Pantera Press acquires “The Curator” by Jonathan Butler

Pantera Press has acquired world rights to “gripping true crime investigation” The Curator by Jonathan Butler.

Part murder mystery, part queer history, and part portrait of Melbourne’s art world, the book investigates the unsolved 1975 murder of Brian Finemore. The inaugural curator of Australian art at the National Gallery of Victoria, Finemore was murdered in his East Melbourne apartment hours before he was due to guide Princess Margaret through the gallery, and his killer has never been identified.

“Drawing on previously unreleased archival material, personal papers and more than 25 interviews, Butler reconstructs the life and death of a charismatic, deeply influential figure who helped shape Australian art history while navigating life as a gay man at a time when homosexuality remained illegal in Victoria,” said Pantera. “The Curator explores the glamorous and dangerous undercurrents of 1970s Melbourne: the booming art market, queer underground culture, institutional power, and the violence faced by gay men in pre-decriminalisation Australia.”

Butler is a queer writer, broadcaster and community educator living in Naarm. His 2022 debut, The Boy in the Dress (Affirm Press), was shortlisted for Age Book of the Year and won Best True Crime at the 2023 Danger Awards. His work has appeared in the Guardian, ArtsHub and Meanjin.

Butler says: “Brian Finemore was once one of the most important figures in Australian art, yet today he’s almost entirely forgotten. Asking who he was and who murdered him illuminates so much about Australia’s cultural identity, lays bare decades of barbaric violence against gay men, and honours the mavericks, institutions, and trailblazers who shaped Melbourne.”

Publisher Lex Hirst called The Curator “a thrilling glimpse into a long-lost art-world mystery”.

“Jonathan Butler writes with such balance and insight,” said Hirst. “In his hands this tragic unsolved murder becomes a gripping but tender portrayal of one of Australia’s most intriguing queer historical figures.”

Pantera Press plans to publish The Curator in all formats in the second half of 2027.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions