What Robert Altman's film "Prêt-à-Porter" was for the fashion world, Sarah Thornton's book is for the vast booming market of contemporary art: What rules govern it? Who decides which artist becomes one of the greats (and the most expensive)? What drives the collectors, the gallery owners - and what does all this mean for art and the artists themselves? With the tools of an ethnographer, Sarah Thornton explores this unique world of creativity, taste, and power, filled with status, hope, money, and intrigue. She has spoken with over 250 insiders, artists, gallery owners, critics, curators, and collectors, and for a time became a critical observer within the art world herself. Her book vividly portrays the people and institutions that will write the art history of the future, sprinkled with intelligent gossip and chatter.