Readers should be warned that Philip Mould is not principally a writer, although this book is a sequel to his Sleepers: In Search of Lost Old Masters (Fourth Estate, 1995). He is an art dealer and expert on The Antiques Roadshow. His text, as a result, needs editing (his worst fault is that he suffers from chronic adjectivitis), but the stories survive through his gusto for the chase.

There has been a sea change in art dealing since Mould’s last book. What took weeks, even months, of research can now be instantly found on the Internet. Scientific analysis has also become increasingly refined and easier to acquire. When Mould began dealing in the 1980s, to get