In the first collection of Slavic myths for an international readership, Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapsak expertly weave together the ancient stories with nuanced analysis to illuminate their place at the heart of Slavic tradition. While Slavic cultures are far-ranging, comprised of East Slavs (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus), West Slavs (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland), and South Slavs (the countries of former Yugoslavia plus Bulgaria), they are connected by tales of adventure and magic with roots in a common lore. In the world of Slavic mythology we find petulant deities, demons and fairies, witches, and a supreme god who can hurl thunderbolts. Gods gather under the World Tree, reminiscent of Norse mythology's Yggdrasill. The vampire--usually the only Serbo-Croatian word in any foreign-language dictionary--and the werewolf both emerge from Slavic belief.

In their careful analysis and sensitive reconstructions of the myths, Charney and Slapsak unearth the Slavic beliefs before their distortion first by Christian chroniclers and then by nineteenth-century scholars seeking origin stories for their newborn nation states. They reveal links not only to the neighboring pantheons of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Scandinavia, but also the belief systems of indigenous peoples of Australia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Specially commissioned illustrations inspired by traditional Eastern and European folk art bring the stories and their cultural landscape to life.

The 12-Hour Film Expert is for anyone who wants to learn more about film and how to truly appreciate what they are watching, but they aren't sure where to begin. This book guides its readers through a selection of film masterpieces in a variety of genres, from silent films and westerns to dramas and romantic comedies.

[Charney] is an amiable host. . . . The cumulative effect of his book on the reader is the realization that, as much as we talk about 'managing' nature, nature has been managing itself for eons just fine without us.--Alexandra Horowitz, The Atlantic

Structured as a series of interactive field walks through ten New England ecosystems, this book challenges readers to see the world through the eyes of a trained naturalist. With guided questions, immersive photography, and a narrative approach, each chapter adds layers of complexity to a single scene, revealing the millions of years of forces at play. Tying together geology, forest ecology, wildlife biology, soil processes, evolution, conservation, and more, Noah Charney shows how and why landscapes appear in their current forms.

Charney's stories and lessons will provide anyone with the necessary investigative skills to look at a landscape, interpret it, and tell its story--from its start as rock or soil to the plants and animals that live on it. Ultimately, Charney argues, by critically engaging with the landscape we will become better at connecting with nature and ourselves.

Historian Charney tracks the eventful life of the Mona Lisa in this rollicking account.... The result is both a thrilling tale of true crime and a rigorous work of art history. -- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

From the artwork to its theft and role in popular culture, the critically-acclaimed book The Thefts of the Mona Lisa (Foreword Reviews, Publishers Weekly Starred Review, Shelf Awareness, Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews) provides the complete story of this work of art, as written by a bestselling, Pulitzer finalist author.

Leonardo da Vinci's portrait, called the Mona Lisa, is without doubt the world's most famous painting. It achieved its fame not only because it is a remarkable example of Renaissance portraiture, created by an acclaimed artistic and scientific genius, but because of its criminal history. The Mona Lisa (also called La Gioconda or La Joconde) was stolen on 21 August 1911 by an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia. Peruggia was under the mistaken impression that the Mona Lisa had been stolen from Italy during the Napoleonic era, and he wished to take back for Italy one of his country's greatest treasures. His successful theft of the painting from the Louvre, the farcical manhunt that followed, and Peruggia's subsequent trial in Florence were highly publicized, sparking the attention of the international media, and catapulting an already admired painting into stratospheric heights of fame. This book reveals the art and criminal history of the Mona Lisa.

Charney examines the criminal biography of Leonardo's Mona Lisa, with a focus on separating fact from fiction in the story of what is not only the most famous art heist in history, but which is the single most famous theft of all time. In the process he delves into Leonardo's creation of the Mona Lisa, discusses why it is so famous, and investigates two other events in its history of theft and renown. First, it examines the so-called affaire des statuettes, in which Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire were arrested under suspicion of involvement in the theft of the Mona Lisa. Second, there has long been a question as to whether the Nazis stole the Mona Lisa during the Second World War--a question that this book seeks to resolve.

Whether your focus is books or articles, there are all manner of tricks of the trade that most writers have to learn the hard way, on their own, through trial and error--if they learn them at all. From how to write a book proposal to pitching to editors, from great openings to how to get paid and read contracts, the logistics of how to be a writer are rarely taught, even in creative writing programs and in how-to-write books. The 12-Hour Author lifts the veil and invites the reader in on the secrets of successful writers, both from the angle of how to write well, but also--and almost uniquely among books on the subject--the practical elements of how to work as a writer.

The author is a Pulitzer nominee who has published more than twenty books, including international best-sellers, and hundreds of articles for major publications, including The Guardian and The Washington Post. Divided into 12 chapters, if you're willing to commit as little as 12 hours to learning this craft, you'll have all the tools you'll need.

Discover anew the herstory of art that Publishers Weekly calls illuminating and Foreword Reviews calls spirited for an enlightening art history read.

How many female artists can you name? Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Marina Abramovic? How about female artists who lived prior to the Modern era? Maybe Artemisia Gentileschi and then... even a regular museum-goer might run out of steam. What about female curators, critics, patrons, collectors, muses, models and art influencers?

This book provides a 360 degree look at the role, influence, and empowerment of women through art--including women artists, but going beyond those who have taken up a brush or a chisel. In 1971, Linda Nochlin published a famous essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? This book responds to it by showing that not only have there been scores of great women artists throughout history, but that great women have shaped the story of art. The result is a book that sheds light on the art world in a very new way, finally celebrating the great women artists and influencers who deserve to be much better known. The entire history of art can be told as a herstory of art.

Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society, curator Geneviéve Delacloche is shocked to discover the disappearance of the Society's greatest treasure, White-on-White by Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich.

London: At the National Gallery of Modern Art, the museum's latest acquisition is stolen just hours after it was purchased for more than six million pounds.

In The Art Thief, three thefts are simultaneously investigated in three cities, but these apparently isolated crimes have much more in common than anyone imagines. In Rome, the police enlist the help of renowned art investigator Gabriel Coffin when tracking down the stolen masterpiece. In Paris, Geneviéve Delacloche is aided by Police Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot, who finds a trail of bizarre clues and puzzles that leads him ever deeper into a baffling conspiracy. In London, Inspector Harry Wickenden of Scotland Yard oversees the museum's attempts to ransom back its stolen painting, only to have the masterpiece's recovery deepen the mystery even further.

A dizzying array of forgeries, overpaintings, and double-crosses unfolds as the story races through auction houses, museums, and private galleries -- and the secret places where priceless works of art are made available to collectors who will stop at nothing to satisfy their hearts' desires.

Full of fascinating art-historical detail, crackling dialogue, and a brain-teasing plot, Noah Charney's debut novel is a sophisticated, stylish thriller, as irresistible and multifaceted as a great work of art.

True tales of lost art, built around case studies of famous works, their creators, and stories of disappearance and recovery

From the bestselling author of The Art of Forgery comes this dynamic narrative that tells the fascinating stories of artworks stolen, looted, or destroyed in war, accidentally demolished or discarded, lost at sea or in natural disasters, or attacked by iconoclasts or vandals; works that were intentionally temporal, knowingly destroyed by the artists themselves or their patrons, covered over with paint or plaster, or recycled for their materials. An exciting read that spans the centuries and the continents.

The first-ever reference to the sign left by insects and other North American invertebrates includes descriptions and almost 1,000 color photos of tracks, egg cases, nests, feeding signs, galls, webs, burrows, and signs of predation. Identification is made to the family level, sometimes to the genus or species. It's an invaluable guide for wildlife professionals, naturalists, students, and insect specialists.

The book is organized into five parts:

?Fraud and Forgery
?Law, Policing, and Policy
?Art, Crime, and Popular Culture
?Theft and Security, and
?War, Conflict, and Art.

This book is the latest on art crime by the founder of ARCA, Dr. Noah Charney, widely considered the world's leading authority on the history of art crime. His work on the subject has been included in his best-selling, Pulitzer-nominated books and articles for major publications, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer, Salon and many others.

Brimming with examples from across the artistic spectrum, this is the perfect primer to hook future art enthusiasts. Publishers Weekly

Interested in art but feel under-informed? Curious but afraid you might not get it? Already a fan and wishing to immerse yourself in a fun, engaging, informative and informed read that will refresh and top up your Art History 101 and Introduction to Art courses from college?

The 12-Hour Art Expert: Everything You Need to Know about Art in a Dozen Masterpieces avoids the common approach of throwing hundreds of images at a reader and expecting them to learn from and memorize them all.

Instead, the book will guide its readers through a brief series of masterpieces of Western art--from cave paintings to sharks in formaldehyde. This book twelve chapters teach readers about art, the art trade, and art history in a thorough (though concise) fashion.

Each chapter is linked to one notable masterpiece, with references to others, giving readers a fixed, digestible number of objects that they will get to know in depth, and which they can use as a lens to understand the thousands of other, related objects that they might encounter in the future.

Museums can be daunting, and art presents a strange new language, one that certainly intrigues but is often intimidating and foreign. This book, written by one of the world's best-known art historians uses entertaining stories to break down intimidating barriers and invites readers of all ages for a one-stop immersion into art.

NFTs, non-fungible tokens, as collectible, digital, blockchain-secured files became an international sensation in 2020, with the trend in trading them peaking in the fall of 2021. Many sold for millions, and one even sold for $69 million. And yet what exactly are they, and why do they have value? This is the definitive book on NFTs in the story of art and collecting.

It is co-authored by an art historian who has written often on the value of art and the history of collecting. NFTs caught Noah Charney's attention and fascinated him. He, too, felt that initial knee-jerk reaction that so many who hear of a $69 million sale do: how is this digital image different from me clicking right-click save on my touchpad and downloading it to my computer? Why would anyone pay $69 million for something that's not f*cking there?

This book provides answers to these questions and far more. Charney sees in NFTs a direct parallel to the history, sociology and psychology of art collecting. He was recently a normee but he's now halfway inside the club--he is also an acknowledged authority on the history of art and collecting. He knows all there is to know about humans collecting things of no practical value but that we just really want. But then he worked for a period with two crypto-related companies, and got to know this world from within.

He's not alone on this ride. The second half of this book is written by someone who knows just about all there is to know about NFTs: Kenny Schachter. Kenny is an artist, collector, curator, professor, columnist and NFT influencer. In fact, he was listed in the fall of 2021 as among the 30 most influential people in the world of NFTs. He even coined (and trademarked) a term, NFTism. While Charney is an art historian considering the NFT phenomenon from the thoughtful but remote perch of his couch, examining NFTs historical and within the context of collecting and the value of art, Kenny has been in the field more than anyone, even during the pandemic, zipping from London to Zurich to Art Basel Switzerland to Art Basel Miami. He has his finger on the virtual, digital pulse of this fascinating, bizarre, hugely lucrative phenomenon.

Welcome to the definitive book on NFTs.

The book is organized into five parts:

?Fraud and Forgery
?Law, Policing, and Policy
?Art, Crime, and Popular Culture
?Theft and Security, and
?War, Conflict, and Art.

This book is the latest on art crime by the founder of ARCA, Dr. Noah Charney, widely considered the world's leading authority on the history of art crime. His work on the subject has been included in his best-selling, Pulitzer-nominated books and articles for major publications, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer, Salon and many others.

This richly illustrated book introduces readers to the golden one, as Rebula has been lovingly described. Rebula grapes, an ancient varietal once prized by princes and popes, are indigenous to the region that now straddles the border between Italy and Slovenia. On the Italian side the area is called Collio, in Slovenia Goriska Brda. It has been rated by experts as among the top five wine terroirs on the planet, shoulder to shoulder with Bordeaux and Tuscany. Wine experts agree, calling Rebula a dream wine of a new age. Rebula was rated the World's Best Wine in 2010 by sommelier Luca Gardini, and a Rebula has received an astounding 100 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale.

Beautifully designed with full-color photographs, the book recounts the fascinating story of Rebula and the history of wine in what was once Yugoslavia and is now Slovenia. The protagonist is a remarkable vintner, Zvonimir Simčič, one of the founders of what was Yugoslavia's most important winery before the country fragmented. Almost single-handedly responsible for the preservation of Rebula, he resurrected the forgotten varietal and transformed his home region, spectacular Goriska Brda, from a poverty-stricken area into one of the globe's great wine destinations.

Pulitzer finalist Noah Charney provides a personal, humorous, deeply engaged travelogue through the little-known world of Slovenian wine that will delight adventurous travelers and wine lovers everywhere.

It's an in-depth look at varied time periods and artists, which readers interested in gossip, drama, or art history will enjoy. Library Journal, Starred Review

Scandal, shock and rivalry all have negative connotations, don't they? They can be catastrophic to businesses and individual careers. A whiff of scandal can turn a politician into a smoking ruin.

But these potentially disastrous negatives can and have spurred the world of fine art to new heights. A look at the history of art tells us that rivalries have, in fact, not only benefited the course of art, from ancient times to the present, but have also helped shape our narrative of art, lending it a sense of drama that it might otherwise lack, and therefore drawing the interest of a public who might not be drawn to the objects alone. There would be no Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo had rival Raphael not tricked the pope into assigning him the commission, certain that Michelangelo, who had never before worked with frescoes, would botch the job and become a laughing stock.

Scandal and shock have proven to be powerful weapons when harnessed and wielded willfully and well. That scandal is good for exposure has been so obviously the case that many artists have courted it intentionally, which we will define as shock: intentionally overturning expectations of the majority in a way that traditionalist find dismaying or upsetting, but which a certain minority avant-garde find exciting. From Damien Hirst presenting the public with a shark embalmed in formaldehyde and entombed in a glass case to Marcel Duchamp trying to convince the art community that a urinal is a great sculpture shock has been a key promotional tool.

The Devil in the Gallery is a guided tour of the history of art through it scandals, rivalries, and shocking acts, each of which resulted in a positive step forward for art in general and, in most cases, for the careers of the artists in question. In addition to telling dozens of stories, lavishly illustrated in full color, of such dramatic moments and arguing how they not only affected the history of art but affected it for the better, we will also examine the proactive role of the recipients of these intentionally dramatic actions: The art historians, the critics and even you, the general public.

The Devil likes to lurk in dark corners of the art world, morphing into many forms.

Let us shed light upon him.

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was a man of many talents--a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar--but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari's extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari's visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift.

Lauded by Sarah Bakewell as insightful, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable, The Collector of Lives reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art.