EA Festival 2025: Don't Believe the Hype!

Ben Lewis, one of the UK’s top experts on art fraud – of all varieties - will tell us how art world hype, misguided notions of trust and the very nature of art objects create an industry ripe for chicanery and profiteering, the single most famous example being the case of Salvator Mundi, a painting whose disputed attribution to Leonardo da Vinci led to it becoming the most expensive painting ever sold (US$450.3M). Through his book, The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World’s Most Expensive Painting, and his podcast, Art Bust, Lewis reveals the dysfunctional world of museums, galleries, auction houses and collectors that make up today’s art market.