Rothko's Lament: Trust Is a Dying Art

A roman à clef thriller set in New York's elite art world—exposing the secrets, corruption, ambition, and seduction behind the billion-dollar art market.

Billionaire Sanford Wasserman, a famed art collector, is dying of Alzheimer's—and his treasured collection of Rothkos has gone missing from his Fifth Avenue aerie. Given his condition, no one knows where the paintings went, including him.

Greenwich mom and art collector Lori Russo has just lost her hedge fund manager husband, Tony, who died of a heart attack in a Jeffrey Epstein–style sex- and drug-fueled escapade. As Lori chases the clues to his untimely death, every crumb leads back to their corrupt art dealers—the stunning Kelly Larkins Chen and the darkly handsome Bruno Ferrar—who supplied Tony with drugs and alcohol to secure the “potential” sale of the Rothkos, though they have no claim to them either.

This thinly disguised, Capote-esque roman à clef takes readers on a thrilling journey from Basel to the Biennale, from the villas of Tuscany to the beach clubs of Capri and St. Tropez, exposing the art's evolution from a once-elite gentleman's business into a slick, glossy cacophony of corruption and insider trading. The verdict? The once-esteemed New York art world has devolved into Hollywood excess.

Stunning, hilarious, and insightful, Kirshenbaum has written a thriller that echoes the sophisticated storytelling of Dominick Dunne, the observational wit of Tom Wolfe, and the addictive page turning of a classic Sidney Sheldon novel. Readers will be hooked from the first page.