The "lactone concept" has been efficiently employed for the first atropo-enantioselective synthesis of knipholone and related natural phenylanthraquinones. Besides the regio- and stereoselective construction of the biaryl axis, another important step was the "synthetically late" introduction of the C-acetyl group, either by a Friedel-Crafts type acetylation or by an ortho-selective Fries rearrangement