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book cover for The Devil Wears Rothko

The Devil Wears Rothko

Inside the Art Scandal that Rocked the World

Narrated by Barry Avrich

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Pub Date Jun 10 2025 | Archive Date Jul 14 2025
RBmedia | Recorded Books

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Description

The Devil Wears Rothko charts the explosive demise of Knoedler Gallery, one of New York’s oldest and most prestigious art galleries, with detailed and salacious insight into the art fraud scandal of the century.

From the moment an eccentric woman walked into the Knoedler Gallery with a Mark Rothko painting, everyone was fooled. For the next ten years, she ran an $80 million forgery ring, selling or consigning forty expertly crafted counterfeits claimed to be the works of Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and others.

Director of the acclaimed documentary Made You Look (2020) streamed on Netflix, Barry Avrich reveals new information, evidence, and inside stories about how a quixotic art dealer, master forger, and two cunning con artists managed to fool billionaire art collectors, journalists, and esteemed art appraisers. By the time the house of cards finally fell, the Knoedler Gallery and a dozen collectors had been tricked into buying over $80 million in fake art.

Could it happen again? The Devil Wears Rothko exposes the art world as a fragile system of relationships vulnerable to manipulation by the most captivating artists of our time: con artists.

The Devil Wears Rothko charts the explosive demise of Knoedler Gallery, one of New York’s oldest and most prestigious art galleries, with detailed and salacious insight into the art fraud scandal of...


Advance Praise

“This book is both a scholarly and deliciously gossipy companion to Avrich’s fascinating movie on the biggest art fraud of the 20th century. It chronicles a riveting cast of scoundrels, dupes, and billionaires through the scandal that shook the art market and shuttered the venerable Knoedler Gallery after more than a century. It is a fascinating history wrapped around a great con—essential reading to understand not only the crazy art market but the true nature of greed and gullibility. A great read.” —Jane Stanton Hitchcock, New York Times bestselling author, playwright, and screenwriter

“The Devil Wears Rothko is a breezy, gossipy tale about greed and gullibility in the world of great art, a world as shadowed by fraud as the canyons of Wall Street—and a world that documentary maestro Barry Avrich knows as well as an artist knows a favorite canvas. The vivid characters who sashay through this story lend a new dimension to the term "rogue's gallery.” —Diana B. Henriques, New York Times journalist and author of The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust

“The Devil Wears Rothko is a deep dive into a fascinating story of greed and duplicity in the art. A must-read for those interested in true crime, art forgery and the lines people will cross to get what they want.” —B.A. Shapiro, New York Times best-selling author of The Art Forger


“This book is both a scholarly and deliciously gossipy companion to Avrich’s fascinating movie on the biggest art fraud of the 20th century. It chronicles a riveting cast of scoundrels, dupes, and...


Available Editions

EDITION Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN 9798896798385
PRICE $24.99 (USD)
DURATION 9 Hours, 4 Minutes

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