The Supermodel and the Brillo Box

Don Thompson examines how the Crash of 2008 changed the contemporary art market, and how the major auction houses and dealers adjusted their methods. Buying such art, he argues, is about passion but also about branding, back stories, money, status and sometimes celebrity. Stories from dealers, auction house insiders and former executives of each range from New York and London to Beijing and Abu Dhabi. They include a wax sculpture of supermodel Stephanie Seymour by Maurizio Cattelan, sold to collector Jose Mugrabi for $2.4 million, and a wooden Brillo box that fetched $722,500. He also covers the dominance of Christie's and Sotheby's and new museums in Dubai and Beijing. The book follows his bestseller The $12 Million Stuffed Shark.

Gallery owner Pilar Ordovas said she could not put it down and enjoyed seeing a world she knows well from a different perspective. Sergey Skaterschikov of Skate's Art Market Research praised its look inside the workings of the art trade.