Article: Duveen: a Life in Art: Meryle Secrest's biography of Joseph Duveen lamentably pulls its punches.(Book Review)

Meryle Secrest Alfred A. Knopf, New York $35.00

ISBN 0 375 41042 2

A biography of the art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen, a man 'as predatory as any of the big carnivores of the jungle', a visit from whom was 'like drinking champagne', ought to be a real treat. A millionaire, with galleries in London, Paris and New York, he was created Lord Duveen of Millbank in 1933. Ruthless, infuriating, tactless, devious, generous and fun, he inspired loyalty and hatred in equal parts; he won clients as guarded and wary as Calouste Gulbenkian and Andrew Mellon, retained the same close team around him all his life, and was adored by his only child, yet he ruthlessly ousted ...

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