午夜剧场

About two years ago, I wrote , a textbook explaining the laws governing art transactions. At that time, editor Tomotake Okada suggested that a spin-off introducing selected court cases might be interesting, which became the catalyst for writing this book.

Following Mr. Okada's advice, I decided to make this book for a general audience. Looking back, however, this decision was quite an adventure. While I had taken care to make Introduction to Art Law understandable even for those without legal knowledge, it still assumed readers who "wanted to learn about art law."

However, for a general interest book, it needs to be enjoyable even for those who "are interested in art but not so much in law." Therefore, I temporarily set aside the legal focus and selected 41 diverse cases from all times and places based on the perspective of "stories involving famous artists or works." These range from a Renaissance-era lawsuit filed by Leonardo da Vinci to Genpei Akasegawa's "1,000-yen Note Trial." I divided them into two volumes, introducing the background and subsequent developments of each case, along with episodes about the artists involved.

The real struggle began after I finished the first draft. Beyond the heavy use of technical terms and peculiar phrasing, the writing of legal professionals has unique habits. For example, because accuracy is essential in legal documents, frequently occurring phrases are defined as "hereinafter referred to as 'XX'," and names or dates are not repeated, instead being referred to as "the said person" or "the same day." Sentences are kept short, and style, syntax, and expression are standardized to suppress the writer's individuality.

These habits are deeply ingrained in me after many years as a lawyer, so I ended up having my manuscript rejected by the editor many times. After several months of hard work, it seems I have managed to turn it into a piece of reading material that anyone can enjoy. Of course, I have also made efforts to ensure it meets the needs of readers who want to learn about law and art transaction practices.

As is clear from the process described above, Mr. Okada provided immense support throughout the entire project. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to him.

I hope that many people who love art will enjoy reading it.

Makoto Shimada

午夜剧场 Press

232 pages each, 2,420 yen each (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.