The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era

A valuable work of art is today s new intellectual currency. Modern art draws attention from a new jet set: for media moguls, hedge-fund managers, and Hollywood darlings, collecting is the entree into an exclusive global community. Internationally vaunted art dealers Philippe Segalot and Franck Giraud build and break collections every day for high-profile art collectors. In The Impossible Collection, Segalot and Giraud curate the ideal modern collection a collection in which money is no object and anything is possible. Whether locked into a museum's collection or available at the tip of a paddle, these works form a unique perspective on the greatest art achievements of the our century, illuminated in the introduction by Joachim Pissarro, great-grandson of Camille and a curator of painting and sculpture at New York s Museum of Modern Art.

Philippe Segalot joined Christie's in New York in 1996 as contemporary art specialist before becoming the company s international head of contemporary art. Franck Giraud joined Christie's in New York as Impressionist and modern art specialist in 1988 and became the international head of Impressionist and modern art at Christie's in 1996. The two men formed the New York and Paris based art consultancy firm Giraud.Pissarro.Segalot with partner Lionel Pissarro in 2001.