According to critics' reviews from the world's leading publications, The Swindlers' Gallery is a "charming, witty and irresistibly entertaining book" about the history of art. But its main advantage, and its difference from others, is not even this. The history of art that the author talks about is most likely little known even to its most knowledgeable connoisseurs. How is this possible? The secret is simple: both the most famous works of painting and sculpture, about which everyone seems to know everything, and the world-famous “contemporary art” objects still keep many secrets. One of them is the mystery of the path, sometimes difficult and full of adventures, that brought all these works from the creator’s workshop to the museum hall or gallery space where we are used to seeing them today. And even more so, few people know the names of people who, several centuries or decades ago, had the courage to set a price for now priceless masterpieces... or to elevate a dubious creation of a contemporary to the rank of masterpiece, earning for it the sum of half a dozen zeros. History of art from Philip Hook - British art critic, author world-famous "Breakfast at Sotheby's" and a long-time expert of the London branch of this auction house, this is a story of brilliant ingenuity and mad obsession, insatiable ambition, sophisticated cunning and inspired adventurism.