Provenance
How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art
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Provenance
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Narrated by:
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Marty Peterson
About this listen
Here is a tautly paced investigation of one the 20th century's most audacious art frauds, which generated hundreds of forgeries - many of them still hanging in prominent museums and private collections today. Provenance is the extraordinary narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate deceptions in art history. Investigative reporters Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo brilliantly recount the tale of a great con man and unforgettable villain, John Drewe, and his sometimes unwitting accomplices. Chief among those was the struggling artist John Myatt, a vulnerable single father who was manipulated by Drewe into becoming a prolific art forger. Once Myatt had painted the pieces, the real fraud began. Drewe managed to infiltrate the archives of the upper echelons of the British art world in order to fake the provenance of Myatt's forged pieces, hoping to irrevocably legitimize the fakes while effectively rewriting art history.
The story stretches from London to Paris to New York, from tony Manhattan art galleries to the esteemed Giacometti and Dubuffet associations, to the archives at the Tate Gallery. This enormous swindle resulted in the introduction of at least 200 forged paintings, some of them breathtakingly good and most of them selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of these fakes are still out in the world, considered genuine and hung prominently in private houses, large galleries, and prestigious museums. And the sacred archives, undermined by John Drewe, remain tainted to this day.
Provenance reads like a well-plotted thriller, filled with unforgettable characters and told at a breakneck pace. But this is most certainly not fiction; Provenance is the meticulously researched and captivating account of one of the greatest cons in the history of art forgery.
©2009 Laney Salisbury (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Provenance
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Daniel P.
- 03-06-20
Recommend by a friend, well worth it.
Really enjoyed this story even with the mono tone of the narrator.
Incredible insight into an next level con man and the art world.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- T Lewis
- 25-03-21
Amazing story, terrible narrator
I loved diving into this story. I knew most of John Myatt's role from attending the Scotland Yard forgeries exhibition years ago and watching Mastering the Art, but knew little about Drewe. What a horrible, fascinating yarn and a real admonishment of the state of the art world since the commodities boom of the 80s.
However, read this. Don't listen. The narrator is awful, a really overblown American with no clue how to pronounce basic British towns and counties. She could have at least bothered to research. I wanted to throw my phone every time she said StaffordSHEEEEEER. It is an appalling show.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- K. Gibson
- 26-05-11
Fascinating Tale
The story itself was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. The only thing that spoiled it for me were the narrator's persistent mispronunciations. Southwark to rhyme with South Fork for instance and really, clique rhymes with week not wick. A British narrator would have made much better sense for a story based in the UK.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tab
- 15-09-21
Brilliant
This is absolutely fascinating, a really gripping account of an astonishingly complex and far reaching con job. I have to say, I am a little surprised by the scathing reviews of the narration; I am very fussy about narrators, but this one wasn't as bad as everyone is making out. Okay, maybe it was a misstep to choose an American narrator for a British story, but she reads really well, and it didn't grate on me like it seems to have done with others. Don't let the reviews put you off this fantastic book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 16-03-16
Awful accent
An interesting and absorbing story but spoilt by the awful robotic, American accent and pronunciations
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Louise
- 07-11-19
Great story, but cringey narrator
fantastic story for anyone interested in the art world, however the narration was disappointing, with the American narrator mispronouncing London place names!!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- some guy
- 15-10-18
Ruined by narration
This is a good account of the case, my problem is the narrator is not right for the book.
This is a British story and I feel would have been much improved by a British accent telling the story.
It’s as wrong for me as using a British accent would be to narrate the story of Ken Perenyi the famous American art forger.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Celia 22
- 16-08-18
fascinating story RUINED by the performance
Where to start with this one ...
The true story of Drewe and Myatt's crimes are fascinating, one marvels at how they both got away with it for so long and how money talks if you are trying to impress.
Ruined by the reader - OK she's American so one expects the 'van Go's' and overdoing the pronunciation of French words which all sound odd to my British ears - but this gal goes beyond that - there is an automated quality to her voice, monotone even. The way she reads £110 as - pounds one hundred ten, instead of - a hundred and ten pounds, reminds one of the worst kind of 'read it' programmes on a smart phone.
Very hard going.
Take my advice, give this one a miss.
Buy the book instead.
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5 people found this helpful