Editorial Content for The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The back cover of THE ART THIEF announces that its subject, Stéphane Breitwieser, “is the most prolific art thief of all time.” He stole almost $2 billion worth of art from regional museums in Western Europe, but --- happily --- the story inside makes those boasts seem less compelling than the how and why of this “gentleman” art thief’s obsession.
"THE ART THIEF is both comprehensive and completely absorbing. It will have you wondering, as judges and juries did, if the defendant is a career criminal or simply an aesthete."
Based on hours of interviews with the thief himself, along with detectives, therapists, museum directors and others, journalist Michael Finkel has recreated Breitwieser’s 10-year stealing spree, relating the extraordinary stories behind his many “acquisitions.” As one therapist said of him, “Art has taken the place of society for him.”
If a passerby in Baden-Baden or Brussels saw them in the 1990s, Breitwieser and his girlfriend and accomplice, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, looked like a happy young couple enjoying a date at a museum, which, in a sense, they were. But once inside, Breitwieser, an "art collector with an unorthodox acquisition style,” quickly purloined masterpieces --- among them, Cranach, Brueghel and Watteau --- from sparsely protected regional museums and spirited them to his attic, where he and his girlfriend would admire them on their walls or shelves. Meanwhile, each day Anne-Catherine would go to her nursing job, while Breitwieser occasionally worked as a waiter --- until their next foray into a museum or church.
Though Breitwieser published his own version of events in 2006, this slender book strives to give the reader a broader perspective. It brings together the outrageous crimes, as well as the motivation behind them, coupled with the likely disposition of the stolen goods (which disappeared from the attic following his arrest).
THE ART THIEF is both comprehensive and completely absorbing. It will have you wondering, as judges and juries did, if the defendant is a career criminal or simply an aesthete.
Teaser
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 200 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 300 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.
Promo
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 200 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 300 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.
About the Book
In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the bestselling author of THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS brings us into Stéphane 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 200 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.
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini
