The Art Detective, reviewed by Barbara Lehtiniemi

I have only passing interest  in, and knowledge about, art.  And that’s all I needed to enjoy English art dealer Philip Mould’s 2009 book, The Art Detective:  Fakes, Frauds and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures.  

In The Art Detective, Mould tracks down several trails of lost, faked, and/or rediscovered masterpieces of art.  Each of the book’s six chapters focuses on one artwork, which include pieces by Gainsborough, Rembrandt, Winslow Homer, and Norman Rockwell.  

As Mould spins out each story, the reader is introduced to the art-collecting world, including art dealers, restorers, brokers, auction houses, galleries, and delightfully eccentric art owners and collectors.  The action takes the reader to London, Paris, New York, the north of England, and the backwoods of Vermont.

Each artwork’s tale reads like a detective story, with millions of dollars riding on the outcome.  I found it difficult to put down the book until I had reached the end of each chapter.  (My favourite chapter was “The Norman Rockwell Hoax”, which features both a convincing fake and the temporarily-lost original of a famous Rockwell painting, Breaking Home Ties.)

Mould makes regular appearances on Antiques Roadshow, and also co-hosts the BBC program Fake or Fortune?.  I only recently heard of him when I came across his pandemic-era Youtube series, Art in Isolation.  Whether in video or on the page, Mould has an engaging, exuberant style.

I read The Art Detective as an ebook, which was sadly lacking illustrations but still a great read.  Presumably a hard-copy edition would include full-colour illustrations of the works being discussed.  Available in ebook and audiobook formats through SDG Library’s CloudLibrary service.