If you’re packing some books for a weekend escape or a summer vacation, consider some page-turners based on the art world, both real and imagined. Famous forgeries and thefts, a long-awaited biography of Diane Arbus, a new look at Modern and contemporary art, and two novels are all available in analog and digital form:

Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist, by Stephen Kurkjian; PublicAffairs (March 10, 2015)
In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it.

Nearly a decade passed before the museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to $500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but twenty-five years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing.
"A cast of characters that would make Martin Scorsese swoon in admiration. There are so many crime-world figures with their fingers in this story that the book is like a GoodFellas/The Departed double feature…Kurkjian constructs a thrilling narrative…A great mystery story well told.”—The Boston Glob

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo; Penguin Books (May 25, 2010)
Filled with extraordinary characters and told at breakneck speed, Provenance reads like a well-plotted thriller. But this is not fiction. It is the astonishing narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate cons in the history of art forgery. Stretching from London to Paris to New York, investigative reporters Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo recount the tale of infamous con man and unforgettable villain John Drewe and his accomplice, the affable artist John Myatt. Together they exploited the archives of British art institutions to irrevocably legitimize the hundreds of pieces they forged, many of which are still considered genuine and hang in prominent museums and private collections today.
 “The story – a real page-turner– is of an extraordinary scam perpetrated by a con artist who posed as a nuclear physicist, philanthropist and art lover, and his semi-unwitting sidekick. Today, 120 masterworks are still out there, all with impeccable provenance.” –The Washington Post 

The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World, by Anthony M. Amore; St. Martin's Press (July 14, 2015)
Anthony M. Amore's The Art of the Con tells the stories of some of history's most notorious yet untold cons. They involve stolen art hidden for decades; elaborate ruses that involve the Nazis and allegedly plundered art; the theft of a conceptual prototype from a well-known artist by his assistant to be used later to create copies; the use of online and television auction sites to scam buyers out of millions; and other confidence scams incredible not only for their boldness but more so because they actually worked.
“A fascinating account of some of the biggest scams that have taken place in the art world over the last century” -ArtNet News

Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley; Grand Central Publishing (May 31, 2016)
On a foggy summer night, eleven people--ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter--depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs--the painter--and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family. With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members, the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations.
"This is one of the year's best suspense novels, a mesmerizing, surprise-jammed mystery that works purely on its own, character-driven terms....Mr. Hawley has made it very, very easy to race through his book in a state of breathless suspense."-Janet Maslin, New York Times

Left: Diane Arbus at the "New Documents," show at MoMA, in 1967; photo: Dan Budnik

Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer, by Arthur Lubow; Ecco (June 2016)
Arthur Lubow’s Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer deep-dives into the connection between the photographer’s personal life and the lives of those reflected in her photographs. In drawn out interviews with close family members and friends, Lubow tells the story of the influential photographer, highlighting reasons why certain people fascinated her enough, and why we, as art lovers and people, are just as captivated by them.
 “The book reads more like a novel-salacious, mysterious . . . and harrowing.” –New York Times Book Review
“Epic, sympathetic, but unsparing.” –New York Magazine

The Art Forger, by B.A. Shapiro; Algonquin Books (2012)
Almost twenty-five years after the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—still the largest unsolved art theft in history—one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist. Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect that this long-missing masterpiece—the very one that had been hanging at the Gardner for one hundred years—may itself be a forgery. The Art Forger is a thrilling novel about seeing—and not seeing—the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.
“An engaging tale about art, cupidity, and a Faustian bargain. ..Shapiro is adept at showing the white-hot heat of an artist engaged in creating a painting. She knows art history, painting techniques, and how forgers have managed through the centuries to dupe buyers into paying for fakes. Inventive and entertaining.” -The Boston Globe

What Are You Looking At?: The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art, by Will Gompert (2012)
Every year, millions of museum and gallery visitors ponder the modern art on display and secretly ask themselves, "Is this art?" A former director at London's Tate Gallery and now the BBC arts editor, Will Gompertz made it his mission to bring modern art's exciting history alive for everyone, explaining why an unmade bed or a pickled shark can be art—and why a five-year-old couldn't really do it. Rich with extraordinary tales and anecdotes, What Are You Looking At? entertains as it arms readers with the knowledge to truly understand and enjoy what it is they’re looking at.
“Gompertz has an uncanny knack for making difficult art (and ideas) easy…A lively, witty account of the major moments and movements of the past 150 years.” —Associated Press