This “expert and elegantly written” book reveals how dealers have been a major force in art history from the Renaissance to the avant garde (The Guardian, UK). Philip Hook’s riveting narrative takes us from the early days of art dealing in Antwerp, where paintings were sold by weight, to the unassailable hauteur of contemporary galleries in New York, London, Paris, and beyond. Along the way, we meet a surprisingly wide-ranging cast of characters—from tailors, spies, and the occasional anarchist to scholars, aristocrats, and connoisseurs, some compelled by greed, some by their own vision of art—and some by the art of the deal. Among them are Joseph Duveen, who almost single-handedly brought the Old Masters to America; Paul Durand-Ruel, the Impressionists’ champion; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, high priest of Cubism; Leo Castelli, dealer-midwife to Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art; and Peter Wilson, the charismatic Sotheby’s chairman who made a theater of the auction room. Full of unforgettable anecdotes and astute insight, Rogue’s Gallery offers “a front-row seat and a backstage pass to this arcane and obsessively secretive profession” (Hannah Rothschild, Mail on Sunday, UK).
From the beginnings of big-city police work to the rise of the Mafia, Rogues' Gallery is a colorful and captivating history of crime and punishment in the bustling streets of Old New York. Rogues' Gallery is a sweeping, epic tale of two revolutions, one feeding off the other, that played out on the streets of New York City during an era known as the Gilded Age. For centuries, New York had been a haven of crime. A thief or murderer not caught in the act nearly always got away. But in the early 1870s, an Irish cop by the name of Thomas Byrnes developed new ways to catch criminals. Mug shots and daily lineups helped witnesses point out culprits; the famed rogues' gallery allowed police to track repeat offenders; and the third-degree interrogation method induced recalcitrant crooks to confess. Byrnes worked cases methodically, interviewing witnesses, analyzing crime scenes, and developing theories that helped close the books on previously unsolvable crimes. Yet as policing became ever more specialized and efficient, crime itself began to change. Robberies became bolder and more elaborate, murders grew more ruthless and macabre, and the street gangs of old transformed into hierarchal criminal enterprises, giving birth to organized crime, including the Mafia. As the decades unfolded, corrupt cops and clever criminals at times blurred together, giving way to waves of police reform at the hands of men like Theodore Roosevelt. This is a tale of unforgettable characters: Marm Mandelbaum, a matronly German-immigrant woman who paid off cops and politicians to protect her empire of fencing stolen goods; "Clubber" Williams, a sadistic policeman who wielded a twenty-six-inch club against suspects, whether they were guilty or not; Danny Driscoll, the murderous leader of the Irish Whyos Gang and perhaps the first crime boss of New York; Big Tim Sullivan, the corrupt Tammany Hall politician who shielded the Whyos from the law; the suave Italian Paul Kelly and the thuggish Jewish gang leader Monk Eastman, whose rival crews engaged in brawls and gunfights all over the Lower East Side; and Joe Petrosino, a Sicilian-born detective who brilliantly pursued early Mafioso and Black Hand extortionists until a fateful trip back to his native Italy. Set against the backdrop of New York's Gilded Age, with its extremes of plutocratic wealth, tenement poverty, and rising social unrest, Rogues' Gallery is a fascinating story of the origins of modern policing and organized crime in an eventful era with echoes for our own time.
“Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.” With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park, Gross pulls back the shades of secrecy that have long shrouded the upper class’s cultural and philanthropic ambitions and maneuvers. And he paints a revealing portrait of a previously hidden face of American wealth and power. The Metropolitan, Gross writes, “is a huge alchemical experiment, turning the worst of man’s attributes—extravagance, lust, gluttony, acquisitiveness, envy, avarice, greed, egotism, and pride—into the very best, transmuting deadly sins into priceless treasure.” The book covers the entire 138-year history of the Met, focusing on the museum’s most colorful characters. Opening with the lame-duck director Philippe de Montebello, the museum’s longest-serving leader who finally stepped down in 2008, Rogues’ Gallery then goes back to the very beginning, highlighting, among many others: the first director, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, an Italian-born epic phony, whose legacy is a trove of plundered ancient relics, some of which remain on display today; John Pierpont Morgan, the greatest capitalist and art collector of his day, who turned the museum from the plaything of a handful of rich amateurs into a professional operation dedicated, sort of, to the public good; John D. Rockefeller Jr., who never served the Met in any official capacity but who, during the Great Depression, proved the only man willing and rich enough to be its benefactor, which made him its behind-the-scenes puppeteer; the controversial Thomas Hoving, whose tenure as director during the sixties and seventies revolutionized museums around the world but left the Met in chaos; and Jane Engelhard and Annette de la Renta, a mother-daughter trustee tag team whose stories will astonish you (think Casablanca rewritten by Edith Wharton). With a supporting cast that includes artists, forgers, and looters, financial geniuses and scoundrels, museum officers (like its chairman Arthur Amory Houghton, head of Corning Glass, who once ripped apart a priceless and ancient Islamic book in order to sell it off piecemeal), trustees (like Jayne Wrightsman, the Hollywood party girl turned society grand dame), curators (like the aging Dietrich von Bothmer, a refugee from Nazi Germany with a Bronze Star for heroism whose greatest acquisitions turned out to be looted), and donors (like Irwin Untermyer, whose collecting obsession drove his wife and children to suicide), and with cameo appearances by everyone from Vogue editors Anna Wintour and Diana Vreeland to Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten, Rogues’ Gallery is a rich, satisfying, alternately hilarious and horrifying look at America’s upper class, and what is perhaps its greatest creation.
Ten magnetic characters. Ten bizarre, explosive, and darkly humorous stories. This collection of monologues from the imagination of Pulitzer Prize-winning John Patrick Shanley delves into the allure of bad behavior and the absurdity of being human. UNKNOWN CALLER. “Where was the ring? I stared at the open box.” After a doomed proposal and a night of heavy drinking, a would-be fiancé wakes to a hangover and a missing engagement ring. A phone call from a stranger may hold the key to its whereabouts—and an opportunity for a fresh start. (1 man.) DRIVE. “He looked at me like I was an unexpected problem, like the day had been going fine, and I ruined it.” A cabaret singer does not like the janitor at her club, and the feeling is mutual. As she struggles to find authenticity in her performances, a sudden event brings inspiration. (1 woman.) GAUCHO. “He did not realize the kind of man I was, and that he was in danger.” An aggrieved descendant of the gauchos of Argentina seeks revenge on the man who seduced his wife. (1 man.) ARTIFICIAL LEG. “Who leaves a leg?” A homeowner struggles to dispose of the prosthetic limb he discovered in the basement of his new townhouse. (1 man.) DITTO. “I’m scared to death.” A journalist becomes infatuated with a writer, leaving her fiancé behind and diving headfirst into a blissful romance. But when a friend reaches out with an unsettling discovery, she uncovers the strange truth about her new relationship—and herself. (1 woman.) THE ACUPUNCTURIST. “She was exceptionally good at finding pain.” A patient switches acupuncturists after their practitioner starts to believe he has magical powers. (1 n/s.) THE CLERICAL LINE. “It is not enough to foresee a fashion. One must have courage.” A wealthy bachelor collaborates with Burberry to create a wardrobe of priest’s clothing—a uniform he deems most reflective of his soul and status. (1 man.) I WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. “I’m the fascinating one. We both know that. I’m the one a movie star would want to play.” A Bronx food cart owner and teller of tall tales bides his time until the woman he loves realizes how exceptional he is. (1 man.) LOCKDOWN. “I hate him, but I can’t leave the puppy.” During a global epidemic, a quarantined woman slips away from her boyfriend to call her lover. (1 woman.) THE CHOREOGRAPHER’S HAND. “The best way to get away with murder is don’t talk about it, and I never have.” In this longer piece, a pianist prone to visions unravels the curious sequence of events that pushed him to kill. (1 man.)
"Wally West may be the Fastest Man Alive, but even he has trouble keeping up with all the changes in his life. When his interdimensional pal Chunk is wounded, a terrifying black hole is unleashed, forcing the Flash to run against the vortex to save not only his friend but all of Keystone City. Meanwhile, two of the oldest members of his rogues gallery, Captain Cold and Mirror Master, begin laying the foundation for their deadliest gambit yet. Complicating his life, the Flash must also contend with the Plunderer, a man with a serious grudge against the Scarlet Speedster, an enraged Gorilla Grodd, and a seeming betrayal of trust by the Pied Piper. But the most formidable player in the Flash saga, could be Julie Jackam’s illegitimate child, Josh. Has one of Wally’s past relationships come back to haunt him?" -- Back cover
Light the Bat-Signal, because Detective Comics #1027 is here! In honor of Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27, this special, book-size celebration brings you the biggest names in comics as they chronicle the most epic Batman adventures Gotham City and the DC Universe have ever seen! The World’s Greatest Detective has a mountain of cases to crack: Who murdered Gotham’s most corrupt police officer? What does The Joker’s annual visit mean for Bruce Wayne? And most importantly, what WayneTech mystery will sow the seeds of the next epic Batman event? All this and more await you within the pages of the biggest Batman issue of them all!
Rogues Gallery collects super-villains from Green Ronin's popular online series, with the addition of new material and never-before-seen characters. It has dozens of fearsome foes for your Mutants & Masterminds series, enough to keep your heroes busy stopping schemes and saving the world for quite some time! In its pages you will find solo and loner villains, teams and alliances, organizations and outliers, and bad guys of many different power levels, backgrounds, and styles, suited for different M&M series, all with complete game information. Plus each villain comes with ready-made adventure hooks, making the book a collection of more than a hundred possible adventures as well!
Simon Hoggart's fans know him as the wittiest of all writers on Parliament. For thousands of people, his daily column in the Guardian is the kick-start they need in the morning. This wildly funny new collection captures the high drama, the low farce, the soap opera and the situation comedy that the Mother of Parliaments is host to every day. It's the column that the MPs turn to first, hoping to catch their friends and rivals and terrified of finding themselves. Read about Tony Blair, Ian Duncan Smith, Gordon Brown, Ian Widdicombe, Nicholas Soames and, of course, Michael Fabricant, The Brighton disc jockey who went on to become Britain's best-loved hair replacement victim. Playing to the Gallery confirms Simon Hoggart as Britain's most consistently sharp and entertaining writer on parliament.
