Download or read book The Art Thief written by Michael Finkel and published by Random House. This book was released on 2024-06-25 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Master Thieves written by Stephen Kurkjian and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive story of the greatest art theft in history. In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it. Nearly a decade passed before the Museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to 500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but twenty-five years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing. Stephen Kurkjian, one of the top investigative reporters in the country, has been working this case for over nearly twenty years. In Master Thieves, he sheds new light on some of the Gardner's most abiding mysteries. Why would someone steal these paintings, only to leave them hidden for twenty-five years? And why, if one of the top crime bosses in the city knew about this score in 1981, did the theft happen in 1990? What happened in those intervening years? And what might all this have to do with Boston's notorious gang wars of the 1980s? Kurkjian's reporting is already responsible for some of the biggest breaks in this story, including a meticulous reconstruction of what happened at the Museum that fateful night. Now Master Thieves will reveal the identities of those he believes plotted the heist, the motive for the crime, and the details that the FBI has refused to discuss. Taking you on a journey deep into the gangs of Boston, Kurkjian emerges with the most complete and compelling version of this story ever told.
Download or read book The Art of Sea of Thieves written by Rare and published by Dark Horse Comics. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A high-quality collectible art book featuring over 200 pages of behind-the-scenes content from the hotly anticipated, shared-world video game Sea of Thieves! With Rare's new high seas multiplayer adventure Sea of Thieves, players will crew up in search of fortune and glory on their quest to become pirate legends. Now, with The Art of Sea of Thieves, Dark Horse Books is pleased to offer an unprecedented look at the ships, characters, and loot of this revolutionary online gaming experience! Featuring hundreds of pieces of art with commentary from the game's creators, this gorgeous volume explores the creation and development of a fantastical pirate world.
Download or read book The Art of Thief written by Paul Davies and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the exceptional heritage, critical acclaim and tremendous sales of the Thief franchise, fans of the series will be delighted to add this book to their collection in anticipation of the new Thief game.The Art of Thief demonstrates the stunning concept and development art from the eagerly anticipated next-gen console game, Thief.The Art of Thief will be released day and date to coincide with the launch of the long awaited Thief game. The Art of Thief is the perfect companion for fans of the Thief franchise. The Thief videogame series has achieved tremendous sales and been praised by numerous respected media sources, such as The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The New York Times. The Thief games have often been praised for innovating the stealth genre and have accumulated a dedicated and loyal fanbase consisting of millions of people worldwide.The new Thief game will be heavily promoted as it will feature on the Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles, which have both received international media and online attention.
Download or read book The Art Thief written by Michael Finkel and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2023-06-27 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 "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.
Download or read book Hot Art written by Joshua Knelman and published by Tin House Books. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hot Art traces Joshua Knelman's five-year immersion in the shadowy world of art theft, which takes him from Egypt to Los Angeles, New York to London, and back again, through a web of deceit, violence, and corruption. With a cool, knowing eye, Knelman delves into the lives of professionals such as Paul, a brilliant working-class kid who charmed his way into a thriving career organizing art thefts and running loot across the United Kingdom and beyond, and LAPD detective Donald Hrycyk, one of the few special investigators worldwide who struggle to keep pace with the evolving industry of stolen art. As he becomes more and more immersed in this world, Knelman learns that art theft is no fringe activity--it has evolved into one of the largest black markets inthe world, which even Interpol and the FBI cannot contain. Sweeping and fast-paced, Hot Art is a major work of investigative journalism and a thrilling joyride into a mysterious criminal world"--
Download or read book Stealing Rembrandts written by Anthony M. Amore and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg's Stealing Rembrandts is a spellbinding journey into the high-stakes world of art theft Today, art theft is one of the most profitable criminal enterprises in the world, exceeding $6 billion in losses to galleries and art collectors annually. And the masterpieces of Rembrandt van Rijn are some of the most frequently targeted. In Stealing Rembrandts, art security expert Anthony M. Amore and award-winning investigative reporter Tom Mashberg reveal the actors behind the major Rembrandt heists in the last century. Through thefts around the world - from Stockholm to Boston, Worcester to Ohio - the authors track daring entries and escapes from the world's most renowned museums. There are robbers who coolly walk off with multimillion dollar paintings; self-styled art experts who fall in love with the Dutch master and desire to own his art at all costs; and international criminal masterminds who don't hesitate to resort to violence. They also show how museums are thwarted in their ability to pursue the thieves - even going so far as to conduct investigations on their own, far away from the maddening crowd of police intervention, sparing no expense to save the priceless masterpieces. Stealing Rembrandts is an exhilarating, one-of-a-kind look at the black market of art theft, and how it compromises some of the greatest treasures the world has ever known.
Download or read book Hitler s Art Thief written by Susan Ronald and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sensational story of a cache of masterpieces not seen since they vanished during the Nazi terror—a bizarre tale of a father and aged son, of secret deals, treachery and the search for truth.
Download or read book Art Crime written by Stefan Koldehoff and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling, eye-popping look at true crime in the billion-dollar art world. The art world is one of the most secretive of global businesses, and the list of its crimes runs long and deep. Today, with prices in the hundreds of millions for individual artworks, and billionaires' collections among the most conspicuous and liquid of their assets, crime is more rampant than ever in this largely unregulated universe. Increased prices and globalization have introduced new levels of fraud and malfeasance into the art world--everything from "artnapping," in which an artwork is held hostage and only returned for a ransom, to forgery and tax fraud. However, the extent of the economic and cultural damage that results from criminality in the global art scene rarely comes to light. The stories of high-stakes, brazen art crimes told by art experts Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm are by turns thrilling, disturbing, and unbelievable (the imagination for using art to commit crimes seems boundless). The authors also provide a well-founded analysis of what needs to change in the art market and at museums. From the authors of False Pictures, Real Money (about the Beltracchi art forgery case), Art and Crime includes a chapter on art owned by Donald Trump. It is a thoroughly researched, explosive, and highly topical book that uncovers the extraordinary and multifarious thefts of art and cultural objects around the world.
Download or read book Americanos Apple Pies and Art Thieves written by Harper Lin and published by Harper Lin Books. This book was released on with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Gardner Heist written by Ulrich Boser and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Boser cracks the cold case of the art world’s greatest unsolved mystery.”— Vanity Fair One museum, two thieves, and the Boston underworld: the riveting story of the 1990 Gardner Museum robbery, the largest unsolved art theft in history. Perfect for fans of the Netflix series This is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist! Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads, hundreds of interviews, and a $5 million reward, not a single painting has been recovered. Worth as much as $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become the Holy Grail of the art world and their theft one of the nation’s most extraordinary unsolved mysteries. Art detective Harold Smith worked the theft for years, and after his death, reporter Ulrich Boser decided to pick up where he left off. Traveling deep into the art underworld, Boser explores Smith’s unfinished leads and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including a brilliant rock ‘n’ roll art thief and a golden-boy gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse. A tale of art and greed, of obsession and loss, The Gardner Heist is as compelling as the stolen masterpieces themselves.
Download or read book The Swan Thieves written by Elizabeth Kostova and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. The Swan Theives is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
Download or read book Ruling Culture written by Fiona Greenland and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-03-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A major, on-the-ground look at antiquities looting in Italy. More looting of ancient art takes place in Italy than in any other country. Ironically, Italy trades on the fact to demonstrate its cultural superiority over other countries. And, more than any other country, Italy takes pains to prevent looting by instituting laws, cultural policies, export taxes, and a famously effective art-crime squad that has been the inspiration of novels, movies, and tv shows. In fact, Italy is widely regarded as having invented the discipline of art policing. In 2006 the then-president of Italy declared his country to be "the world's greatest cultural power." Why do Italians believe this? Why is the patria, or "homeland," so frequently invoked in modern disputes about ancient art, particularly when it comes to matters of repatriation, export, and museum loans? Fiona Greenland's Ruling Culture addresses these questions by tracing the emergence of antiquities as a key source of power in Italy from 1815 to the present. Along the way, it investigates the activities and interactions of three main sets of actors: state officials (including Art Squad agents), archaeologists, and illicit excavators and collectors"--
Download or read book Portrait of a Thief written by Grace D. Li and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize Named a New York Times Best Crime Novel of 2022 Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* *Washington Post* *Vulture* *NBC News* *Buzzfeed* *Veranda* *PopSugar* *Paste* *The Millions* *Bustle* *Crimereads* Goodreads* *Bookbub* *Boston.com* and more! "The thefts are engaging and surprising, and the narrative brims with international intrigue. Li, however, has delivered more than a straight thriller here, especially in the parts that depict the despair Will and his pals feel at being displaced, overlooked, underestimated, and discriminated against. This is as much a novel as a reckoning." —New York Times Book Review Ocean's Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. Will Chen plans to steal them back. A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents' American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they've cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they've dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen. Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism.
Download or read book The Rescue Artist written by Edward Dolnick and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-11-16 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police turned to the one man they believed could help: a half English, half American undercover cop named Charley Hill, the world's greatest art detective. The Rescue Artist is a rollicking narrative that carries readers deep inside the art underworld -- and introduces them to a large and colorful cast of titled aristocrats, intrepid investigators, and thick-necked thugs. But most compelling of all is Charley Hill himself, a complicated mix of brilliance, foolhardiness, and charm whose hunt for a purloined treasure would either cap an illustrious career or be the fiasco that would haunt him forever.
Download or read book Art Crime written by Noah Charney and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-03-02 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Second World War, art crime has shifted from a relatively innocuous, often ideological crime, into a major international problem, considered by some to be the third-highest grossing criminal trade worldwide. This rich volume features essays on art crime by the most respected and knowledgeable experts in this interdisciplinary subject.
Download or read book The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum written by Boston, Mass. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book takes you through the collection gallery by gallery, illuminating the art and installations in each room"--From preface.
