The Art Of The Backstab

When U.S. prosecutors indicted Sotheby's and Christie's, the country's pre-eminent auction houses, in a price-fixing scheme earlier this year, observers were giddy at the prospect of watching the high-toned lead players testify against each other in court. Last week Diana Brooks, Sotheby's elegant, blond ex-president, who was once considered the most powerful woman in the art world, did not disappoint. Brooks, who pleaded guilty last year to antitrust conspiracy and agreed to testify for the government, charged that her former boss, A. Alfred Taubman, was behind the plan that allegedly bilked patrons out of tens of millions over six years. Among...

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