The Accidental Art Thief

The Accidental Art Thief PDF Author: Joan Schweighardt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781606190708
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
With a touch of magical realism and a collection of offbeat characters, The Accidental Art Thief tells the story of a recluse who goes out into the world to attempt to reinvent herself after her beloved employer dies, but not before stealing one of his paintings to remember him by. The painting, however, has significance for others characters, and their desire to get it back sets the plot in motion. "Zinc is an engaging, quirky, and utterly unique heroine, instantly likeable, with a hefty mixture of strong intelligence and overwhelming naivety¿. While the novel is realistic, there is subtle magic woven in nearly every line, as coincidence and confusion come together into what might be termed the wisdom of time, spirit, and love." ~ Magdelena Ball, CompulsiveReader.com, author of Sublime Planet, Black Cow, and other titles "Schweighardt populates her modern-day odyssey through the southwest with fascinating, quirky characters thrust into a complex (and hilarious) web of emotional turmoil, poignant misperceptions, and downright lies. As laugh-out-loud funny as it is thought provoking." ~ Julie Mars, author of the memoir A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister, and the novels Rust, Anybody Any Minute, and The Secret Keepers

The Accidental Art Thief

The Accidental Art Thief PDF Author: Joan Schweighardt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781606190708
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Get Book Here

Book Description
With a touch of magical realism and a collection of offbeat characters, The Accidental Art Thief tells the story of a recluse who goes out into the world to attempt to reinvent herself after her beloved employer dies, but not before stealing one of his paintings to remember him by. The painting, however, has significance for others characters, and their desire to get it back sets the plot in motion. "Zinc is an engaging, quirky, and utterly unique heroine, instantly likeable, with a hefty mixture of strong intelligence and overwhelming naivety¿. While the novel is realistic, there is subtle magic woven in nearly every line, as coincidence and confusion come together into what might be termed the wisdom of time, spirit, and love." ~ Magdelena Ball, CompulsiveReader.com, author of Sublime Planet, Black Cow, and other titles "Schweighardt populates her modern-day odyssey through the southwest with fascinating, quirky characters thrust into a complex (and hilarious) web of emotional turmoil, poignant misperceptions, and downright lies. As laugh-out-loud funny as it is thought provoking." ~ Julie Mars, author of the memoir A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister, and the novels Rust, Anybody Any Minute, and The Secret Keepers

The Art Thief

The Art Thief PDF Author: Noah Charney
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416550313
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Charney crafts an intellectual masterpiece--the mystery of three missing masterpieces that sends criminals and curators alike on a rollicking chase through the art galleries and auction houses of Europe.

The Art Thief

The Art Thief PDF Author: Michael Finkel
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1984898450
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
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.

The Art Thief

The Art Thief PDF Author: Noah Charney
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781408413944
Category : Art thefts
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
"In The Art Thief, three thefts are simultaneously investigated in three cities, but these apparently isolated crimes have much more in common than anyone imagines. In Rome, the police enlist the help of renowned art investigator Gabriel Coffin when tracking down the stolen masterpiece. In Paris, Genevieve Delacloche is aided by Police Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot, who finds a trail of bizarre clues and puzzles that leads him ever deeper into a baffling conspiracy. In London, Inspector Harry Wickenden of Scotland Yard oversees the museum's attempts to ransom back its stolen painting, only to have the masterpiece's recovery deepen the mystery even further." "A dizzying array of forgeries, overpaintings, and double-crosses unfolds as the story races through auction houses, museums, and private galleries - and the secret places where priceless works of art are made available to collectors who will stop at nothing to satisfy their hearts' desires."--BOOK JACKET.

Priceless

Priceless PDF Author: Robert K. Wittman
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307461483
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.” In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair. Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid. In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments. The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow. By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless. The art thieves and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners. The smuggler who brought him a looted 6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking diplomat. The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms from war heroes’ descendants was a slick, aristocratic con man. The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d filched. In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all.

The Accidental Snake Thief

The Accidental Snake Thief PDF Author: Matheu De Silva
Publisher: Don't Forget the Magic Publishing
ISBN: 9780615733760
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
What if our world was created by magical forces long since forgotten? And what if those forces could be harnessed for evil? What if ... they already have been? An ambitious and ruthless genius hunts down the secret of life itself. And from deep in the Amazon jungle comes the power to alter the destiny of mankind. Hazel, fifteen, is an ordinary English schoolgirl. Her biggest hope right now is to reunite with her Dad. But a chance meeting with an ancient snake changes her life completely. Enter a mad messiah, a rainbow serpent, and a mind-controlled public. With the rest of her family lost, it's just her and her brother Caleb against what seems like the entire world. And if humanity is to survive, and if she's to see her family again, Hazel must draw upon hidden strengths she never knew she possessed. After all, the Golden One is waiting...

Stealing the Past

Stealing the Past PDF Author: John Tillmann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781771086721
Category : Art thefts
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
It took Interpol, the RCMP, and the FBI over twenty years to catch Canada's most audacious and prolific art thief, John Tillmann. In this candid memoir, Tillmann offers his unvarnished life story, from childhood petty thief to his most brazen heists, working with a trusted brother and sister team from Russia, to the morning that he realized, as police closed in on his lakeside Nova Scotia home--stuffed with rare paintings, books, and a full suit of armour--that it was all coming to an inglorious end. In this fascinating tell-all, Tillmann, who wrote this book while serving time in prison, owns up to the crimes that put him behind bars and gives his own intriguing analysis of what drove him. Everything is on the table, from how he used methods like simple distraction through the use of decoys--once using his pet cat; usually his beautiful Russian wife, Katya. He describes their extensive dealings with the Russian mob (the Black Hand) and the tactics he used to once steal a van Gogh and a thousand-year-old gold Viking amulet. The exact value of Tillmann's art heists has not been determined, although he once possessed a very rare first edition of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species printed in 1859, as well as a five-thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy. By writing his story himself, Tillmann exposes both his weaknesses and his strengths, making no attempt to hide his unorthodox way of thinking.

Museum of the Missing

Museum of the Missing PDF Author: Simon Houpt
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 9781402728297
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Publisher description

The Rescue Artist

The Rescue Artist PDF Author: Edward Dolnick
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062041843
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
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.

Stealing Rembrandts

Stealing Rembrandts PDF Author: Anthony M. Amore
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0230337422
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
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.