This volume brings to life the personalities and shrewd business sense that operate behind the glitz and glamour of the world's oldest and richest auction house. Reporting from within on famous sales and charting the contribution of the succession of entrepreneurs who have known how to read the winds of economic change to sniff out the deals of the moment, Robert Lacey shows how Sotheby's responds to a much greater need than that of connoisseurs buying works of art: the bidding for class.