Scottish painter Peter Howson has come clean about his dealings with Glasgow’s mafia underworld for the last 15 years. Internationally regarded for his “macho figurative paintings,” Howson explains “how his strange relationship with the world of crime began when he was visited in the 1980s by the kingpin of the Glasgow crime scene, the late Arthur Thompson, Sr., who offered cash on the spot for a canvas. Howson found himself supplying paintings to the city’s criminals for a fraction of the price charged by his London dealer. When he tried to renegotiate, he got death threats. Gangsters like art, it seems, but they like it cheap.” – The Guardian