Eric Booth, Herald of the Thai Scene

You have quite an unusual family and career history. My father is American. In 1962 he moved to Thailand, where he met my mother, Patsri Bunnag, who later got remarried to Jean-Michel Beurdeley. I grew up in Paris with my stepfather, who had a Chinese antique and art gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. I was lucky to have a family that gave me a taste for art! After studying in the United States, I returned to Thailand at a time when a lot was happening on the art scene there. Could you be more specific? I thought I'd remain in France to work with my stepfather, but when I arrived in Thailand in 1992 it was booming so I stayed. Banks needed people who could speak both English and Thai. I could translate and ring up customers from London to Hong Kong to give them information about buying shares on the Thai stock exchange. That was before the Internet! The stock market index was around 300. Two years later it was 1,700! The situation has changed…