Chapter 16: Noblesse Oblige, or Not!
Orrock’s gilt-embossed bindings
In young Canada, the work ethic was ablaze. It was not so much who you knew, but what you were able to accomplish by due diligence.
American squillionaires—Morgan, Mellon, Frick, Rockefeller—had reshaped the art world. They bought from Duveen and Berenson, creating institutions that eventually overgrew private interests.
The individual joy of collecting was given over to the institutional museum. The art world would never be the same.
This is an excerpt. Read the full chapter in Art World’s Dirty Little Secret.