The Devil Wears Rothko

Inside the Art Scandal That Rocked the World

By: Barry Avrich

Narrated by: Barry Avrich

The Devil Wears Rothko charts the explosive demise of Knoedler Gallery, New York’s oldest and most prestigious art galleries with detailed and salacious insight into one of the world’s largest art frauds.

From the moment an eccentric woman walked into the Knoedler Gallery with a Mark Rothko painting, everyone was fooled. For the next ten years, she—along with a group out of Hollywood central casting—ran a $80 million forgery ring through Knoedler Gallery, selling or consigning forty expertly crafted counterfeits they claimed to be the works of Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, and others.

The acclaimed documentary, Made You Look (2020), attests to the explosive investigative work and storytelling of Avrich. The Devil Wears Rothko utilizes these talents all the more effectively, featuring new information, evidence, and inside stories on how an eccentric art dealer, master forger, and two cunning con artists managed to fool the world of art over a period of ten years. Among these individuals were billionaire art collectors, journalists, and esteemed art appraisers. By the time the house of cards finally fell, the Hammer family owned Knoedler Gallery and a dozen collectors had been conned into buying over $80 million in fake art.

As the world continues to be intrigued by this case, The Devil Wears Rothko exposes such an unimaginable cast of characters and villains that even Hollywood would struggle to invent.

©2025 Barry Avrich (P)2025 Recorded Books

Compelling true life art crime

If you are a lover of art crime books, this is a cover to cover must.

Lots of research, engaging narration and excellent questions asked, I found the book better than the film which is also a great work.

I thought about this book for ages after finishing it, which always means (for me) it was a good book.

For art world people

I am not one, particularly, but found it mostly interesting. I have friends with collections who would love it.

This is a wonderful companion book to the documentary Made You Look.

I liked the inside perspective on the documentary, and the art world. Its a very well researched book.

I Wanted to Love This More Than I Did

I was especially interested in this book because of a personal connection to the topic. My family once owned a painting that was later discovered to be connected to a larger theft operation involving a gallery employee moving between New York and Chicago. That experience made me especially curious about how these situations unfold.
The story surrounding the Knoedler Gallery and the scale of the fraud is fascinating. This wasn’t a quick scam—it was a long con that played out over years, built on trust, prestige, and the assumption that someone else had already vetted the work.
As an audiobook, having Barry Avrich narrate it himself works well—you can hear his enthusiasm for the subject, which helps keep you engaged. That said, this is a very information-dense listen. There are a lot of names, transactions, and connections, and at times I found myself thinking, wait… who sold what to whom and for how much?
Ann Freedman stood out the most to me, but many of the other figures—like Glafira Rosales and José Carlos Bergantiños Díaz—start to blur together simply because there’s so much information to track.
At one point, Avrich references The Art Thief, which I loved. That comparison really helped clarify my experience—The Art Thief felt more like a story with a central figure, while this leans more toward a documentary-style presentation: interesting and informative, but less immersive as a listening experience.
All in all, I’m glad I listened to this. It’s eye-opening and well-researched, especially if you’re interested in the art world, but the density made it harder to stay fully engaged from start to finish.
3 stars—strong subject and narration, but a bit dense for audio.

Title great. Story meandering mess

Narrator is grating I want my money back. Way too much hype I wanted the topic way too much cheese on that sandwich