Preview: Dark Side of the Boom

At the end of the year we'll be publishing Georgina Adam's second book with us, Dark Side of the Boom: The Excesses of the Art Market in the 21st Century. 

The book offers a timely investigation into the excesses at the top of the art market and its part in hidden global movements of capital. Adam's investigates the buying of art as an investment, temptations to commit forgery, tax evasion, money laundering and pressure to produce more and more art, as well as looking at the issues over authentication and the impact of the enhanced use of financial instruments on art transactions. Adam's revelations appear even timelier in the wake of the Panama Papers disclosures, for instance incorporating examples of the way tax havens have been used to stash art transactions - and ownership -away from public scrutiny. 

Yusaku Maezawa who spent $110 million on this Basquiat painting.

Image credit: @yusaku2020

Drawing on a series of revealing interviews with artists, lawyers, dealers, law-enforcement agents, tax specialists and collectors, Adam's charts the voracious commodification of artists and art objects, and art's position in the clandestine puzzle of the highest echelons of global capital. 

Dmitry Rybolovlev with Picasso watercolours 

Image credit: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images

Written in the same captivating style as her bestselling Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, Georgina Adam casts her judicious glance over a section of the art market whose controversies and intrigues will be of eye-opening interest to both art-world players and observers.