An Early Rave for the "Stuffed Shark" Book

I haven't gotten a copy myself yet, but it's rare to read a review of an art-market book that starts like this one. Richard Morrison, arts writer and chief music critic for the London Times writes:

If you read no other book about art in your life, read the one that's gripped me like a thriller for the past two days. Just published by Aurum Press, it's called "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark." And the first surprise is that its author, Don Thompson, is not an art specialist, but a Harvard economist.

Actually, I'm not surprised that he's not an art specialist, but Harvard might be surprised to learn that he's a Harvard economist: His curriculum vitae on his website at the School of Business at York University, Toronto, where he is professor emeritus of marketing, says that he was a senior visiting fellow in law and business administration at Harvard in 1970-71. He is not on Harvard's faculty.

This, as you may recall, is the tome (just published by Aurum Press, London) that alleges that Damien Hirst's share in the diamond skull, said to have been acquired for $100 million by an investment syndicate, was 24 percent.

Why is this such a must-read "book about art" (actually, more a book about money)?

Apparently what makes it so compelling is that it characterizes everyone in the contemporary artworld as jerks and shady operators. According to Morrison, Thompson "devastatingly exposes" the "brain dead, money-fixated world of modern art." He talks about art-market machinations that, in Morrison's words, "would make a dodgy Essex secondhand car-dealer gasp with admiration," and suggests that the art itself is "all a big con."

I guess we should all find something else to get involved in---perhaps "Heileman Dumping of Beer in British Columbia," the subject of one of his technical reports. Still, I'm sure we will find some interesting dirt uncovered in this exposé.

But Don, is that shark really "stuffed"? I had always thought it was pickled.