The Art Dealer’s Apprentice: Behind the Scenes of the New York Art World

Guenther, a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan, debuts with a revealing if oddly flat chronicle of his time spent in the moneyed, status-obsessed 1990s New York City art scene. Landing a high-end gallery assistant gig as a broke college grad, Guenther jet-setted to deliver artwork, rubbed elbows with wealthy collectors, and learned the ins and outs of authentication. While the lucrative nature of the job appealed—his first paycheck was for a $1200 commission—and he climbed the ranks in his three years working for gallery owner Carla Panicali (of whom he writes warmly), the art world’s seedy underbelly quickly revealed itself, rife with tax evasion, social posturing, and professional jealousies. After three years in the biz, Guenther concluded that “for people with money and power, there seemed to be a lot of things more important than art,” especially status, for which art was simply a means to an end. His insight that art markets function based on a fundamentally false idea (art was a reflection of “the people who had been alive; the artworks were just mementoes”) intrigues, but it’s tacked on near the end of an account rendered in disappointingly workmanlike prose (“My new career began auspiciously. On the first day I met my new colleague... we spent most of the day at the front desk answering the phone”). This is skippable by all but the most devoted art aficionados. (Mar.)