The Medici Conspiracy

Overview

Their names are splashed all over the newspapers: Marion True, Robert Hecht, Giacomo Medici. The Medici Conspiracy tells the complete history behind the headlines. The story begins with a botched robbery and a police chase. Eight ancient vases are discovered in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. More valuable than the recovery of the vases, however, is the discovery of the smuggler's card index detailing his deals and dealers. It reveals the existence of a web of tomb raiders who steal classical artifacts, and a network of dealers and smugglers who spirit them out of Italy and into the hands of wealthy collectors and museums, including Sothebys, the Getty Museum in L.A., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now with a new chapter on the Greek scandal and fallout, The Medici Conspiracy authoritatively exposes another shameful round in one of the oldest games in the world: theft, smuggling and duplicitous dealing, all in the name of art.

Editorial Reviews

In light of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent decision to return a rare--and by the Italian government's contention, stolen--vase painted by the Greek master Euphronios, Watson and Todeschini's colorful account of Giacomo Medici, an antiquities dealer found guilty of looting last year, and his illegal business dealings, is wonderfully prescient. Making sense of a lengthy catalogue of legal, artistic and forensic documentation, the authors meticulously map out Medici's underground network of middlemen and tombaroli, or tomb robbers, and link them to corrupt dealers such as Robin Symes as well as to established cultural institutions including Sotheby's, the John Paul Getty Museum and the Met--asserting that Medici supplied most, if not all, of the major collections of classical antiquities that have been established since WWII. Though Watson (Sotheby's: The Inside Story) and Todeschini often become overly indignant when decrying their story's villains and frequently bog down the narrative with long-winded dialogue and paper trail excerpts, they are at their best when chronicling the international adventures of various investigators, such as the Carabinieri Art Squad's raids on various Italian criminals to recover lost loot. (May)
Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Peter Watson

Peter Watson is the author of thirteen books, including The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. He is a research associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. He lives in London, England.

Bio of Cecilia Todeschini

No bio available for Cecilia Todeschini.

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Additional Info

Imprint

PublicAffairs

Filesize

7.30 MB

Number of Pages

407

eBook ISBN

9781586485405