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 106 New Bond Street, Mayfair, London. In 2005, '' Slate'' called him "London's most successful rare-book dealer and arguably the top dealer in the world today".

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 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, ...

in 2007 for £572 million to become

Wiley-Blackwell Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

. 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, and their three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapero, Bernard Living people 1963 births People from Hampstead People educated at Highgate School Antiquarian booksellers British booksellers