Art dealer Hugh Rhattigan is heavily in debt to Douglas Virgo, a freelance fixer for some of the most powerful banks and corporations in London. With little hope of repaying the debt, Hugh is coerced into establishing a gallery as a front for illicit payments. Blue-chip banks and corporations can't easily show bumper staff bonuses in the accounts any more, let alone bribes to politicians to stave off regulation, or payments for Bolivian coke-flake and all manner of other nocturnal pursuits, so why not book these outgoings as a piece of art? All they need is a gallery to provide the paperwork and an artist to manufacture the work.
But the gallery is soon dragged into a turf war between rival criminal gangs, while a host of ever-richer, ever-greedier collectors set about making a killing of their own.
Like a Breaking Bad in the art world, Lead White is gripping, irreverent and very, very funny.
