The Art Thief

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. 

–Storygraph

MY REVIEW

Another book club pick to review! This one is for our nonfiction bookclub at the local library! It was a fantastic read. Finley does a great job of writing it as the same flow as a fictional book which made it easily digestible and kept me hooked. It’s also not a very long book and I flew through it. He gives us the details of the greatest or rather the most prolific art there of our time, Stéphane Breitwieser . An expert in snatching things in broad daylight and waltzing out, until he flew a little too close to the sun as the ease of it kept him going back for more.

Breitwieser wasn’t alone though and we git minimal insight into how living in his Mother’s home with his girlfriend was just an added layer to all of this. Not to mention we see how the women in his life are enabling or are accomplices to him and how it doesn’t just stop there. His whole life is made up of moments where people never told him no or redirected him and this narrative grows to show the man Breitwieser has become. An Art thief who steals for the sake of art and yet can’t seem to stop even as he’s aware of what it could cost him, what he could lose, and that other lives are tied to his.

Again, fascinating hearing about this compulsion he has and though I’d love to believe in the romantic notion of stealing art for the sake of beauty and art itself, I can’t quite convince myself that, that is why Breitwieser does it. What I love even more about that though is that Finkel doesn’t try to convince you either; he’s there to simply show you what has been told to him with a bit of dramatic flair (perhaps).

There’s a lot of interesting information and I enjoyed hearing the how of it all along with hearing about his capture and life thereafter. I do wish it had been more information, or more follow up on other aspects of this outside of Breitwieser but I really enjoyed it. The four rating was between the lack of expanding information and I wasn’t always sure the information I was getting was solid. It’s just over 200 pages in the hardcover copy I read and so it really is not just a quick read but a pretty short read!

4/5 Cups of coffee from me!