Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$14.99

Available instantly

Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$16.19

Paperback
$16.20

$16.19 with 42 percent savings

List Price: $28.00

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 15. Order within 16 hrs 47 mins

Select delivery location

In Stock

$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

30-day easy returns

Returns

30-day easy returns

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$13.74

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. Includes dustjacket, if applicable. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. Does not come with CD DVD, if applicable. Access code has been used, if applicable. Does not come with any supplementary materials. Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. Includes dustjacket, if applicable. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. Does not come with CD DVD, if applicable. Access code has been used, if applicable. Does not come with any supplementary materials. See less

FREE delivery May 21 - 23 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery May 20 - 22

Select delivery location

$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by Vivé Liber Books LLC and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (135) from $12.28 & FREE Shipping

Follow the author

Michael Finkel

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession Hardcover – June 27, 2023

by Michael Finkel (Author)

4.3 4,476 ratings

Editors' pick Best Books of the Year 2023

See all formats and editions

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

View Kindle Edition

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$16.19","priceAmount":16.19,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"19","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"F45962CAU7gAC6bHsmEkKc%2BMVrxcuGtCd31BFEBKHtBGT70dWUXoi%2B1U%2FW9u%2FmiRBghmDdPzNJiCemTt%2B0phIWifXhTkFijG%2BqNXGoWwY5bDW8ynTd8jIt%2BglKv8C1UspWcKftQzwuH3AHjzp2x0Dw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$13.74","priceAmount":13.74,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"74","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"F45962CAU7gAC6bHsmEkKc%2BMVrxcuGtC40bM0cRkywUXXh%2Bqwf%2F9mb0fsNpTfYHxsP757ZuNsrBQ%2FyBYUJmoZ%2B%2FriNzR6hQV6UWX%2F1oCFE05Js9OPmLo%2BH96CD3LNodVpg6rMM7qz%2BK9kUyneIsT5Z7X0Cbzh%2FArHPwdfP3l7BrJ0K0FXvofqQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser. • “The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing."—The New Yorker

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Lit Hub

"Enthralling." —The Wall Street Journal

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

Frequently bought together

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

$16.19

Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$17.95

Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$18.77

Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Choose items to buy together.

Michael Finkel
9,766
Paperback
174 offers from $1.35
Amanda Peters
12,181
Hardcover
87 offers from $12.97
Michael Finkel
1,454
Paperback
58 offers from $3.09
Helen Elaine Lee
443
Paperback
56 offers from $9.67
David Grann
27,565
Hardcover
in Chile Travel Guides
177 offers from $8.00
James McBride
47,776
Paperback
68 offers from $14.99

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of July 2023:The Art Thief is a blast to read—but also horrifying when you realize what the maniac at the center of the story is up to, and what his mom did to $2 billion worth of art to protect her loser son. Stéphane Breitwieser can’t resist filching priceless pieces from European museums, or, as he calls them “prisons for art.” As Breitwieser’s compulsion grows, readers are left agog wondering how he’ll up the ante, and soon enough: he’s dodging guards to throw an ancient tapestry through a window, hiking through a forest to retrieve it, realizing he doesn't have 100 feet to display it in in his tiny attic apartment, and then stuffing it under his four-poster bed. Gasp! This true crime tale is gateway nonfiction. The narrative, which unfolds over just 221 crisply-written pages, is a romp. The pacing reads like a thriller, with a protagonist who is either brilliant or a total dope—and probably a lot of both. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor

Review

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Lit Hub

“The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing. It is propelled by suspense and surprises....This ultra-lucrative, odds-defying crime streak is wonderfully narrated by Finkel, in a tale whose trajectory is less rise and fall than crazy and crazier....Part of what makes Finkel’s book so much fun is that, without exception, [Breitwieser’s] strategies are insane."
—Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker

"A mesmerizing true-crime psychological thriller....The Art Thief develops the tension of a French policier, where the crook (for whom you alternately feel sympathy and disgust) has Maigret or Poirot hot on his trail. The final outcome is a shock. Mr. Finkel tells an enthralling story. From start to finish, this book is hard to put down."
—Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal

"Enthralling...In animated and colorful prose, Finkel summons the emotional intensity of a murder mystery. But old masters, not bodies, are missing....The Art Thief is about heists, yes, but it also speaks to much more."
—Brandon Tensley, The Washington Post

“Exhilarating…Finkel’s narrative thrills and electrifies, until it all barrels toward inevitable capture, two shocking betrayals, and an astonishing conclusion.”
—Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire

“Thrilling…Finkel deftly unspools the story of Breitwieser’s improbable years-long adventure.”
—Geoffrey Gagnon, GQ

"Meticulously detailed, [a] page-turning account....As much a crime caper as a psychological thriller, Finkel’s narrative interweaves gripping descriptions of Breitweiser’s in-plain-sight thefts armed with nothing more than stealth and a Swiss Army knife, a concise history of global art theft, and psychologists’ musings on Breitwieser’s unconscious motivations....Finkel deftly keeps us swaying between great sympathy for his central character and profound suspicion."
—Jenny McPhee, Air Mail

“It is romantic to liken art thieves to Pierce Brosnan’s glamorous character in The Thomas Crown Affair. The reality is far less charming. Case in point: Stéphane Breitwieser, one of the most successful art thieves of all time. From roughly 1994 to 2001, Breitwieser executed more than 200 heists. The book’s first lesson? Europe has a lot of understaffed historic buildings. The second? Even a kleptomaniac with delusions of grandeur can be made mildly sympathetic in the hands of a skilled writer.”
—James Tarmy, Bloomberg

"The Art Thief benefits from a built-in ticking clock as time runs out for Breitwieser and his girlfriend. Finkel controls the pace effortlessly, broadening and narrowing focus from the day-to-day of the thieves to the intricate plotting of their thefts and a history of art crime, as well as who steals and why. That combined with mounting dread for the artworks' fate makes for a heart-pounding read.”
—Maren Longbella,Star Tribune

"Finkel turns his extensive research and interviews into a suspenseful story that reads like a novel. He relates Breitwieser’s technique in vivid detail, and then shows us what happened to an estimated $2 billion worth of paintings, sculptures and other works. Finkel explores the relationships between Breitwieser and the women in his life, along with interesting bits of art history. A true-crime thriller that’s a work of art."
—Suzanne Perez, KMUW Wichita

"Finkel has crafted The Art Thief with finesse and élan. He tells his tale of obsessive desires and ornate objects in measured and unadorned prose; employs a supple structure that separates the multiple threads of the tale while also exploring their weave; and advances the linear plot with narrative strategies that not only anticipate its foregone conclusion without giving it away, but also incorporate into the unfolding events his retrospective analyses of them....[Finkel] manages point of view with deftness and purpose....The Art Thief...morphs from an entertaining caper story into a claustrophobic study in pathology...An absorbing but disquieting read."
—Charles Caramello, Washington Independent Review of Books

“This is an absorbing and astonishing portrait of a fascinating and complicated character—a riveting story of obsession and misplaced brilliance.”
—Kirk Wallace Johnson, best-selling author of The Feather Thief and The Fishermen and the Dragon

"In this masterful true crime account, Finkel traces the fascinating exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who stole more than 200 artworks...turning his mother’s attic into a glittering trove of oil paintings, silver vessels, and antique weaponry....Drawing on art theory and Breitwieser’s psychology reports, Finkel speculates on his subject’s addiction to beauty....It’s a riveting ride."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The tale of a strong candidate for the title of 'most prolific art thief ever....' Finkel’s play-by-play of each theft has the pacing and atmosphere of a good suspense tale....The author describes each acquisition as well as Breitwieser's simple but effective methods....Finkel’s extensive research, survey of art history, and hours of interviews with his subject combine for a compelling read."
—Kirkus

"A riveting ride....An engrossing true crime narrative....Obsessive crime, dangerous beauty, ill-fated love: The Art Thief is the stuff of noir fiction, made all the more compelling and audacious for its authenticity."
—BookPage

"From the opening chapter, Finkel’s tight prose heightens the drama of each theft, as Breitweiser and his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, who serves as his lookout, enter Belgium’s Rubens House amid visitors and guards....A fascinating read. Finkel will have art history and true crime lovers obsessively turning the pages of this suspenseful, smartly written work until its shocking conclusion."
—Library Journal

"The Art Thief is both comprehensive and completely absorbing. It will have you wondering, as judges and juries did, if the defendant is a career criminal or simply an aesthete."
—Lorraine W. Shanley,BookReporter

About the Author

MICHAEL FINKEL is the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit and True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

Approaching the museum, ready to hunt, Stéphane Breitwieser clasps hands with his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, and together they stroll to the front desk and say hello, a cute couple. Then they purchase two tickets with cash and walk in.

It’s lunchtime, stealing time, on a busy Sunday in Antwerp, Belgium, in February 1997. The couple blends with the tourists at the Rubens House, pointing and nodding at sculptures and oils. Anne-Catherine is tastefully dressed in Chanel and Dior bought in secondhand shops, a big Yves Saint Laurent bag on her shoulder. Breitwieser wears a button-down shirt tucked into stylish pants, topped by an overcoat that’s sized a little too roomy, a Swiss Army knife stashed in a pocket.

The Rubens House is an elegant museum in the former residence of Peter Paul Rubens, the great Flemish painter of the seventeenth century. The couple drifts through the parlor and kitchen and dining room as Breitwieser memorizes the side doors and keeps track of the guards. Several escape routes take shape in his mind. The item they’re hunting is sheltered at the rear of the museum, in a ground-floor gallery with a brass chandelier and soaring windows, some now shuttered to protect the works from the midday sun. Here, mounted atop an ornate wooden dresser, is a plexiglass display box fastened to a sturdy base. Sealed inside the box is an ivory sculpture of Adam and Eve.

Breitwieser had encountered the piece on a solo scouting trip a few weeks earlier and had fallen under its spell—the four-hundred-year-old carving still radiates the inner glow, unique to ivory, that feels to him transcendent. After that trip, he could not stop thinking of the sculpture, dreaming of it, so he has returned to the Rubens House with Anne-Catherine.

All forms of security have a weakness. The flaw with the plexiglass box, he had seen on his scouting visit, is that the upper part can be separated from the base by removing two screws. Tricky screws, sure, difficult to reach at the rear of the box, but just two. The flaw with the security guards is they’re human. They get hungry. Most of the day, Breitwieser had observed, there is a guard in each gallery, watching from a chair. Except at lunchtime, when the chairs wait empty as the security staff rotates shorthanded to eat, while those who remain on duty shift from sitting to patrol, dipping in and out of rooms at a predictable pace.

Tourists are the irritating variables. Even at noon there are too many of them, lingering. The more popular rooms in the museum display paintings by Rubens himself, but these pieces are too large to safely steal or too somberly religious for Breitwieser’s taste. The gallery with Adam and Eve features items Rubens collected during his lifetime, including marble busts of Roman philosophers, a terracotta sculpture of Hercules, and a scattering of Dutch and Italian oil paintings. The ivory itself, by the German carver Georg Petel, was likely received by Rubens as a gift.

As the tourists circle, Breitwieser positions himself in front of an oil painting and assumes an art-gazing stance. Hands on hips, or arms crossed, or chin cupped. His repertoire includes more than a dozen such poses, all meant to connote serene contemplation, even while his heart is revving with excitement and fear. Anne-Catherine hovers near the gallery’s doorway, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting on a bench, always with an air of casual indifference, making sure she has a clear view of the hallway beyond. There are no security cameras in the area. There’s only a scattered handful in the whole museum, and he has noted that each has a proper wire; occasionally, in smaller museums, they’re fake.

A moment soon comes when the couple is alone in the room. The transformation is explosive, a flame to the fuel, as Breitwieser sheds his studious pose and leaps over the security cordon to the wooden dresser. He digs the Swiss Army knife from his pocket, pries open a screwdriver tool, and sets to work on the plexiglass box.

Four turns of the screw, maybe five. The carving to him is a masterpiece, just ten inches tall yet dazzlingly detailed, the first humans gazing at each other as they move to embrace, the serpent coiled around the tree of knowledge behind them, the forbidden fruit picked but not bitten: humanity at the precipice of sin. He hears a soft cough—that’s Anne-Catherine—and vaults away from the dresser, light-footed and fluid, and reassumes art-watching mode as a guard appears. The Swiss Army knife is back in his pocket, though the screwdriver is still extended.

The guard walks into the room and stops, then scans the gallery methodically. Breitwieser contains his breathing. The officer turns around and is barely beneath the doorway before the theft resumes. This is how Breitwieser progresses, in fits and starts, grasshoppering about the gallery, a couple of turns of the screw, then a cough, a couple more, then another.

To unfasten the first screw amid the steady drip of tourists and guards requires ten minutes of concentrated effort, even with the margin for error shaved thin. Breitwieser does not wear gloves, trading fingerprints for dexterity and touch. The second screw is no easier, finally yielding as further visitors arrive, forcing him to bound off again, the pair of screws in his pocket.

Anne-Catherine makes eye contact with him from across the room, and he taps his hand to his heart, signaling that he’s ready for the finishing step and will not need to use her big purse. She heads off to the museum’s exit. The security guard has already appeared three times, and although both he and Anne-Catherine have stationed themselves in different spots at each check-in, Breitwieser is stressed. He’d once worked as a museum guard, soon after graduating from high school, and he understands that while almost no one will detect a detail as tiny as a missing or protruding screw, all decent guards focus on people. To remain in the same room for two consecutive security visits, and then commit a theft, is inadvisable. Three visits is borderline reckless. A fourth, which by his watch is little more than a minute away, must not happen. He needs to act or abandon now.

The problem is the group of visitors present. He slides his eyes over. They’re huddled near a painting, all wearing headphones attached to audio guides. Breitwieser deems them sufficiently distracted. This is the critical instant—one glance from one visitor and his life could effectively end—and he does not delay. It isn’t action, he suspects, that usually lands a thief in prison. It’s hesitation.

Breitwieser steps to the dresser, lifts the plexiglass box from the base, and sets it carefully aside. He grasps the ivory sculpture, sweeps his coattails out of the way, and pushes the work partially into the waistband of his pants at the small of his back, then readjusts the roomy overcoat so the carving is covered. There’s a bit of a lump, but you’d have to be extraordinarily observant to notice.

He leaves the plexiglass box to the side—he does not want to waste precious seconds replacing it—and strides off, moving with calculation but no obvious haste. He understands that such a conspicuous theft will swiftly be spotted, triggering an emergency response. The police will arrive. The museum could be locked down, all visitors searched.

Still, he does not run. Running is for pickpockets and purse thieves. He eases outside the gallery and slinks through a nearby door he’d scouted, one reserved for employees yet neither locked nor alarmed, and emerges in the museum’s central courtyard. He glides over the pale stones and along a vine-covered wall, the sculpture knocking at his back, until he reaches another door and pops through, returning inside the museum close to the main entrance. He continues past the front desk and onto the city streets of Antwerp. Police officers are likely descending, and he consciously keeps his pace easy, shuffling in his shiny loafers until he spots Anne-Catherine and they proceed together to the quiet road where he’d parked the car.

He pops the trunk of the little Opel Tigra, midnight blue, and sets the ivory down. Both of them holding in a bubbling euphoria, he takes the wheel and Anne-Catherine settles into the passenger seat. He wants to gun the engine and screech away, but he knows to drive slowly, pausing at traffic lights on the route out of town. Only when they reach the highway and he hits the accelerator does their vigilance fly away, and then they’re just a pair of twenty-five-year-old kids, joyously speeding, home free.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf; First Edition (June 27, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525657320
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525657323
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.66 x 1.01 x 8.56 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Hoaxes & Deceptions
- #8 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies
- #10 in Crime & Criminal Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.3 4,476 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Michael Finkel

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Michael Finkel is the author of "The Art Thief," "The Stranger in the Woods," an international bestseller, and "True Story," which was adapted into a 2015 motion picture starring James Franco and Jonah Hill. He has reported from more than 50 countries and written for National Geographic, GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Non-Required Reading. He lives with his family in northern Utah and southern France.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

4,476 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

C. Fitting

STUNNING! EXHAUSTING! FANTASTIC!

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024

Verified Purchase

I just finished the book. I’m exhausted, but WOW! Such a great read! It moves along like a train slowly leaving its station, picking up speed as we pass milestones of museums and art theft scattered over the landscape. (To call this a cautionary tale falls short. That’s like saying jumping into the Grand Canyon from the rim is like tripping over a cobblestone. It’s bigger than that!)
We pass 20-50 pages and the story picks up momentum. At around this point I suggest putting aviator goggles on, scarf tied down/hat pulled over the ears so one’s hair doesn’t whip-sap at your eyes. It’s zooming now, moving over ground quickly but thoroughly.

With 50 pages-out of 209-to go, the story accelerates at bullet-train speed. It’s stunning what transpires. Suddenly, or not so suddenly, we land at the end with a thud and a swift kick in the boot, jettisoned beyond the pages to admire the incredible craft of the author and what a great job he did driving his maniac story hell-bent while staying on the rails and depositing us safely at the end. For me, I was greatly impressed by the story much more so than that of the characters, and they were well drawn. (I’m still trying to figure out why Chip Kidd, the famous designer, put Albrecht Durer’s bat on the cover. They’re wonderful creatures but maligned by stereotyping. Maybe that’s the point? Loved the second half of the cover art with the sweet sleeping youth, ‘The Little Shepard’ by Francois Boucher. He could be a reflection of our youthful Art Thief, Stephane Breitwieser.)

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Berry

Art Thief

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2024

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book from Amazon based on their recommendation. The author wrote the book with narrative through out that explains what happened after arrests are made. I believe Mr. Finkel did an excellent job leading the reader into Breitwieser's gradual lust for stealing art. I really can't imagine how he ever thought this would end of well. Then again, I don't think he really cared. Personally, I believe he had a thirst for the excitement of stealing and since he loved/studied art why not. Breitwieser had worked for a short time as a security guard at a small museum and learned security or good security is not affordable for these size museums. He of course took full advantage of this knowledge.

After a bit, one theft became many and the reader may get a little fatigued reading about all of them. The detail is amazing on each theft. It seems Breitwieser has a fantastic memory with one description relayed by the author as him telling about each screw being removed to obtain a piece of art. So as I'm starting to think about skipping a few paragraphs, my attention is completely swept up by his capture. The story takes many an interesting twist and turn which had my full attention.

All in all a very entertaining book. Buy it!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Eric Selby

What a Wild Ride with These Two Art Theives

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

If, like me, you don't know about how high-end art gets stolen and, like me, want to take a trip with two of the best, then that trip is this book. It's not a novel. Not only will you experience how this couple--in their late twenties and early thirties--managed to steal so much valuable art but how they did so without being caught. Until, of course, they are. The author salts in interviews he did with a variety of psychiatrists who analyzed the personalities of these two, especially the male. They don't steal to sell on the black market. Oh, no, they love what they steal and keep all of it in their tiny apartment in France where his mother also lives, a woman who apparently either knew nothing of these escapades or simply turned a blind eye.

Helpful

Richard B. Schwartz

For Book Clubs, not for True Crime Readers

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024

Verified Purchase

This book has been sitting on my side table since late November and I am just getting around to reviewing it. I read it in fits and starts, putting it aside whenever a more interesting book arrived at my door. I purchased it because it was on the list of several ‘best books of the year’. Honestly, I can’t see why.

It was a difficult book to write because of the nature of the content. The author had to travel to many foreign climes, interview multiple individuals and familiarize himself with various artworks. I admire that and give him credit for his labors. The problem is that the book is simply not very engaging. Words like ‘spellbinding’ and ‘enthralling’ could only be applied by individuals who have very little familiarity with the classics of true crime writing.

The thief’s motives are obscure, in the sense that they do not follow from the usual actions and intentions of art thieves. And while this will raise the ire of the arts cognoscenti, many of the works that he steals (because of the constraints on him) are actually high level knickknacks. I give the author credit for assembling colored plates of many of these items, but there are no pictures of the thief, his girlfriend and his mother, all of whom are central to the story.

The actual thievery is depicted in a manner what might be called paratactic, the succession of statements without conjunctions or meaningful relationships. For example: I came, I saw, I conquered. That has the virtue of concision and meaningful context, but when parataxis becomes the operative plot principle you get something like ‘And then he stole this and took it home. And then he stole this and took it home. And then he stole this and took it home.’ Unless the objects are of great interest (these largely are not), we fall back on motive as the plot driver. That is discussed at some length but only wrapped up in a brief passage at the end of the book when the thief is compared, psychologically, with those who steal books. His relationship with his girlfriend and mother remain somewhat obscure. The fact that his girlfriend has a child with another man while the thief is imprisoned is not explored at all and the relationship with his mother (which turns out to be central to the plot) also escapes any rigorous analysis. While this may seem to be a quibble, there are no pictures in the book of the three central characters. These are readily available on the internet, so one wonders why they were not included. I will not characterize the thief and the girlfriend, but I will say that the pictures of them that are available are very suggestive of character (or lack of it). Why their images were not included is simply inexplicable.

Bottom line: the kind of book which will turn up in book clubs more often than in the library of true crime readers. Three stars.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Christina

Great Story Where Reality Is Crazier Than Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024

Verified Purchase

Sometimes reality is more crazy than fiction, and this is one of those stories. Great story about a man who becomes harder to understand the more you get to know him.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Lauri

Fabulous Book

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2024

Verified Purchase

This book is the true story of a man and woman who stole priceless Museum contents so they could have them for their own personal pleasure. Crazy that they were able to get away with this for as long as they did!

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024

Verified Purchase

Reading

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Buzzy

Great read!

Reviewed in Canada on January 13, 2024

Verified Purchase

A fascinating true tale of a very peculiar and successful (until he isn’t) thief. A wild ride with a little art history and very interesting character studies thrown in. My giftee loved it as did I. He’d insisted I read it after he’d devoured it over Xmas.

BJ

Must read

Reviewed in India on August 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

A beautifully portrayed horrific true life story…must read.. made my blood boil till the very end, the author deserves a standing ovation.

BRUCE CHISHOLM

Very enjoyable read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

Highly entertaining book - if you didn’t appreciate it was a true story you would like it was ‘over the top’ fictional - an unbelievable story well told.

Awordsworth

A great read

Reviewed in Canada on December 12, 2023

Verified Purchase

Fascinating, informative and an exciting read.

One person found this helpful

fictionreader

Fascinating portrait of an art criminal

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2024

Verified Purchase

This was a really interesting portrait of the man who stole artefacts and paintings from museums all over Europe. It seems it was surprisingly easy to do this, and it took a long time for him to get his come-uppance.
This is an immaculately researched book and the author is clear about what he doesn't know - for example the girlfriend's (accomplice's) story, and the mystery of how his mother disposed of some of these objects. Their love/hate relationship comes over well, and you can't help but feel sorry for both of them.
I gave it four stars because the middle of the book was quite repetitive with the description of so many heists, and I was impatient to move on to when the scoundrel would be caught! The last part of the book is gripping and interesting, and what happened to him in the end is sad but not surprising. I recommend this to art lovers everywhere.

See more reviews

Return this item for free

Return this item for free

Follow the author

Image Unavailable