READ EXCERPT: 'Provenance'

June 18, 2009— -- "Good Morning America" gave you a glimpse at some of O Magazine's top summer reading selections today.

In "Provenance," authors Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo tell the tale of an elaborate 20th century hoax where John Drewe forges letters, doctors exhibition catalogs and bamboozles art experts into accepting a slew of "masterpieces."

The investigative reporters detail the spectacular scam. Read an excerpt of this book below and check out other books on the list.

Click here to read an excerpt from "Columbine."

Click here to read an excerpt from "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

Click here to read an excerpt from "Stormy Weather."

Excerpt

The grand moment in the reception finally arrived. Two white-gloved Tate conservators entered the room with a pair of paintings, each about five feet tall. There was a moment of respectful silence. Myatt was stunned.

"Ahh, the Bissières, how lovely,"someone in the room whispered.

Myatt cringed as the group praised the paintings and Drewe's taste and generosity. The two works were carried around the room, and long before they reached Myatt, he recognized the faint but acrid smell of the varnish he had sprayed on them when he'd finished them a few weeks earlier.

Myatt gripped his chair. If they so much as touched the canvas with a fine brush, the paint would give way and the game would be up. A little further investigative work would reveal that the pieces—purportedly painted more than forty years earlier—had been made with modern, ordinary house paint.

The reception over, the Tate brass escorted Drewe and Myatt down the winding staircase. Stopping at a landing, one of the officials pointed at a place on the wall and said: "This is where we'll hang these two wonderful pieces."

Placing a work at the Tate was a remarkable achievement for any artist—forger or not—but Myatt could see only one possible end to what had transpired. He had survived many low points in his past, but none as low as this. Surely he would end up in prison.

Once in the taxi, Myatt, usually deferential toward Drewe, exploded. "You have to get them back."

Drewe argued that if they were to ask for the paintings back, it would involve a terrible loss of credibility, putting at risk all the time he had put into cultivating the confidence of the Tate's archivists. But he also saw that as long as the twoc arelessly done forgeries remained in the hands of museum curators, Myatt would remain paralyzed by the fear that they would be his undoing.

The following day Drewe was back at the Tate to withdraw the Bissières. There was a problem with their provenance, questions having to do with the previous owners. In place of the two works, he was prepared to offer a sizable cash donation to the Tate's archives.