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

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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael, 364.162 Fi
On Shelf At: Westgate Branch

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Westgate Adult Books 2-week checkout	Express Shelf Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael	2-week checkout	Reshelving
Downtown First Floor 2-week checkout	Express Shelf 364.162 Fi	2-week checkout	Due 05-08-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	364.162 Fi	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	364.162 Fi	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	364.162 Fi	4-week checkout	Due 05-19-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-11-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-12-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / True Crime / Finkel, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024

"This is a Borzoi book"--Colophon.
"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 ten 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, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them to his heart's content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to assess practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtakingly 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"-- Provided by publisher.

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Brisk and Captivating submitted by cdunlop on October 16, 2023, 8:31pm Stéphane Breitwieser loved art. A lot. He also felt that objects that tickled his aesthetic fancy should not be shored up in fusty museums, untouchable by his hands. Instead, they should populate his two attic rooms, which he shared with his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, available for their private enjoyment. (What could be more pleasurable than reaching over to one's bedside table and caressing an ivory carving of Adam & Eve that was once owned by Peter Paul Rubens?)

The couple visited a variety of art museums and churches across Europe, eventually stealing some 300 pieces, valued at a total of $2 billion. Eventually, they were caught, but old habits die hard, and Breitwieser continued in his errant ways, getting caught again on multiple occasions. Although some of the stolen artworks were eventually recovered after being dumped in a canal, it appears that many others were destroyed in a fire set by Breitwieser's mother.

Author Michael Finkel chronicles many of the audacious thefts so meticulously and vividly that the reader gets the feeling of standing right beside Breitwieser as he carries them out. Finkel's account is based on interviews that Breitwieser granted him, along with police reports and psychological assessments to which Breitwieser was subjected by the court. Various theories are offered to account for Breitwieser's compulsion, but none seems entirely satisfactory. In the end, Breitwieser simply succumbed to the lure of great beauty. And for that, he now languishes in prison for the long term.

Finkel's book is a highly readable account of crimes that seem almost impossible to have been pulled off successfully. Truth may not be stranger than fiction, but it can be equally entertaining.