Fake: Forgery, Lies & eBay by Kenneth Walton

Fake: Forgery, Lies & eBay by Kenneth Walton

During the golden age of eBay, before the dot-com crash, thousands of gullible, optimistic bidders went online in droves, ready to spend cash on unseen paintings they hoped might be by well known artists. An unpoliced marketplace where millions of dollars changed hands every week, eBay was the perfect place for con artists to practice their craft. Ripped from the headlines of the New York Times, Fake takes readers from the innocent beginnings of Ken Walton's online art-trading hobby to the federal felony conviction that would rock the eBay universe. It's a fascinating true account set against the most active - and most treacherous - art market in the world, and populated by unforgettable characters, including the master manipulator who showed Walton how easily big bucks could be swindled from naive bidders, the wealthy Dutch software tycoon who bought hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of unvetted art on eBay, and the dealer whose avarice led him to participate in a massive scam. In a riveting narrative shaded with honesty and regret, Walton recounts the events that turned him from a low-profile lawyer into an Internet fraudster without a conscience, and he provides a captivating commentary on the e-marketplace, the art world and human greed.

'It lies somewhere between a thriller, an addict's memoir and a techie's journey to the dark side..[And] while the book is entertainingly written, it does raise some serious questions.' -- Dan Glaister G2, GUARDIAN (2.8.06) 'Walton's account of how he fell into Fetterman's venal ways is a fast-paced and readable mea culpa...There is genuine tension in his telling of his undoing when he forged a painting as being by the US abstract artist Richard Diebenkorn.' FINANCIAL TIMES MAGAZINE (5/6 August 2006) 'this account of how his appalling-sounding former army acquaintance Fetterman dragged him into an ever-increasing mire if lies, deceit and forged bidding is...gripping.' NEW STATESMAN (28.8.06) 'He writes with pace, style and tension - everything a crime story needs...The slow, unfolding of his crime makes tense reading.' -- Frances Spalding SUNDAY TIMES (27.8.06) 'A strangely compelling, breezily told tale of a world in which everyone is driven by pure greed.' -- Steven Poole GUARDIAN (16.9.06)

Kenneth Walton was a lawyer until he became an eBay art trader in December 1998. Over time his online sales tactics grew increasingly fraudulent, culminating in the $135,858 sale of a forged Richard Diebenkorn painting in May 2000. The story of this infamous auction, first broken by an investigative report published in the New York Times, ultimately resulted in his prosecution by the federal government for placing shill bids. He was sentenced in June 2004 and now lives in Sacramento, California.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780297851882
ISBN 10	0297851888
Titel	Fake: Forgery, Lies & eBay
Autor	Kenneth Walton
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Orion Publishing Co
Erscheinungsjahr	2006-08-03
Seitenanzahl	304
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.