The modern art market was born on a single night. On 15 October 1958 Sotheby-s of Bond Street staged an -event sale- of Impressionist paintings from the collection of an American banker, Erwin Goldschmidt: three Manets, two C-nnes, one Van Gogh and a Renoir. Movie stars and other celebrities attended in black tie and saw the seven lots go for -781,000 - at the time the highest price for a single art sale. Overnight, London became the world centre of the art market and Sotheby-s an international auction house. The event signalled a shift in power from dealers to auctioneers and pointed the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years. In this climate Sotheby-s and Christie-s became a great business duopoly - as aggressive, dominant and competitive in the field of art sales as Pepsi and Coca-Cola were in soft drinks. The resulting expansion of the market was accompanied by rocketing prices, colourful scandals and legal dramas. Over the decades, London t
