The Art Thief
By Michael Finkel
- Genre
- Art, Culture & Creative Life
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin Random House)
- Publication year
- 2023
- ISBN
- 9780525657323
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession is a work of narrative nonfiction by the journalist Michael Finkel, published by Alfred A. Knopf in June 2023. It recounts the case of the art thief Stephane Breitwieser. It was a #1 New York Times bestseller.
Between 1994 and 2001, a Frenchman named Stephane Breitwieser stole more than three hundred artworks from European museums and churches - not to sell, but to live among them in a hidden attic room. Michael Finkel's The Art Thief tells this improbable true story with the tension of a heist novel and the economy of a great magazine feature. Finkel is less interested in the mechanics of theft than in the obsession behind it: a connoisseur's love turned compulsive and, finally, ruinous. intendle recommends it as a swift, gripping read that also raises real questions about beauty, ownership and desire. Slim and propulsive, it became a #1 New York Times bestseller and a best book of the year at The Washington Post and The New Yorker. Few nonfiction books this compact deliver so complete a thrill; you will finish it in a sitting and think about it for weeks.