The Art Of The Backstab

By Harriet Barovick

When U.S. prosecutors indicted Sotheby's and Christie's, the country's pre-eminent auction houses, in a price-fixing scheme earlier this year, observers were giddy at the prospect of watching the high-toned lead players testify against each other in court. Last week Diana Brooks, Sotheby's elegant, blond ex-president, who was once considered the most powerful woman in the art world, did not disappoint. Brooks, who pleaded guilty last year to antitrust conspiracy and agreed to testify for the government, charged that her former boss, A. Alfred Taubman, was behind the plan that allegedly bilked patrons out of tens of millions over six years. Among the juicier sound bites: when investigators were closing in and Brooks refused to meet with Taubman without a lawyer present, she testified, Taubman told her, "Just don't act like a girl." On the same occasion, she said, Taubman held up a photograph of her and warned, "You'll look good in stripes."

The scrappy Taubman--a shopping-mall tycoon who bought the art house in 1983--has denied the charges and asserted that Brooks was responsible for the scheme. He could take the stand this week, when the defense continues its case. Like Brooks, he faces up to three years in prison and fines of $350,000. And if the courtroom scrapping sounds good enough to be on TV, rest assured it soon will be. Sigourney Weaver has already been cast to play Brooks in an upcoming HBO movie.

--By Harriet Barovick