The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession [B0497]

2023 HCDJ in excellent condition. 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. 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. 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 with an estimated value totaling £2 billion, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Riotously entertaining account of Stéphane Breitwieser, a dude who absolutely could not stop stealing art. Short book, lots of brief chapters each of which ends in a cliff-hanger, read it in two sittings, and had a blast."; "Fascinating true story of the mind and life of a criminal art lover."; "Q: What happens when an entitled, babied man with a SLIGHT case of kleptomania is also a self-proclaimed art connoisseur? A: This insane true story! I had to remind myself multiple times throughout the story that this happened in recent times. The amount of priceless art this man was able to steal in this day and age blew my mind. I enjoyed the storytelling and how it felt like a fiction novel but was in fact a wild, true story."; "Note to Self: Don't mess with the Swiss police."