Remembering Tom Hoving

We were sad to learn thatTom Hovingpassed away today. The former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was an art world insider, an expert on art fraud and forgery, and one of thebest storytellersto come by our studio.

Hoving was our go-to guy when art scandals bubbled up. Last year we tracked him down on a kayaking vacation when hundreds of federal agents swooped down on art collections and museums California with warrants for looted and smuggled art.

His uncanny ability to identify a fake ancient Greek sculpture made him the star of the opening story in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. But Hoving admitted to getting taken too. ‘If you don’t get fooled you’re not doing your right job as a collector…Need, speed, and greed is why you get stung.’