A true-life thriller completely exposes the network behind the illegal trade in ancient artifacts--and features a rich cast of rogues and some of the world's most prestigious art institutions

The story begins, as stories do in all good thrillers, with a botched robbery and a police chase. Eight Apuleian vases of the fourth century B.C. are discovered in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. More valuable than the recovery of the vases, however, is the discovery of the smuggler's card index detailing his deals and dealers. It reveals the existence of a web of tombaroli-tomb raiders-who steal classical artifacts, and a network of dealers and smugglers who spirit them out of Italy and into the hands of wealthy collectors and museums.

Peter Watson, a former investigative journalist for the London Sunday Times and author of two previous exposes of art world scandals, names the key figures in this network that has depleted Europe's classical artifacts. Among the loot are the irreplaceable and highly collectable vases of Euphronius, the equivalent in their field of the sculpture of Bernini or the painting of Michelangelo. The narrative leads to the doors of some major institutions: Sothebys, the Getty Museum in L.A., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York among them.

Filled with great characters and human drama, The Medici Conspiracy authoritatively exposes another shameful round in one of the oldest games in the world: theft, smuggling and duplicitous dealing, all in the name of art.

彼得·沃森，1943年生，就讀於倫敦和羅馬的達勒姆大學。《今日種族》雜誌創辦人和主編，《新社會》雜誌的副主編，他既給《泰晤士報》、《紐約時報》、《觀察傢》這樣的主流報刊當過記者、寫過專欄、也為《旁觀者》、《笨拙》這樣的流行雜誌撰稿，還做過藝術電視片的製作人。1998年起任劍橋大學麥剋唐納考古研究所研究員。主要著作有<20世紀思想史>

塞西莉亞·托德斯基尼(Cecilia Todeschini)，研究員、翻譯及英國廣播公司、意大利電視颱、美國哥倫比亞廣播公司、美國廣播公司、加拿大廣播公司等多傢媒體撰稿人。