Books do not simply appear. They evolve. Ideas become articles, articles loop together to become concepts for overarching narratives or theses. These become book proposals, which undergo countless drafts; then, once the proposal is acquired by a publisher, the dialogue begins between the author and the new editor that might change the book dramatically. The idea for this book began with three sources. First, I was asked by art historian Clayton Schuster to write a foreword for his book Bad Blood, which tells cinematic narrative stories of eighteen famous art rivalries. I enjoyed his book, which reads like a series of novellas, and from reading it saw that all of those rivalries actually proved beneficial for the course of art (and in most cases for the artists involved). Second, among the dozens of articles I write each year for magazines, I cover subjects that most appeal to popular publications: scandal and shock in the art world. These themes are of interest to readers who are otherwise not interested in art (or think they’re not), and so they are good “hooks” for articles in the cultural sphere. As I wrote more of them, I realized that these dramas that we think of as negative were actually beneficial for (almost) all involved, and certainly for art itself. Third, my former editor at Phaidon, Diane Fortenberry, suggested that I might write a book along these lines, on scandal in the art world. Piecing together these elements led to the book before you.
I came to this publisher thanks to having been asked to write a foreword for Nancy Moses’s book Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds, also published by Rowman & Littlefield. Correspondence with the wonderfully kind and enthusiastic Charles Harmon, who expressed interest in doing a book with me, led to my shifting from Phaidon to Rowman & Littlefield for this book plus two others (and hopefully more in the future). I’m very grateful to all who helped bring this project to life.
Thanks to my family and friends, particularly the artsy ones—I’m looking at you, Nathan and Jaša—for reading chapters and offering suggestions. Thank you to Martin Kemp, a rock star of art history whom I’ve long admired, for penning the foreword, and to Odette Lopez for kindly assisting with fact-checking and Meghann French for her excellent, friendly, and necessary copyediting.
If you are interested in learning more, please join me through my website (www.noahcharney.com) or on Facebook or Instagram. You might also consider studying with me on the ARCA Postgraduate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection, which is run every summer in Italy and was the first academic program in the world on the study of art crime.
A warm thanks to you for reading, and may only beneficial devils cross your path . . .
—Dr. Noah Charney
Slovenia, 2020