The Art Thief

As I finished each chapter of this book, I couldn’t wait to read the next one. Finkel’s book is a suspenseful and psychological dive into the world of a gentleman art thief.

The disappearance in this book? Billions of dollars in stolen art. The thief? Stéphane Breitwieser is a self-proclaimed art collector living in his mother's attic with his girlfriend and their treasure trove of stolen art. What compels him to steal? How does he get away with it? How does he eventually get caught? These are the questions that kept me reading! 

The Art Thief is a narrative exposition of the long and bizarre career of one of Europe’s most “successful” art thieves (200 liftings over a decade, across Europe, valued at $2 billion); someone who stole not for profit, but out of a desire to be in the constant presence of incomparable beauty (and, clearly, had an addiction). 

Some reviewers quibbled with the fact that Finkel’s is not the first book on the subject (who cares?), relied on speculative psychological analysis, etc. but as someone unfamiliar with the story, I found the book very entertaining, and read it in one sitting.