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.
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