Dali & I

An extraordinary memoir of fortune, fraud, and the master of modern art

Art dealer Stan Lauryssens made millions in modern art, but he sold only one name: Salvador Dalí. The surrealist painter’s work was a hot commodity for the newly rich, investors, and shady businessmen looking to launder their black-market cash. Stan didn’t mind looking the other way; he just hoped the buyers would look the other way as well. The artworks he sold came from some very questionable sources, but he soon discovered that the shadiest source of all was Dalí himself.

 The more successful Stan became, the closer he came to Dalí, until he found himself living next door to the aging artist, in the Catalonian hills. While hiding from Interpol’s detectives, Stan spent his time with the artists, musicians, business associates, and eccentrics who surrounded Dalí. He learned about Dalí’s secret history, the studio of artists who produced his work, and the moneymaking machine that kept Dalí’s extravagant lifestyle afloat long after his creativity began to flounder.

 Dalí & I offers a behind-the-scenes view of the commerce and conspiracy that go hand in hand in the international art world, written by a man who has been to the top only to discover that it’s not so different from the bottom.

“The art market is a dark circus of hope and deceit. Lauryssens provides us with an intimate portrait of Dalí, its mustachioed ringmaster: as eccentric as he is ingenious, as manipulative as he is fascinating.”---Noah Charney, author of The Art Thief

“A highly readable blend of memoir and picaresque, Stan Lauryssens’s book explores the differences between the genuine and the bogus, not only in the business of art, but more important, in human relationships.”---James Sexton, editor of Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley