All that glitters A story of friendship, fraud and fine art

Former art dealer Whitfield skillfully blends memoir and true crime in this immersive account of his relationship with art fraudster Inigo Philbrick. Whitfield first met Philbrick at Goldsmiths University in 2006. The two became fast friends, launching an art dealership together in 2007. Early on, Whitfield noticed the charismatic Philbrick's need to "always be in possession of one trump card," which often led him to tell small lies to close deals or secure relationships. After a few years in business together, the pair began working separately but remained close, and Philbrick's deceptions started to balloon--he began inventing fictitious buyers and selling multiple shares of individual pieces at wildly inflated prices. After Whitfield's substance abuse and mental illness led him to retire, he learned about the scale of Philbrick's schemes; in 2019, with investigators closing in, Philbrick made headlines for fleeing to the island of Vanuatu to seek asylum. He was eventually arrested by the FBI and extradited to the U.S., where he pled guilty to defrauding collectors out of more than $80 million. Whitfield vividly captures the surreal contours of the art world--where buyers spend hefty sums on paintings made from M&Ms--and convincingly highlights how its absurdity helped cover Philbrick's tracks for so long. The result is a rollicking up-close look at a fascinating con. Agent: John Ash, CAA. (Aug.)

A juicy inside look at the meteoric rise and fall of an ambitious young art dealer. In this debut book, Whitfield recounts how he met Inigo Philbrick in art school at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2006. Years before, Philbrick had cunningly parlayed an internship at the prestigious White Cube gallery into his own multimillion-dollar transatlantic art dealership. The author engagingly chronicles his friend's ability to "inveigl[e] himself into the upper echelons" of the art world, trading in blue-chip art and treating the market "like a quantitative analyst." Eventually, the cocksure operator went from simply flouting ethical boundaries to breaking legal ones, double-selling artworks and creating false value. In 2022, he was convicted of $86 million in fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison. Whitfield calls himself Nick Carraway to Philbrick's Jay Gatsby, and this glimpse into the art world of the super wealthy, "commerce dressed up as culture," helps make his tale compulsively readable. The author broadens his critique from that of one unscrupulous player to the whole system of the modern art market, with its lack of regulations and transparency, used by collectors as a "portable way to park money," their artworks "easily stored in tax havens like Switzerland to avoid the prying eyes of, say, divorce lawyers or tax inspectors." Whitfield firmly indicts the "ethically grey trading practices" cloaked in art world "discretion"--i.e., deliberate obfuscation--as the modus operandi of the international art market. With exceptional candor and insight, the author is a capable guide as he introduces readers to consequential artists, dealers, curators, art philosophers, and conservators, as well as the vast potential for mischief. If the art world's primary currency is access--to art, capital, and buzz--this insider's account offers readers an enticing entry. A self-described "failed art dealer" spills the tea on his captivating, insular world. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.