Residence Hampstead, London, UK Occupation Rare book dealer Children 3 | Nationality British Spouse(s) Emma Lewis Education Highgate School | |
Bernard John Shapero (born August 1963) is a British dealer in antiquarian rare books and works on paper, the founder of Shapero Rare Books of 32 St. George Street, Mayfair, London, a Georgian townhouse opposite the auctioneers Sotheby's. In 2005, Slate called him "London's most successful rare-book dealer and arguably the top dealer in the world today".
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Early life
Bernard John Shapero was born in August 1963, and started dealing in books in the late 1970s, while still a pupil at Highgate School. His father was a collector of armour and gold coins.
Career
In October 2005, Shapero purchased the Doria Atlas for £1.46 million, the highest price ever paid for an atlas, although this record was surpassed by the Cosmographia the following year. In April 2004, the atlas had been saved from a fire at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire, when local residents formed a human chain to remove items from the library.
Shapero Rare Books owned about 6,000 books, ranging in price from £50 to over £200,000, and £6,000 on average. The business was sold by Shapero to Philip Blackwell, a director of the family business Blackwell Publishing, which had been sold to the US John Wiley & Sons in 2007 for £572 million to become Wiley-Blackwell.
In 2012, Shapero bought Dutch businessman Joost Ritman's collection of 300 old religious books and 60 manuscripts for €9.5million, with finance coming from a Ukrainian oligarch.
Personal life
Shapero lives in Hampstead, London, in a house which is half Victorian and half an "ultra-modern" extension, with his wife Emma Lewis, who is a script editor, and their three children.