David Patrick Columbia captures on his New York Social Diary website the social appeal of Picasso biographer and Gagosian curator, John Richardson:

Mr. Richardson, who is at once an art historian, art critic, and possibly the most erudite and entertaining raconteur anywhere (and I mean anywhere), is astoundingly knowledgeable on the arts, on history and on culture. He has a sharp yet sympathetic eye for irony, pretense, foibles, beauty, charm; and you name it. Plus he has a reporter’s sense of good gossip (the stuff you’d never read in print – even today – but that is currency in the corridors of power).

He first came to town from London in the days of the Capote swans and in short time, was introduced around by Minnie Cushing Astor Fosburgh. His great social success was based, however, not on his connections but on his great charm which transports this amazing brilliance. You learn when you’re in his company and you’re buoyed by it. All of these encomiums are inadequate except to convey a sense of the encyclopedic mind of the man who has the ability to show you how to look at art.

The Business of Art (New York Social Diary)