2025~43. The Art Thief

Michael Finkel. 2023.

Who needs an historicalized fictional novel when there are real life stories like this one?  This non-fiction book about the world's most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser, would not be believable if it were presented as a novel.

​At the end of the book, there is a short description of the research done to gather the facts for the story, but I left wanting more information about the author and how he managed to amass all of the details he included in the book because it is a fascinating read.  The thefts happened all of Europe, in plain sight of other visitors and guards, in all kinds of museums over the course of a few years in the late 1990's and early 2000's. 

I also left wishing there was more to say about the psychology of not only the main thief, but of his girlfriend and mother, both of whom had behaviors relating to the crimes that left me perplexed.  All told the art was likely worth more than a billion dollars and Breitwieser was an entirely self-taught art historian and aficionado.  The writing was solid enough, though it is definitely written as non-fiction, but the story itself is such that it carries the writing, which is almost certainly due to the research and interviews that went into the process. This even included the author being present when Breitwieser stole things.

Recommend.

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