Two art books: Rogues and Scholars/Don’t Tell Sybil

Rogues and Scholars, penned by the ex-chairman of Sothebys – James Stourton – is a fairly comprehensive and balanced assessment of the London art market from 1945 to 2000.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the author centres on the two main players – the auction houses Christie’s and Sothebys.

He does also include the Galleries, from the more traditional Agnews (now no longer), Colnaghi and Messums to the new kids on the block like the Marlborough Gallery in the 1960s and – more recently – White Cube and Gargosian. now the Internet has been a big game changer particularly as the cost of a presence in an exclusive part of London is so high

Museums and collectors are also covered so it’s a fairly comprehensive overview.

“Auction houses versus Galleries” has long been a hot debate for buyers and sellers.

They point out that, with auction houses, there is both the buyer’s and seller’s premium  which – together with VAT and transportation – mean “the hammer price” (the price reached at the auction ) is roughly 43% of the cost.

Reference is also made to the practice of guarantee, whereby a third party – normally a dealer – guarantees the price up to a certain level which then, once achieved, results in a percentage commission becoming payable. Stourton also covers the collusion on price fixing between Sothebys and Christie’s which resulted in huge financial penalties  .

Fans of dealers argue that there is more margin for negotiation and you can take a picture on approval. A dealer will also be more accommodating on payment in instalments. However, both auction houses and dealers want to make a sale.

The argument against dealers is that their commission can be as much as 50%, which usually means it can be a few years before you see a profit.

Buyers should have access to Artnet, which gives the genealogy of sales provided they have gone through traditional avenues.

Thus Bella Chagall had some difficulty in persuading her husband Marc Chagall’s authentication committee that a picture he gave her but which was never sold was actually painted by him.

Buyers through dealers are also assured that there should be no claims for restitution as provenance is carefully checked. However, there have been cases of forgers fooling dealers.

James Stourton is an accomplished and elegant writer and his anecdotes about such legendary figures as Sotheby’s chairman Peter Wilson lighten and leaven the content.

In the book he praises George Melly’s ribald  account of working for the Belgian gallerist Edouard Menens, who specialised in surrealist art.

Rene Magritte was a friend of Menens. Although George Melly is best known as a jazz vocalist often attired in colourful loud suits, he is both a gifted writer and authority on Surrealism.

His book Don’t tell Sybil – she being the wife of Menens – is entertaining but the difficulty for the reader is that Menens was not that well-known and rather licentious and debauched.

You can learn about hanging and framing amongst the stories of drunken feuding and bitchiness in describing art figures Douglas Cooper and Roland Penrose , but I could not work out if this book was a potboiler or a serious contribution to art history.