Caravaggio’S Cardsharps on Trial: Thwaytes v. Sotheby’S
Format:Hardback
Publisher:The Burlington Press
Published:25th Mar '20
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Vividly written and handsomely illustrated, this account of Thwaytes v. Sotheby’s – one of the major art trials of recent times – will be of interest to dealers, conservators and lawyers as well as all admirers of Caravaggio.
In 2006 the late Sir Denis Mahon, a renowned Caravaggio scholar then aged ninety-six, bought at Sotheby’s in London for just £50,400 a version of the painter’s famous Cardsharps in the Kimbell Art Museum, Texas. He then announced that the canvas was not by a ‘follower’ of the artist, as Sotheby’s had stated, but was in fact Caravaggio’s first version of the Kimbell masterpiece. When the story broke, the press announced that the painting ‘may be worth up to £50m’. Shocked by the news, Lancelot Thwaytes, who had consigned the painting to Sotheby’s, sued the auction house for negligence.
The case came to trial at the High Court in London in 2014. The verdict had far-reaching implications for the way experts at auction houses catalogue paintings, for understanding the role of connoisseurship in establishing authenticity and for the use and misuse of technical evidence in determining the authorship of a work of art.
This detailed account of Thwaytes v. Sotheby’s is told from the inside by an eminent art historian who acted as an expert witness in the case. He was instructed to tell the court if the Cardsharps in the Kimbell is an original, if the Mahon version is an original or a copy and, if original, whether it was painted by Caravaggio. As a result, a question that has been much debated by scholars – whether or not Caravaggio made replicas of his own paintings – ended up becoming a judicial matter.
"A masterwork of Tacitus-like force, clarity and precision. . . . Spear offers a short history of modern Caravaggiomania, comments on representative examples of the painter’s 60 or so known works, and takes us step by step through the legal case, in which he participated as an expert witness. . . . Enthralling." * Washington Post *
"As an expert witness for the defendant in a claim brought—and won—against Sotheby’s in 2014–15 for negligence and breach of contract, Spear is well placed to tell the story of the painting that turned out to be by Caravaggio and the ensuing legal battle." * Apollo *
"A beautifully illustrated book about the [Thwaytes v Sotheby’s] case. . . . It is interesting, and unusual, to see how a trial looks from the perspective of an expert witness, and if you are interested in how art experts approach questions of attribution, the book is full of insights." * Counsel Magazine *
"This engaging book reads like a detective novel but is in fact a knowledgeable account of a recent court case involving art. . . . This is a rare recounting of expert art historical analysis applied in a real-life circumstance, and it will be of particular value to those interested in the art market, art law, connoisseurship, or the critical evaluation of art objects. Spear includes excellent illustrations and helpful transcriptions of testimony, allowing the reader to judge the case. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *
"This is a rare exploration of a legal case from the point of view of the academic art connoisseur. . . . It’s a really cool angle to take, I can’t stress that enough." * Anonymous Swiss Collector blog *
"Interesting, and unusual. . . . The book is full of insights." * Council *
"Spear’s genre-defying book....offers any number of things to readers indirectly: it provides a very detailed account of Caravaggio’s practices as a painter; it offers a glimpse of how technical analyses are conducted of paintings and the kinds of interpretation that can be made of them; it shines a bright light onto processes of valuation and sale by auction; and it illuminates when and how scholarship and the art market intersect." * Burlington Magazine *
ISBN: 9781916237810
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
392 pages