The vignette approach may sound piecemeal and inhospitable to analysis, but it works, and amid the welter of personal, social and artistic detail some major themes emerge. One is that in the years since the end of World War II, the center of collecting, auctioneering and tastemaking moved from Paris to London and finally to New York. The rise in self-confidence among American collectors led them to turn away from older European art to contemporary works by their own artists.

The other sea change Stourton identifies is the rise in public-spirited collecting, or at least collecting as a public activity. Before the war, he writes, "collecting was a private pleasure, sometimes intellectual and scholarly, but more often about enhancing surroundings and la douceur de vivre." While cynics may point to tax incentives and egomania as motives for institutional giving, the truth is that although our world may be less gracious, even the most acquisitive collectors have come to believe that art ultimately belongs to everyone. For most of us, that is douceur enough.