Museum of the Missing : : a History of art Theft

Locations
Call Number: 364.162 Ho
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	364.162 Ho	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Includes index.
Introduction -- Art as a commodity -- Theft in a time of war -- The uncommon criminal -- The lost art detective agency -- The space on the wall -- Appendix -- Gallery of missing art -- Acknowledgments and credits -- Index.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A Bit Too Broad submitted by Meginator on June 23, 2021, 5:52pm This book functions reasonably well as a general introduction to the idea and history of fine art theft, despite its significant sacrifice of depth for breadth. Houpt attacks the subject from a variety of angles, though his discussion of art as a commodity (which makes the illicit art market potentially lucrative for would-be thieves) feels too abrupt and doesn’t lay a particularly solid foundation for the rest of the book. Nonetheless, his descriptions of individual heists are riveting despite their brevity and the book covers a good range of topics, including the effect of war on cultural heritage loss and ongoing efforts to track stolen art and make it more impossible to sell (and thus, theoretically, useless on the black market). This left me wanting more, but as a first glimpse into this world it’s pretty solid.