The Art Detective: Adventures of an Antiques Roadshow Appraiser

“The Art Detective” by Philip Mould is a fascinating, entertaining, insightful look into the world of art galleries, discovery, restoration, dealing, collecting, and, to some extent, the creative process. Each of the six chapters is a well-written account focusing on the author’s own adventure involving the discovery of an important work of art: a hoard of old British portraits in Vermont, a Gainsborough, a Norman Rockwell, a Rembrandt, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (and another of Henry VIII’s brother, Arthur), and a Winslow Homer watercolor. Without revealing “spoilers”, the text covers the business aspects of dealing in masterpieces far beyond a purely financial perspective: it also addresses the issues of fakes and forgeries, theft, auctions, and the personalities and relationships of collectors, dealers, historians, art subjects, and artists themselves. Mr. Mould recognizes, “Great artists are also risk takers; they constantly push the boundaries of illusion, like ambitious magicians” (page 61). The text is greatly enhanced by two sections of carefully chosen and well-reproduced photographs -- about 35 pictures in all – that really bring the very visual subject of this book to life. The index is also helpful. As usual, I’m pointing out a few (specifically five, primarily typographical / grammatical) things that could be “corrected” in future editions: Page 86: In a sentence that reads, “An intern at the auction house, despite been given a fax…”, maybe “been” should be changed to “being”? This could just be a difference in American / British English usage…After all, it is said that Britain and America are “two nations divided by a common language”. Page 109: For readability, the first sentence of the paragraph beginning with “When Rockwell arrived here in 1939” could have its punctuation modified: maybe move the closing dash after the italicized “Saturday Evening Post”, and change the current closing dash to a colon. Page 165: A sentence that recounts dialogue by Ernst van de Wetering begins with, “But during the forty years of my life between 1948 and 1998”, it seems “forty” should be changed to “fifty” (or either change 1948 to 1958, OR 1998 to 1988). Pages 194 / 195: Discussion of a portrait being offered by Sotheby’s with an estimate of between £700,000 and £1 million (as noted on page 196), is prefaced by Mr. Mould’s recollection of having seen the same painting two years earlier for sale by Christie’s South Kensington, which he seems to have purchased and re-sold; on page 194 the Christie’s estimate is stated as £6,000 to £8,000, but on page 195 the author expresses being “very pleased when it was knocked down to me for £43,000”. Maybe I’m just confused, but there may be a misplaced comma or decimal point in there somewhere…. Page 207: In a sentence that begins with “Henry VIII was briefly succeed by his son,” it seems as if “succeed” should perhaps be changed to “succeeded”. Anyway, I highly recommend this thoroughly enjoyable book written by someone who clearly loves his work. His enthusiasm is communicated in a way that makes for riveting reading.

Fascinating view of the art world from the view of a dealer in master works. The backstories that lead to authentication and the work (and money) that go into professional restoration are intriguing.

A good art book. I found however, that the Fake or Fortune BBC series some of which are based on the chapters in this book, to be a little more compelling. The author is probably better suited to the video format which off course shows off the art in question better than the book media.One problem, at least my copy of the book had, was that in the middle, near the first series of photos, the pages started being in reverse order. They were numbered correctly at the top of the page but all of a sudden started being in reverse chronological order. Made reading it quite a challenge. All my years of reading books, I've never encountered such a production problem before. Quite surprising for a Penguin produced book. I keep all my Penguin books anyway; maybe this will be valuable like the upside down plane stamp:)

This wonderful book is the antithesis of dry, dull, lifeless art history. Philip Mould brings these pictures into vibrant, sharp focus as he leads us through his adventures unraveling the mystery behind each one. Highly recommend this fascinating book - as wonderful as any English tea-cozy mystery, without the murders.

I've been a fan of Philip Mould's since his appearances on Antiques Roadshow UK. I discovered the television series "Fakes and Forgeries" on youtube recently featuring Mould, Fiona Bruce and Gerald Grosvenor. As an historian, I enjoyed watching the team hunt down sources and use scientific methods to validate a piece of art. "The Art Detective" tells the stories of works of art that Mould has handled over the years. A very enjoyable read.

I liked Mr Mould's writing, it filled me in on a subject that I know very little about. The few cases that he wrote about were so well done that I was quite disappointed not to hear about many more. The way he searches for valuable old paintings leads one to believe that there must be many of them hidden away, unnoticed and sometimes trashed - a great shame for the world.

The accounts are interesting but I really think he could have made them less wordy.

some of the stories about certain pieces of art are very exciting, some are not. but overall, i found this book pretty interesting. i especially love the chapter about the norman rockwell painting. you'll like it if art history, art restoration, or just stories about art interest you.

The stories in the book are fascinating, but it takes Philip Mould a veeeerrrryyy long time to get to the point. I have read similar books where the author gets to the core of the story much faster and thereby gets to tell many more fascinating art stories in their books in stead of spending pages and pages on detailed relations of some Vermont family. This book only contains 6 different episodes. I hade expected much more..

An excellent book with Philip Mould of BBC's Fake or Fortune as he describes various fakes or sleepers, those pictures which turn out to be done by famous artists but are not recognised as such. Much of this material was covered by his book Sleuth which is why I didn't give this five stars. However, the content is fascinating and anyone who is interested in art, forgery and the art market will enjoy it.

An enjoyable read but too much time devoted to single paintings. I had expected a much broader insight into the art world. Having said that, I would recommend it to all those who watch Fake and Fortune.

For anybody interested in art this is the book to get. Its like reading a crime fiction novel without the murders and some stories are very exciting.

An excellent read.