What would you ask if you had five minutes with art’s elite?

Have you ever wondered if John Baldessari can draw? How Marina Abramović takes rejection? Or how Larry Gagosian became, well, Larry Gagosian?

Once hidden deep within their own minds, a new book has teased out 100 secrets from the art world’s most influential and elite – aptly titled, 100 Secrets of the Art World. Although it includes serious heavy-weights like the aforementioned names as well as Frieze’s director Victoria Siddall, Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson, and curator and Serpentine Gallery director Hans Ulrich Obrist, it manages to remain light-hearted and approachable. Expect quotes such as, “I read somewhere that one of the most important attributes of a successful art dealer is to be able to keep secrets”, alongside more surprising, serious art world mysteries: “I don’t know how to draw” (Baldessari).

Edited by Thomas Girst and Magnus Resch, the book is a more convenient alternative than having to sell an organ or take on a sugar daddy in order to fund your increasingly extortionate art degree. And it’s available right now, or get a preview here.

100 Secrets of the Art World is published by Koenig Books