Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts

by Carl J. Richard

This lively and engaging book is the only popular work to explore the profound impact of Ancient Greece and Rome on the founding fathers.

Recounting the stirring stories the founders encountered in their favorite histories of Greece and Rome, renowned scholar Carl J. Richard explores what they learned from these vivid tales and how they applied these lessons to their own heroic quest to win American independence and establish a durable republic.

The Medici Conspiracy

by Peter Watson & Cecelia Todeschini

The sense of wonder experienced when contemplating the beauty and miraculous survival of an ancient vase will be profoundly altered by this vigorous expose of criminal antiquities dealing. Authors Watson & Todeschini chronicle the astonishing exploits of Giacomo Medici, a nefarious Italian antiquities dealer and mastermind, as they accompany Colonel Roberto Conforti, head of the Carabinieri Art Squad, over the course of a complicated eight-year investigation.

Writing with the zest and seduction of the finest crime novelists, Watson and Todeschini meticulously explicate every phase of Conforti's operation as he and his dedicated agents gradually unveil a well-organized circle of tomb raiders, smugglers, dealers, and, most shockingly, their scandalously complicit high-profile customers, including renowned collectors, premier acutions houses, and world-class institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

--from Booklist