Christie’s and Sotheby’s account for nearly 100 percent of art sales priced above $1 million. The value of a work has nothing to do with its cost. How to Sell a Stuffed Shark for $12 Million explores the roles that money, vice, and vanity play in all of this. Why would an educated New York banker pay $12 million for a stuffed shark? And what spells drove the price of Jackson Pollock’s No. 5 up to $140 million? This is a book about beauty—about the marketing strategies that help the contemporary art market generate astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with artists and buyers, auction house executives, and gallery leaders, Thompson lets us into the art world through the back door.