiltrated the upper echelons of the the art world. Their crime was unique because while Myatt, more of an unfortunate pawn in the scheme, produced the paintings, Drewe wormed his way into the carefully guarded archives of major museums such as the Tate to alter the already existing provenances. I thought Provenance was extremely well done and I found myself thinking about it constantly, even when I wasn't reading. I came away from this book having learned a great deal and formulated more of my own opinions on the modern art market.
I highly recommend it although I would say to be prepared... the writing gets a bit wordy and long winded. I often found I could read only a few chapters at a time and then had to take a break because it was mentally tiring. Not your light summer read, but deeply informative and well done.
February 14, 2013
An art dealer acquaintance of mine likes to say (in all seriousness) that the most successful members of his profession are basically international Machiavellian criminals. The hero of this book (or villain, or whatever you want to call him) fits perfectly well into this world; in fact he has a distinct advantage over real art dealers who presumably have some sense of conscience or morality, or at least fear of getting caught. Not so with John Drewe, the brilliant sociopath who, circumventing the security designed to prevent people from stealing items from the hallowed Tate art library, smuggled in forged catalogs and records, then used these to document forged paintings. I'm an art dealer myself and can testify that in our world, where brand names trump connoisseurship, too many people look only at the name of the artist, not the painting. What makes a Picasso these days is not the brush strokes, or the concept, or its beauty (or lack of it) -- it is the paperwork.
This story reads like a novel and, even if you're not interested in art, is a very good read. If you like it, then you will probably also like THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR by Benjamin Wallace, which is another well-written and very similar true story, that one set in the world of rare wine.
This story reads like a novel and, even if you're not interested in art, is a very good read. If you like it, then you will probably also like THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR by Benjamin Wallace, which is another well-written and very similar true story, that one set in the world of rare wine.
November 16, 2012
After watching most of White Collar on Netflix, I wanted a literary fix of high-flying forgery and smart cons. This books is... sort of that book. The events described are certainly stranger than fiction, but I felt that the style was a bit too academic to really thrill. For example, before the first chapter the authors list all the characters, including short but comprehensive descriptions. Obviously the book could only be written if the con man got found out, but knowing every step along the way makes it less fun to read. That said, the really interesting parts were about how Drewe, the con man in the title, duped art experts by playing on their hopes and assumptions. I was fascinated the many shifting, contradictory and downright crazy stories he invented. The authors do a good job of explaining how cons work, and my favorite section was the one that gave a short history of different forgers, their tricks, and their motivations. I do wish it had been written a little more sensationally (or maybe been a longer version of that overview?) but it was a very well researched look at a unique and odd facet of art history.
November 18, 2016
This was such a fun read. I was impressed that the authors were able to cram such a complicated story into such a manageable book and still make it enjoyable. Every now and then there would be a completely random bit of information that seemed out of place, and I did wish there had been more dates given to help with following the chronology of the story, but ultimately, it was a fascinating story that makes me look at the art world with a new perspective.
June 11, 2024
I'm giving this nonfiction 5 stars due to its provenance of information. : ) Actually, I don't find a lot of nonfiction that really "wows" me as a reader but this book, about the true aspects of how the art world was taken, really appealled to me. The only downside would be that the topic is very narrow and will probably have a limited audience.
April 24, 2016
Loved this. I have a special affinity for art crime procedural drama anyway, so this was a perfect read for me. The story blew my mind and I learned tons about how the art world works. That being said, I will never look at a museum painting the same way again.
February 2, 2020
Reasonably well-written and a mildly interesting caper, though mostly this focuses on the personalities of those involved, which I have mixed-to-negative feelings about. The biggest problem with the book, to me, was the glorification of those involved, as if John Drewe were a master genius con man capable of out-maneuvering everyone around him.
I think that there's a lot of incentive for book authors to make out their subjects to be brilliant master criminals, but I think most criminals (based on a biased sample of those who got caught or confessed), even those who get away with "audacious" crimes for a very long time, are not brilliant, because only a small fraction of crimes get seriously investigated much less solved. There's a lot of talk in the book about how charismatic Drewe was, but reading between the lines, I think it takes a decent amount of post-hoc rationalization to see him as any sort of super-genius. It sounds to me like he is one of the sort of sociopathic people who noticed the various "loopholes" that allow you to take advantage of people and the justice system, and far from cleverly manipulating anyone, he exploited those as hard and as fast as he could, killing his "golden goose" out of sheer idiocy.
In any case, the only mildly clever thing about his scam is faking the provenances, which allowed him to avoid scrutiny for his terrible forgeries that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny. Of course, he only sold forgeries, so it only takes a tiny amount of foresight to realize that eventually someone would question one of his forged paintings and then people would look more deeply into the other works he sold and find that 100% of them were forged. Seriously, WTF?
I am also somewhat curious as to what the fuck happened with the case of his partner, and how he managed to completely derail her career and life. It sounds like even after the police tipped off the family courts as to Drewe's lack of academic credentials and after he was charged and awaiting trial, she still didn't get her kids or job back, and apparently she never even got her job back even after his conviction? WTF?
2.5 of 5 stars
I think that there's a lot of incentive for book authors to make out their subjects to be brilliant master criminals, but I think most criminals (based on a biased sample of those who got caught or confessed), even those who get away with "audacious" crimes for a very long time, are not brilliant, because only a small fraction of crimes get seriously investigated much less solved. There's a lot of talk in the book about how charismatic Drewe was, but reading between the lines, I think it takes a decent amount of post-hoc rationalization to see him as any sort of super-genius. It sounds to me like he is one of the sort of sociopathic people who noticed the various "loopholes" that allow you to take advantage of people and the justice system, and far from cleverly manipulating anyone, he exploited those as hard and as fast as he could, killing his "golden goose" out of sheer idiocy.
In any case, the only mildly clever thing about his scam is faking the provenances, which allowed him to avoid scrutiny for his terrible forgeries that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny. Of course, he only sold forgeries, so it only takes a tiny amount of foresight to realize that eventually someone would question one of his forged paintings and then people would look more deeply into the other works he sold and find that 100% of them were forged. Seriously, WTF?
I am also somewhat curious as to what the fuck happened with the case of his partner, and how he managed to completely derail her career and life. It sounds like even after the police tipped off the family courts as to Drewe's lack of academic credentials and after he was charged and awaiting trial, she still didn't get her kids or job back, and apparently she never even got her job back even after his conviction? WTF?
2.5 of 5 stars
April 10, 2022
A non-fiction book about John Drewe, a con man in Britain who sold forged artworks. He teamed up with John Myatt, a talented artist who didn't know quite was he was getting into at first, but then acquiesced.
The con worked because Drewe had the clever idea to infiltrate museum records regarding the artworks' provenance, or where they came from and a thorough record of how they changed hands and were bought/sold over the years. Drewe was a mastermind at forging art catalogs from the 1950's, cutting and pasting in pictures of Myatt's forged works and aging the booklets to look indistinguishable from the originals. He snuck these documents into museums' record collections, since museums were more concerned with people taking documents out of the library than putting faked ones in.
Mastermind, but also a pathological liar and sociopath. The book is a fascinating psychological study. The amount of research it must have taken is stunning and impressive.
It's also a riveting look at the insides of the art world and its business end, and how weaknesses can be exploited. This is one of those non-fiction books that is edge-of-your-seat reading, as much a pageturner as a good fictional thriller.
Other reviewers complain about the book having no illustrations of the artwork being discussed. My perspective is why waste the space? We can all google it. Another intriguing tidbit is that there was a 2nd forger besides Myatt who was never identified, since Drewe sold additional fake works that Myatt did not paint. That person got away with it.
The con worked because Drewe had the clever idea to infiltrate museum records regarding the artworks' provenance, or where they came from and a thorough record of how they changed hands and were bought/sold over the years. Drewe was a mastermind at forging art catalogs from the 1950's, cutting and pasting in pictures of Myatt's forged works and aging the booklets to look indistinguishable from the originals. He snuck these documents into museums' record collections, since museums were more concerned with people taking documents out of the library than putting faked ones in.
Mastermind, but also a pathological liar and sociopath. The book is a fascinating psychological study. The amount of research it must have taken is stunning and impressive.
It's also a riveting look at the insides of the art world and its business end, and how weaknesses can be exploited. This is one of those non-fiction books that is edge-of-your-seat reading, as much a pageturner as a good fictional thriller.
Other reviewers complain about the book having no illustrations of the artwork being discussed. My perspective is why waste the space? We can all google it. Another intriguing tidbit is that there was a 2nd forger besides Myatt who was never identified, since Drewe sold additional fake works that Myatt did not paint. That person got away with it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 587 reviews