"Edgar Beamish dies, leaving his corporate empire to his estranged son, Junior, who launches a charitable foundation with company assets. Disaster ensues; bankruptcy appears certain." "But Junior has a fundraising inspiration, The Phoenix Lottery. It offers its winner instant fame and fortune: the chance to torch a prized van Gogh at a live event, and to sell the story to TV, tabloids and Hollywood.".

"Junior has an ally in performance artist Lydia Spark. But powerful enemies include the slippery Vatican envoy Cardinal Wichita, the ghost of Junior's father - and the spirit of van Gogh himself." "An exploration of art, commerce, and untidy family relationships, The Phoenix Lottery is a grand comedy told with outrageous wit, and a keen eye for the masks with which society maintains the fiction of a moral world."--BOOK JACKET.