Artist Tai Shani Pulls Phaidon Book Deal Over Leon Black Allegations
Black, who owns the art book publisher, has come under increased scrutiny over gruesome accusations detailed in the latest trove of Epstein files.
British artist and Turner Prize winner Tai Shani said she has withdrawn a forthcoming monograph with Phaidon, the fine art book publisher owned by Leon Black, in the wake of graphic sexual assault accusations against the private equity billionaire detailed in the latest tranche of Epstein files.
Shani announced the decision to pull out of the deal in a statement on Instagram today, February 17, citing “numerous horrific allegations” in documents recently published by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
"Behind these allegations, whose specifics many of us have read with horror, behind the geopolitical implications, the many unsurprising ties to the art world, behind the gossip, behind the observations about global networks of power, behind the spectacle of violence are human beings, victims: young women, children, often from precarious backgrounds, real lives exploited and destroyed,” Shani wrote in a statement on Instagram ann today, February 17.
Phaidon has not replied to Hyperallergic's request for comment.
Black, the former chief executive of Apollo Global Management and a current trustee at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), purchased Phaidon in 2012 as a personal investment. His connections to Jeffrey Epstein came under scrutiny in 2019, when it was first revealed that Black paid the disgraced financier $158 million for “financial advice” in the period following Epstein's first conviction for sex trafficking minors. Black maintains that he was unaware of Epstein's criminal activities and has denied any wrongdoing.
As regulators continued to call for probes into the financier's ties to Epstein, Black faced multiple lawsuits from women who accused him of sexual assault, some of which have been dismissed or withdrawn. Though these were reported at the time, the most recent trove of Epstein files revealed harrowing details of allegations pertaining to some of the lawsuits, including that of Jane Doe, who alleged that Black sexually abused her when she was 16 years old. Among the files are diary entries apparently written by Jane Doe and emailed summaries from her former lawyer claiming that Black bit her genitals and made her bleed.
In a previous statement to Hyperallergic, Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, said that “there is absolutely no truth to any of the allegations against Mr. Black.”
Estrich also called Jane Doe “a fraud” and said that Black’s representatives are seeking sanctions against the accuser and her former legal representative, Wigdor LLP, for “false and fraudulent claims.”
In addition to Jane Doe's lawsuit, which is still pending, Black faced accusations of sexual abuse from at least two other women. In 2022, Cheri Pierson alleged that Black had raped her at Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion decades earlier; she withdrew her lawsuit in 2024. Former Russian model Guzel Ganieva accused Black of defamation and sexual abuse in 2021, after Black claimed that she had extorted him following her initial claims of sexual misconduct. A judge dismissed her suit in 2023, citing a $9.5 million nondisclosure agreement payment from Black, who said they had a consensual affair. In both instances, Black denied the allegations.
Over the last few weeks, journalists digging through the DOJ's newly released files have uncovered new details pertaining to the Black-Epstein timeline. A report by Bloomberg found that Epstein advised Black on hiding his affair with Ganieva, suggesting hiring a private investigator to surveil her after she requested a $100 million payment from Black.
It's not the first time Phaidon has lost out on a book deal because of allegations against its owner. In 2021, the activist art collective Guerrilla Girls canceled its contract with Phaidon for a planned survey publication, citing Black's ties to Epstein. Years earlier, the Guerrilla Girls collaborated with Art in Ad Places to install unofficial posters on the phone booths outside MoMA, calling on the museum to remove Black and Glenn Dubin, another Epstein associate, from its board.
Although Black stepped down as board chair of the New York City museum in 2021, after Hyperallergic published an open letter signed by more than 150 artists and cultural workers, he remains a trustee at the institution.
In an Instagram post today, the Guerrilla Girls renewed their message. “It’s time for @themuseumofmodernart to DO THE RIGHT THING and kick Leon Black off its Board! Are all those artworks he promised to donate really worth it?” the group wrote.
Shani, a London-born artist who works across film, photography, sculpture, and performance, explores the intersections of history, narrative, and feminist theory through her multifaceted practice. In her statement about withdrawing her book from Phaidon, she characterized the action as “an imperative not only for moral consistency, but to safeguard one's work, thinking, and care from being absorbed into a context that betrays it.”
"I think of withdrawal as a feminist practice,” Shani wrote. “Not a retreat, or a silence, but a refusal to contribute to any cover for the violence and the misogyny that underpin so many spheres of culture.”
