The United States is a young nation. In contrast to the hundreds and thousands of years of accumulated history and art in Europe and Asia, the Americans had to start from scratch in building cultural institutions and collections. A big contribution to the great art institutions created in the United States was made by the robber barons of the 19th century. In contrast to many nouveaux riches today, the old US robber barons showed rather good taste and appreciation for the Old Masters (and disdain for most then contemporary art). Just at the moment when European nobles made their exit from the stage of history selling off their collections to the Americans (and also giving them their daughters in marriage, cf. Churchill), the American plutocrats were able and eager to spend big bucks for the big names of Rembrandt and Raphael. The US government then had a very effective 30% import duty on art master works. Every time a robber baron brought some treasure into America, he also contributed a good sum in taxes to the public purse - an excellent transaction tax.

This book offers nice vignettes of some of the art-stricken robber barons such as Henry Marquand, Pierpont Morgan, Harry Havemeyer and Isabella Stewart Granger as the lone woman among the pack with considerable but more limited means than the rest. In Europe, intermediaries were quick to service and fleece the new money. They had the expertise, the insider knowledge and the connections to uncover works that officially were not for sale but for the right price would be available for the journey across the Atlantic. The First World War ended the first gilded age. A follow-up on the next wave of Americans in Europe (of those palling around with F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 20s and 30s) would be a worthy task. ( )

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, wealthy Americans such as J Pierpont Morgan, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, and the Havemeyer family bought a lot of really wonderful old art from Europe. Changes in British tax laws and economic woes caused paintings that had been hanging in aristocratic houses for hundreds of years to go on the market in a large number. The wealthy Americans were looking to build up their personal collections and donate to museums (like the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Today the majority of the art is hanging in museums to be enjoyed by everyone.

Why this is called "a raid," I'm not sure. The paintings were all bought--not stolen--and the owners were paid well. Museums all over the world are full of art from other countries. Saltzman talks about this a few times as a simple fact, but doesn't explain why it's a problem.

This is a topic that I find interesting, but the book itself is disappointing. Meticulously researched, the author includes every detail imaginable about each stage of the negotiations. In doing so, she completely sacrifices the narrative. There are interesting bits throughout, but it reads in a very choppy way and is difficult to follow. It's a lot of minutia that doesn't add up to much. ( )

Divided into three parts. The first part, which is a set of biographies of American collectors, was interesting and contained a good synthesis of information. The second two parts about time periods of art dealing were not very good. They refer to the same collectors, dealers, and paintings as the first section, but are far less well told. Instead of splitting the book into sections, the author might have done better sticking with one cohesive narrative. However, if you are interested in the subject matter, the first section is quite good and offers a clear view of American collectors. But don't feel guilty skimming the last chunk of the book. ( )

interesting topic, occassionally hard to follow ( )