MICHAEL Gross interviewed art critic Charlie Finch for “Rogues Gallery,” Gross’ book about the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and thanked Finch in the acknowledgments — but then he made the mistake of asking Finch to review the tome.
Finch, who writes regularly for Artnet.com, told the author: “My basic problem with the book is that . . . you really don’t care or know anything about art. We all have our limited areas of expertise; art is just not one of yours.”
Falstaffian Finch, a Yale grad, also informed Gross via e-mail, “Certain stylistic peculiarities in your writing drive me nuts, including digressions about, say, what the Foxcroft School is . . . or that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand triggered World War I. Michael, your readers are not all dimwitted socialites and clueless male models (or maybe they are),” Finch wrote.
Gross replied, “Thanks for your honesty. Sorry to have annoyed you. The book is indeed not meant for art snobs. Precisely the opposite. But I didn’t think you were one. I stand corrected . . .
“Thankfully, thousands of people (probably including one or two dimwitted socialites, I’m not so sure about male models) who are not art snobs, but are interested in the behavior of the American power mafia, disagree with you.”
Gross made enemies with quite a few prominent New Yorkers connected to the Met Museum, including former director Philippe de Montebello. The author believes the book’s detractors have succeeded in getting the mainstream media to ignore it. “It’s my cross to bear that the servile, gutless bootlickers in the press are in thrall to that mafia,” Gross told Finch. “At least I know you’re not one of those.”