Lords and Liars

Rarely is the impenetrable barrier that surrounds the super rich and their rarified business breached beyond the protection of their lawyers. Christopher Mason realised the sudden prospect of change when in 1997 it was announced during the charity sale of dresses by Diana, Princess of Wales, that Sotheby's and Christie's were being investigated in Britain and the US. The secretive customs of these venerable English institutions and their society were to be examined against the bright light of public interest. Brilliantly reported, Christopher Mason tells for the first time the full story of the scandal that relieved many of the world's aristocrats and plutocrats of hundreds of millions, and sent one of the world's billionaires to gaol. His story is peopled with a Trollopian array of titles, as well as larger-than-life-characters such as shoe-salesman turned tycoon Al Taubman. Based on court materials and extensive meetings with 400 participants in over 2400 interviews, Christopher Mason investigates what really happened behind the thin veneer of respectability. He persuaded key players to speak frankly for the first time. Full of new revelations, such as the fact that the antecedents of the scandal lay in 1975, Lords and Liars weaves all the contradictory statements into an unforgettable narrative - a riveting portrait of class, ambition, excess, and Old Etonians behaving badly.