|
Dalí. The True Story of the Fakes.
50Min. (2004)
Directed by: Miguel Angel Nieto
A co-production with: TVE – ARTE G.E.I.E.- AVRO
Between 1960 and 1980, Dalí signed at least 400.000 white sheets that his various secretaries sold all around the world. This is the first time that Dali’s four private managers or secretaries talk about the matter: Captain John Peter Moore, journalist Enric Sabater, photographer Robert Descharnes and aristocrat Jean Claude Du Barry.
|
The Dalí painting in the background is the 1962 Twist in the Studio of Velazques. With the help of Captain Moore, I sold it to the CEO of L'Oréal in Paris. (See Dalí & I pages 25 and 38-39.)
|
Now available worldwide: "Dalí Y Yo: Una historia surreal" in Spanish
|
|
Fireworks even before publication: XL Semanal, the Sunday magazine with the highly popular ABC newspaper from Madrid (weekly print run: 2 million) publishes a 6 (six!) page interview "de puta madre" in which I am compared to "a European kind of Tom Ripley". Some highlights from the interview, in Spanish:
"Estafar a multimillonarios es algo totalmente adictivo."
"Vendí la Santa cena de Dalí por un millón de dolares. El magnate aceptó que, aunque estaba en un museo, el cuadro era suyo."
"Compraban sin conocer la obra. Ni siquiera les gustaban las pintuas de Dalí. Sólo se trataba de blanquear dinero."
» Read here the interview, buy the book and... enjoy!
|
|
Out now: "Dali & I: The Surreal Story" by Stan Lauryssens
Thomas Dunne Books/St.Martin's Press
(spring-summer 2008)
An extraordinary memoir of fortune, fraud, and the master of modern art
|
Art dealer Stan Lauryssens made millions in modern art, but he sold only one name: Salvador Dali. The surrealist painter's work was a hot commodity for the newly rich, investors, and businessmen looking to launder their black market cash. Stan didn't mind looking the other way; he just hoped the buyers would look the other way as well. The artworks he sold came from some very shady sources. And he soon discovered that the shadiest source of all was Dali himself. The more successful Stan became, the closer he got to Dali's inner circle, until he found himself living next door to the aging artist. There, while Stan hid from Interpol's detectives, he learned more about Dali's secret history, the studio of artists who produced his work, and the money-making machine that kept Dali's extravagant lifestyle afloat long after his creativity became to flounder.
Dali & I offers a behind-the-scenes view of the commerce and conspiracy that can go hand-in-hand in the art world, written by a man who has been to the top only to discover it was no different than the bottom.
STAN LAURYSSENS was an art dealer specializing in works by Salvador Dali for over a decade. After spending time in prison for the sale of bogus Dali's, he turned to writing
|
crime fiction. He won Belgium's Hercule Poirot Award in 2002 for best crime fiction of the year. He divides his time between Antwerp and London.
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press also publishes Dan Brown, Arnaldur Indridason, Desmond Morris, Wilbur Smith and Michael Palin.
|
Dali & I: The Surreal Story (US edition) was published July 8, 2008. To order from Amazon.com, click here...
|
|
 
|
Dalí & I in Chinese... and in Turkey
|
|
The first of two Chinese editions of Dalí & I: The Surreal Story is now on sale in Taiwan. In an e-mail, my Chinese editor tells me: "Dear Stan, We decided to go ahead with a more light-hearted cover because Taiwanese readers don't respond well to heavy and dark material. We feel that this great photo makes a very appealing cover and will draw in the most readers! Also please note that the Chinese title translates to Dali's 666 Signatures." Frankly, I think it's a great cover, though I look like a stand up comedian with the fake mustache and bulging eyes, don't I?
» Read here a nicely illustrated interview in The Guangzhou Daily, "one of the largest circulation newspapers in
China", according to the female reporter who contacted me.
|
|
Meanwhile, online bookstore sales of the Turkish edition of Dalí & I: The Surreal Story, titled "Dali ve Ben" in Turkish, have gone from the #31 spot on the Turkish Top-100 to #21 in a matter of days.
Latest result: Dali ve ben is now on #8 in Turkey. On another bestseller list, the book is on #2 ...
|
|
A mere two weeks after its publication date, Dali i ja, the Serbian edition of Dali & I: The Surreal Story, came in on 9 in the national book Top-20. In writing, foreign names and surnames are spelled phonetically in Serbian. Therefore, in Serbia I am no longer "Stan Lauryssens" but "Sten Lorisen". Dalí still is "Dali" though. On the cover, Dali i ja is labeled "internacionali bestseler".
In order to promote Czech and Slovak translations, I was in Prague and Bratislava for a couple of days. In Prague, I stayed in a very nice hotel that was Prague's most popular luxury whorehouse or bordel during the communist regime. Well, Zara and Armani have taken over the party's headquarters and communism in Prague is relegated to the stuffy, tiny Museum
|
|
of Communism on the first floor of a local McDonald's.
In Slovak, my title reads as Dalí & I: The (Sur)real Story, which I think is a nice twist and a great find.
Read here an interview, in Czech, as published in the highly popular DNES daily newspaper...
... and watch a dubbed live interview on Czech breakfast TV.
The jacket on the left is the Rumanian Dalí & I, to be published September 2008.
|
Cillian Murphy is "Stan" in Dali & I: The Surreal Story
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cillian Murphy will be "Stan" (that's me, folks) in the upcoming Dali & I: The Surreal Story. Cillian Murphy is Irish of course, lives in London, was norminated for a Golden Globe Award and plays the villain in Batman Begins (opposite Katie Holmes). He is also in Cold Mountain (Nicole Kidman) and The Girl With the Pearl Earring (Scarlett Johansson). His starring role as an Irish revolutionary helped The Wind That Shakes The Barley (Ken Loach) win the 2006 Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Hollywood Reporter also informs that Dali & I: The Surreal Story is scheduled to begin shooting early 2008 on location in Spain and New York.
IESB.net had an exclusive interview with Cillian Murphy, who will star als "Stan Lauryssens" in the upcoming Dalí & I: The Surreal Story (2009). The 2-minute video interview can be viewed by clicking the image below.
Cillian Murphy Joins Al Pacino in 'Dali & I'
Cinematical - Santa Monica,CA,USA
The good parts keep coming for Cillian Murphy. The Hollywood Reporter tells us he will officially be starring opposite Al Pacino in the film adaptation of ...
See all stories on this topic
Cillian Murphy Joins Dali & I
ComingSoon.net - USA
Dali (Pacino) also developed a mentor-protege relationship with a young art dealer named Stan Lauryssens, who will be played by Murphy. The part of Gala, ...
See all stories on this topic
Cillian Murphy Stars in Dali & I: The Surreal Story
MovieWeb - USA
Pacino will be playing Dali, who develops a mentor-protege relationship with the young artist Stan Lauryssens (Murphy). Dali & I: The Surreal Story will ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Al Pacino confirms Salvador Dalí biopic
|
|
|
Al Pacino spoke to MTV News about portraying the 20th century painter
Salvador Dali in the upcoming film entitled "Dali & I: The Surreal Story"
based on my book.
"I really like that Salvador Dali idea," said Pacino of the biopic. "I
really feel that's a place I would like to get myself around to playing."
The movie will reunite Pacino with his "S1m0ne" director Andrew Niccol. "I
read Andrew Niccol's script. It's a terrific script. That's a role I've been
wanting to play for a while, and I think it's coming," explained Pacino.
Salvador Dali of course is best known for his wiry antenna-like moustache
and for his painting "The Persistence of Memory," which features several
melting clocks on the beach.
Foreign rights to my "Dali & I" book have now been sold to 22 countries,
among them China, Russia, Japan, Brazil... Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's
Press in New York acquired World English Rights.
|
The 75,000 word Dali & I typescript, a movie tie-in novelisation in English, is now available.
Foreign rights are handled by the Lennart Sane Agency. All requests and inquiries should be directed to Philip Sane at philip.sane@lennartsaneagency.com.
Foreign rights already sold to Russia (AST Publishers), Taiwan (PROPHET PRESS, the Eurasian Publishing Group), Czechia and Slovakia (FRAGMENT), Greece (PSICHOGIOS), Belgium and the Netherlands (MANTEAU/STANDAARD), Serbia (MEDIA II), Finland (Johnny Kniga Publishing), Portugal (Editora PRESENCA), Romania (POLIROM Editura), Turkey (APRIL Publishing), Hungary (PÉCSI DIREKT KFT. ALEXANDRA KIADÓJA), Brazil (EDIOURO Publicaçőes), China (THINKINGDOM MEDIA GROUP), Poland (BERTELSMANN MEDIA), Japan (ASPECT Publishing), France (ÉDITIONS DE L'ARCHIPEL), Spain (EDICIONES B), Korea (Random House Korea, Inc), Australia and New Zealand (BLACK Inc. BOOKS, an imprint of Schwartz Publishing/Penguin Books Australia), UK--United Kingdom (MAINSTREAM Publishing), Denmark (POLITIKENS FORLAG) and Germany (SEELIGER VERLAG).
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS/St. MARTIN'S PRESS (New York) acquired World English Rights. In the words of Peter Joseph, Associate Editor: "I do believe that this book can find success in the realm of Hoax, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Catch Me If You Can. But with or without the film, I think that Stan’s written a revealing book about Dali and his world that I’d love the chance to publish and champion."
Tantor Unabridged Audiobooks
|
Tantor Media (US) acquired USCP Audio rights for CD and MP3: "Publishers Weekly named Tantor Media the number one fastest-growing independent publisher. Tantor has a dedicated library department, and releases over twenty new titles each month, including classics, award-winners, and bestsellers."
|
To Pre-order (7 Audio CD's, 1 Mp3-CD, 8hrs 30 min in all) click here...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leonardo DiCaprio in
Catch Me If You Can
|
George Clooney
in Confessions of
a Dangerous Mind
|
Richard Gere
in Hoax
|
Dalí & I del escritor belga Stan Lauryssens, el libro más polémico que se ha escrito sobre la vida del genio surrealista.
--Paraguasroto.com
|
|
|
|
|
"Stan Lauryssens. A new name in crime fiction. He's Belgian, like Simenon and Hercule Poirot."
|
"He hid his eyes behind dark glasses but even without the glasses he would never have seen the bullets coming. VLAMMM! VLAMMM! VLAMMM! Three shots,
|
|
three hits in rapid succession, as if she was playing the lead role in a Hollywood-type gangland movie. She couldn’t miss. His scrotum exploded like an overripe plum and the stones flew in all directions. Such pain, such agony. Jack Nicholson retched and fell forward, his trousers around his ankles.
|
|
|
The old fart puked on his shoes. Jacqui kicked the muzzle against his back, on his left shoulder blade right above the heart, and pulled the trigger. TAKKK-pfffieuwww-BÁMMM! She licked her soft, fleshy lips. What a way to start the week."
This is how my new crime fiction begins, entitled The Sooner You Die, a sordid story about death and shrunken heads. Philip Sane at philip.sane@lennartsaneagency.com is handling foreign rights worldwide. Available August 15.
|
The Eichmann Diaries in Polish
|
|
I am pleased to inform that, following the Dutch and Italian edition, Polish publisher Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie in Wroclaw has now acquired Polish rights to The Eichmann Diaries (non-fiction). The book deals with Eichmann’s life in hiding, including an almost day-by-day account--never told before!--of the recording, on tape, of the most horrible memoirs in living history, the brutal betrayal of Eichmann's hideout in Argentina and capture through a secret Mossad team, his subsequent police interrogation
|
in Israel and, finally, the 1961 Eichmann trial followed by a detailed verbatim account never published before of the war criminal and mass murderer's last days and execution.
» Read more ...
Italian cover
|
Dutch cover
|
|
|
FUZZ-EXPRESS
|
Some crime fiction aficionados fondly call themselves "McBainiacs", short for "McBain maniacs". Jean Pierre Engels from Belgium is a true McBainiac: he's got some 8 and a half metres (!!) of Ed McBain stuff in all editions, hardcover, audio, cassette, CD, VHS and DVD, outprints, e-stories, all in all some 650 (!!) items.
|
|
You name it, he's got it. This bedeviled collector started reading my thrillers, in Dutch, and posted the following topic on Ed McBain's Open File Forum: "I looked far-away and a long time and found nearby and quite suddenly a real Ed McBain-pupil. On this continent, in Belgium of all places. His name? Stan Lauryssens. I just finished his [crime] novel No Time for Tears (Geen tijd voor tranen, in Dutch).
| |
Well, it feels like a Trans-European express on a slow local train rail and reads like: How? What? Why? and WOW! and WHAW! My humble opinion is that he could be the one to finish Becca in Jeopardy [McBain's unfinished crime novel]. Find out more about this gifted writer. He is close and deserves a cigar, or two... Enjoy." Thanks for your kind words, Jean Pierre, and thank you also for the cigar. Sadly, I don't smoke. Make it a beer... or two.
|
Out now, in Dutch: No Time for Tears (crime fiction)
[ In memoriam Ed McBain ]
Three shots, three bullets, hard and dry like the crack of a whip, one next to the other right between the fifth and sixth rib, smack in the middle of his heart. His chest splintered, blood spattered all over and an agonizing pain buzzed all through his body. The telephone rang. "Hello? Hello?" A heavy breather. "Wrong number," the Inspector said. Louis Armstrong played the
trumpet. What A Wonderful World. Under the broken streetlamp, they were waiting for him. Green swimming caps over their eyes, dark holes for their nose and mouth. Green is the colour of Islam. The first blow came as a total surprise, in his stomach. There was no pain. The Inspector buckled and fell on his knees, he retched and threw up.
In this gripping police procedural, three dead bodies in one day is too much, even for the Antwerp murder squad. The Inspector is having a rough time, he even has blood on his hands and no one comes to his rescue.
"Nostalgia... Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker... A book like a christmas tree. A delight, Stan. I loved it."---A fan.
"Almost midnight. Just finished your book. Slightly mad and a touch of genius. I'm dazed. No Time for Tears is brilliant."---Another fan.
Foreign rights are handled by the Lennart Sane Agency. All requests and inquiries should be directed to Philip Sane at philip.sane@lennartsaneagency.com.
|
|
|
|
Some time ago, I got the following email from nature photographer and video cameraman Rudy Dupont: "I was in Kathmandu, close to the Himalaya. A special feature over there are secondhand bookshops. On a shelf, I found one of your thrillers, in Dutch. I'll be going back to Nepal soon.
|
|
If the book is still there, I'll take a photograph." Apparently my crime fiction is not only valued in my native country. Rudy mailed me some photographs taken in Gokyo, on an altitude above 5000 meters, in the heartland of the Himalaya, the Everest peak and a nodding yak in the background, in a desolate landscape of frost and ice and eternal snow. A sherpa is holding one of my thrillers, Zwarte sneeuw (Black Snow). The book was awarded the Hercule Poirot for best crime fiction of the year. In a post scriptum to his email, Rudy informs me that next year he will climb the Kilimandjaro and "take a Stan Lauryssens thriller to the top of the world". Isn't that a smashing story? Thank you, Rudy.
|
|
|
|
"Nicci French" and Stan
|
Distinguished British crime writer Sean French (aka "Nicci French" with his wife Nicci Gerrard) and Belgian crime writer Stan Lauryssens gave a joint performance at the Antwerp "Zui-
derzinnen" literary festival.
| | They had an animated talk about the difference (or not) between London and Antwerp as a "crime scene" and explored ways to cope with the threat of terrorism in crime fiction.
Asked to explain the pull of London in such thrillers as Killing Me Softly, The Red Room and The Memory Game, Sean French said: "The thing is, there is not one London. Each borough is a different country. You've got black London, Indian London, the London of the Albanians, Islington that is utterly different from Camden Town..."
Stan Lauryssens explained the appeal of Antwerps as a crime scene in Black Snow and Deader than Dead as follows: "Antwerp has a worldwide reputation to defend in both shipping--as the number one container terminal in Europe--and the diamond trade. Shipping means: smuggling, drugs, and thus: crime. The same goes for the diamond trade: think of blood diamonds, smuggling, money, glamour, thus: crime."
Sean French and Stan Lauryssens came to a joint conclusion: both London and Antwerp are a gold mine for a crime writer.
|
|
(BLACK) SNOW
Tips for the novelist: put the word "snow" in your book title, writes the Times Literary Supplement. Never mind the semantics, just note the weather. Everyone remembers the big hit of the 1990s, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg, as they do David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars. Orhan Pamuk may have missed the Nobel Prize, but he made a decent pitch by calling a recent novel Snow. Writers in every genre hope to make it work, from Neal Stephenson ( Snow Crash) to crime writer Ed McBain ( Snow White and Rose Red), or Blood Red, Snow White by Diane Henry and Nicholas Horrocks, Peter Matthiessen ( The Snow Leopard), Margary Hilton ( Snow Bride), Blood on the Snow by Jan Bodeson (subtitled The Killing of Olof Palme) and there's even a Pissing on the Snow by Vance Randolph. Good job Stan Lauryssens did, a few years back, when he named his first thriller Black Snow.
|
CON MAN, WRITER, PHENOMENON
|
BOEK is a Dutch glossy about books and writers. In the September/October issue, a flashy lifesize photograph of Belgian crime writer Stan Lauryssens livens up the cover. Inside, he is interviewed over 6 pages.
| |
Theme of the interview: his harrowing thrillers, life in prison and crime fiction in general. "I was an art dealer once," Stan Lauryssens tells the interviewer. "From a single spare room, one telephone only, I sold fake paintings and paintings I didn't own. I must have sold the Mona Lisa three times and Van Gogh's Sunflowers at least twice. Soon there was a warrant out for my arrest and I ended up in a Belgian prison cell. When I got out, I fled the country. An extradition request was filed through Interpol. Six years ago, two unwashed and unshaven Guardia Civil secretos arrested me in Spain. I was handcuffed, endlessly interrogated, fingerprinted and locked up awaiting extradition. My cellmates were London Cockney gangsters, Russian mafioski, Colombian drug barons and a handfull of psychopathic killers. I was lucky, I came out---and as in a fever, I started writing crime fiction. Black Snow was published and less than a week later, the book was award ed the much-coveted Hercule Poirot Award for best crime fiction of the year. I'm on my fifth published thriller now, in less than three years, and I've just started on number six: No Time for Tears."
Also in BOEK, an interview with John Irving.
|
|
|
|
Why do I deserve a medal?
Maria Nys Huxley
|
Greta Garbo
|
PANDORA writes in The Independent (London): Posh writers' wives, it seems, are big business. But even then, a new book about Maria Nys Huxley by the Belgian biographer Stan Lauryssens is going to ruffle a few pages. Mrs Aldous, herself from that most interesting of countries, certainly did her best to dispel the "boring, boring Belgium" myth. Desperately in love with Virginia Woolf, apparently, she's also said to have been the third part of a Hollywood love triangle with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. But still with enough time to doctor DH Lawrence's typescript of Lady Chatterley's Lover and rewrite substantial parts of hubby's Brave New World. Oh, and she said Aldous went in for seances with L Ron "Scientology" Hubbard. All this has been garnered by Stan from some 3,000 of Mrs H's letters discovered in Albertine Royal Library in Brussels. The man deserves a medal, for providing that elusive fifth famous Belgian of trivia quizzes. Fifth?
» For more, go to...
Crime fiction to die for
|
|
Dodere enn dod (Deader than Dead) is now available in bookshops all over Norway, as part of the Giga Krim series. Publisher is Giga Forlag in Oslo. ISBN 8281560207. The book costs 99.- Kr. Dodere enn dodd--with a / through the o's--is an extremely fast-paced, blood-curdling thriller. After a heist on the Central Bank of Belgium--the Nationalbank, in translation--bank robbers are on the run with two heavy pallets—two tons—of stolen banknotes while all over town a bunch of
hoodlums are playing havoc. This is crime fiction to die for.
| |
Summary: Kort omtale
Mens to menn forkledd som telefonreparatřrer tar seg inn i Belgias Nasjonalbank, holder deres medsammensvorne Antwerpens politi i aktivitet.
|
|
Praise in World Literature Today
|
Search the phrase "Belgian crime writing" on the internet and thousands of references to Georges Simenon crop up, even though Simenon spent most of his life in France and a lengthy period in the United States.
As with Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot, most of us need be reminded that Simenon was in fact born Belgian and not French.
Belgian crime witers are less known in the world at large, though they are very popular at home. The quality of their work, however, is now gaining notice outside Belgium.
  
STAN LAURYSSENS (b. 1946) had a celebrated career as a journalist, becoming known for his interviews with the surviving members of Hitler's inner circle and his book on living next door Salvador Dalí. His first thriller, Black Snow (Zwarte sneeuw, 2002) was an immediate success and was followed by Dead Corpses (Dode lijken,2003), Red Roses (Rode rozen, 2004), Deader than Dead (Doder dan dood, 2005) and recently More than Naked (Bloter dan bloot, also 2005). Before he took up crime writing, Stan Lauryssens had prison experience himself after having been convicted of phony investment schemes.
by J. Madison Davis,
Former President of the North American branch of the International Association of Crime Writers
|
|
|
|
|
|
