Rumours fly as 'frightened' Freud biographer vanishes

A biography of the painter Lucian Freud, billed in a publisher's catalogue as an investigation into the "darker, hidden side" of "the blackest sheep in a distinctly dusky dynastic flock", may now never be written.

The artist's unofficial biographer, Nigel Jones, has left London after allegedly receiving "threats connected to his research" and his publisher says he is now likely to abandon the book, scheduled to appear in the autumn, altogether.

Friends were concerned for Jones's welfare after he left London suddenly last week following a period when he appeared "agitated".

He has since contacted his publisher, Richard Cohen, to say he is alive and well, but Mr Cohen says he now has little hope of publishing the manuscript. "Obviously I want to have the book," he said, "but there is something Nigel is afraid of and I would not want to expose him to any danger."

Last night, Mr Freud responded to the question of whether he had anything to do with Jones's departure by saying the author had "never attempted once" to contact him. He added somewhat obscurely: "Clausewitz, in his book on military strategy, put forward the proposition: 'First decide if you wish to win the battle.' This question has not been faced by Nigel Jones."

Lucian Freud, the grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is the most inscrutable figure of the powerful art and media family, which includes his brother Sir Clement, the former MP and gourmet, Matthew, the PR guru, Bella, the fashion designer, and the novelists Esther Freud and Rose Boyt.

The artist, whose stark paintings of naked women and portraits of his friends and lovers have won him the accolade of "Britain's greatest living artist", guards his privacy jealously. Few people are admitted to the inner sanctum of his studio in London's Holland Park.

Nigel Jones, who has also written a biography of the writer Patrick Hamilton, had intended to explore Freud's relationship to the Sixties Soho underworld. The biography would have been Cohen Books' autumn catalogue flagship publication.

As literary circles pondered Jones's disappearance last week, two other possible motives were under discussion. Had he taken his advance and run or were the publishers up to some pre-publicity scam? Publishing sources felt both explanations were unlikely. Jones's advance from Cohen Books, a tiny publishing house, was thought to be too small (probably under pounds 30,000) to warrant a vanishing act. And a biography of the colourful artist Lucian Freud, about whom little is known, would sell perfectly well without any assistance from the literary rumour mill.

Meanwhile, people who knew Freud well thought the artist would be rather enjoying the mystery. A well-placed source said: "There is a view in the art world that he is basically a badly-behaved old eccentric, given a lot of credence because of his Sixties connections with [the artist] Francis Bacon and the Soho underworld. I think he quite enjoys being thought of as a bit scary."

In the past, other writers have faced sizeable difficulties in investigating Freud. In November 1993, American Vogue published a revelatory-style article about the artist's private life. The following month, under pressure from Freud's lawyers, the magazine printed a full retraction and undertook never to repeat any of the material. The piece's author, Kennedy Fraser, had to destroy all her research.

A source at American Vogue said legal discussions between Conde Nast, the magazine's publishers, and Freud's lawyers had been complicated by the fact that a senior executive of the company had been negotiating to buy a $2m (pounds 1.28m) Freud painting at the time.

Ms Fraser still refuses to speak of the matter and no one contacted for this piece was willing to be named in any article connected to Lucian Freud. "The name sends shivers down my spine," said one woman. I have never met anyone who has such a power over people as Lucian. He's hypnotic."

"No one ever gets close to Freud," said a London art source. "For a start you have to contend with an army of QCs. He won his first libel suit in the Forties for 30 shillings and since then he's been off to court at the drop of a hat. And then there's his circle of influence. It's best not to upset people, because there are so many powerful people he is connected to. I'd really rather not have this conversation at all."

A journalist who had previously attempted to dig deep into Freud's personal life said she now regretted "having gone anywhere near" the subject. "You have to ask yourself: 'Do I really want to spend the rest of my life engaging with - being afraid of - Lucian Freud, a man whose tentacles are everywhere?' " she said. "The answer for me was simply no."

Future biographers, one of whom - a member of his inner circle - is already said to be working on an investigative book without Freud's knowledge, might do well to remember a more famous saying of Clausewitz's: "War is merely the pursuit of diplomacy by other means."