He had the most incredible memory. He could quote reams of poetry, opera, street songs, minute details on the most complex of subjects. He played the fool and when people treated him as one he stunned them to silence with his brilliance.

And I remember you telling us how you first met the plastics millionaire, your most famous collector, a man with his very own Dalí museum in St Petersburg, Florida. It was at the St Regis Hotel in New York in the 1950s, the innocent years. In the pee-pee room, naturally. They stood side by side in the row of polished white urinals. 'What was he doi

When he began painting The Last Supper around 1495, Leonardo was at a high point in his career. With his official appointment as artist and engineer of the Sforza court, he was comfortably ensconced at Milan’s old palace, the Corte Vecchia, with his retinue of assistants and students. He was renowned as a painter, admired as the sculptor of the mam