 His maternal grandfather was the keeper of Antiquities at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen and an expert on the Bronze Age.After moving to England aged six, Lars was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester, England, before studying for an undergraduate degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.In 1977, a year after graduating, Tharp began working as an auctioneer at Sotheby's, where he specialised in European and Chinese ceramics.