”Just when I think I’ve taken this whole bloody business too seriously and my anger is misplaced and puerile,something happens to set me off again. After 40 years in the business I have a reference library of over five hundred art books. I was researching something the other day when, standing in front of my bookcase, I suddenly realised just how many Dictionaries, Biographies, slim monographs, Essays, and Magazine articles have been written by scholarly, passionate dealers obsessed with their subject. I started counting and quickly reached over a hundred. Now here’s the funny bit….I started looking for similar works written by artist’s descendants. I could hardly find any. Odd that! The clever folk at DACS are obviously right to believe that you can motivate anyone into becoming a manic archivist by telling them there’s money in it. The truth is that I doubt if any of the books I have made a profit for their authors. They were labours of love financed through dealing..which every artist, collector, critic, and curator knows is a thoroughly wicked and evil activity which must be taxed and regulated . “Any sign of life Dr. Watson? Is the patient still breathing ? Quick..more red tape!”
John Robertson
Posted on January 10, 2012 by Editors
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