3.5 stars

After thoroughly enjoying The Art Thief by Michael Finkel this book looked to be another taste of the same niche world. It is, although it took a more firm seat in the observer’s perspective. The actual crimes committed were no less brazen but took place behind in the secrecy of balance sheets. In short I enjoyed All That Glitters but it didn’t live up to the (unfair I admit) comparison I walked in with to that of Michael Finkel’s work.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of the pitfalls of writing nonfiction about scammers is that there are two types of people who meet the definition of a scammer: true masterminds, and desperate, greedy fools.

The former is far less common and the one that actually makes a worthy subject for a book. The latter is all too easy to find, and not especially interesting to read about. Audacity isn’t a rare trait and isn’t in and of itself particularly interesting, and that’s the flaw in All That Glitters; Its villain just isn’t worthy of the sobriquet.

Whitfield is a lovely writer, but his subject frankly didn’t deserve to have this much ink spilled on his exploits, which weren’t especially clever or intriguing. He’s just one more greedy person who thinks the rules will never apply to him, which is, quite frankly, boring.

There’s not much real art content here, and the book focuses more on the relationship between the writer and the scammer, which, while I feel sorry for Whitfield, is an inherent problem with scammer books being written by their victims. It generally winds up being more about the victims wounded feelings and ego than the scam itself. And while you can appreciate why Whitfield would feel the way he does, it doesn’t make for worthy reading.

As previously mentioned, Whitfield is a lovely writer. I wish he would put those talents toward a more worthy subject.

I liked the insight into the art fraud world and the writing was propulsive. I would read more from this author.

I was intrigued by the summary and wanted to like this book, but found myself very bored by all of the privilege and pretensions. As another reviewer said, "it all felt so manufactured." There are better books about fraud and the art world out there.

My rudimentary understanding of the art world coupled with thoughtful prose led me to believe, incorrectly, that “All That Glitters” was a literary novel. It took a modicum of research to discover that Inigo Philbrick is, indeed, an infamous fugitive art dealer who was hunted down to Vanuatu, a remote Pacific island, where he and his pregnant girlfriend had fled. He was arrested by the FBI and extradited to America, where he was convicted in May 2022 and sentenced to seven years in prison for having committed more than $86 million in fraud.

The tale opens in February of 2018 when Whitfield wakes up in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in London on suicide watch. He had grown up around the art market (his father “had been an auctioneer at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s”), but he blames his crumbling personal life on his career as a “bottom-rung” art dealer with the incessant traveling the career demanded explaining, however, that the “real poison” were “the lies, one-upmanship, trophy-touting and greed that the industry runs on.”

Whitfield’s friend, Philbrick, had created a multi-million dollar transatlantic art empire, but in October of 2019, he was accused of defrauding collectors, investors and lenders of millions of dollars. Philbrick vanished after shuttering his galleries in Miami and London, but the friends remained in contact with Whitfield trying to deduce the latter’s whereabouts from the timings of the messages and the photos that he sent.

The two men met in 2006 when they were both students at London Goldsmith’s University. Philbrick had grown up in a family that was deeply rooted in the world of contemporary art, and Whitfield was drawn to his confidence and dealmaking skills. Whitfield had never had a friend like Inigo “someone to discuss books and films and art and music with in an unabashedly earnest fashion.” But Whitfield questioned why the charismatic Philbrick was interested in forging a friendship with him (an uncertainty that he wrestled with throughout their relationship).

The duo had some early success as art dealers, but Philbrick’s ambition and confidence far exceeded Whitfield’s. Within two years of graduation, Philbrick had opened his own gallery with backing from a world-renowned art dealer while Whitfield was toiling in publishing. Although Whitfield returned to art, first as an employee of Philbrick’s and, later, opening a primary market gallery, Ingio’s fortunes soared, until he crashed and burned.

Whitfield has crafted a book that is dishy and propulsive (it has been optioned by HBO). He drops names of the luminaries in the art world, and provides an insider’s account of the gallerists, dealers, advisors, archivist, curators, and wealthy collectors who inhabit the unregulated art market. As Whitfield explains the industry, “It’s a business done really well by real bastards.” This may not be a rigorous account of art world controversies, but it kept me riveted. Thank you Pantheon and Net Galley for this compulsive tale of ambition and greed set in the glittering world of contemporary art.

So I guess the male equivalent of girlbossing too close to the sun is called tomfoolery.
Really enjoyed this book! Well written, very engaging, insightful. Definitely helps if you're interested in the art world because logistics and explanations abound (interesting logistics and explanations, mind you), but I would highly recommend this to the right audience.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Memoirs about the art world, particularly ones that involve crime, are a particular favorite of mine, so I was very excited to read Orlando Whitfield's memoir ALL THAT GLITTERS. Whitfield met the now-disgraced, but once wunder-kind of art dealers, Inigo Philbrick, while both were in college studying art history. After a short stint running I&O Fine Art while they were students, the pair drifted apart in the art world. Philbrick rose ever higher in the ranks of art dealers, but the article titled "Too much too young" in the Art Newspaper in the fall of 2011 may have been prophetic. While the "too much too young" opinion was leveled at the frantic pace of astronomical secondary sales of art work by young artists at auction, the newspaper specifically mentions Philbrick as one of the more active dealers working in this potentially damaging field.

Throughout the memoir, the image of Philbrick as an art world version of Icarus sets the tone. That image even graces the cover. But the memoir is purportedly about Philbrick's relationship with the author, at first fast friends, then increasingly distant, sometimes deceitful, always beguiling. Whitfield began writing the memoir when Philbrick reached out to him when the latter was in hiding from the authorities, sending the author copious documents to back up his version of events.

What began as a "collaboration,...ended as an exorcism," according to an interview with Whitfield in The Guardian.(April 17, 2024). Increasingly aware of just how duped he had been by his friend, Whitfield begins wondering how well he actually knew Philbrick. These questions about the true nature of their friendship and how well the author knew his ostensible subject only emerge late in the memoir, but passages where Whitfield recounts events he couldn't actually know about first-hand crop up repeatedly in the narrative, raising similar questions for the reader. Nonetheless, ALL THAT GLITTERS is a well-written, engaging story about the art world and about the lure of the con man.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the chance to read an advance review copy.

Thank you for the ARC! I really enjoyed this memoir. One of the things I found most interesting was the relationship between the author and Inigo, specifically in the trust Inigo has in him and the way they built their friendship even when he was a wanted man. I found it fascinating that the author was a person that Inigo didn’t want to cut ties too knowing that there was a chance he could be found out. I’ve always loved art crime bios/memoirs and this is at the top of that list.

I was intrigued by this, but I don’t think it felt real. You know it’s supposed to be a true story, but everyone seemed fake. Like why would you trust any of these people? They were insufferable and obvious liars. I guess what happened, happened but it all felt so manufactured and the style was really pretentious. I never felt like I actually learned the truth.

well written fraud true crime of the same sort as many others. but its great. art swindler! very interesting. thanks for the arc