James Beck (art historian)

He was an outspoken critic of many high-profile restorations and re-attributions of artworks, and founded the pressure group ArtWatch International to campaign against irresponsible practices in the art world.

He remained on the art history faculty at Columbia for his entire life, serving as Professor of Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture from 1972.

A turning-point in Beck's career came in 1991 when, as the world's authority on Jacopo della Quercia, he was invited to comment on a recent restoration of one of the sculptor's works, an effigy of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral.

The sculpture's restorer, Dr. Gianni Caponi, filed lawsuits against him in the courts of all four cities citing criminal defamation, an offense punishable by up to three years' imprisonment in Italy.

The book was an attack on the profession of art restoration, and was especially critical of the cleaning of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes which was at that time nearing completion.