I was reading Daniel Silva’s book, The English Assassin, a thriller about European art treasures stolen by the Naziis and hoarded in Swiss banks and it occurred to me to blog about art thievery. Little did I know how many books had been written, or, movies created, about art crime. Here’s but a few that we have at the library!
FICTION
VENETIAN HOLIDAY by David Campbell (2006)
Art thief Kate Fujimori, formerly partners with her Japanese husband, Paul, has struck out on her own and is planning to steal a phony Mona Lisa from a gallery in Venice. What follows is a comedy of errors encompassing two other thieves after the same painting; a pair of bumbling monks trying to find the corpse of their abbot; and Kate's unwise affair with a police inspector, whose voodoo-practicing ex-girlfriend is hard at work stirring up mysterious potions. How readers react to this story will depend on their tolerance for violence--this is no cozy--and their feelings for Kate, who, despite being a glorified thug, is pretty darn cool.(Jenny McLarin from Booklist)
(Young Adult level) HEIST SOCIETY (2010) by Ally Carter
After a childhood spent assisting her father, one of the world’s most talented art thieves, Katarina Bishop tries to leave the family business behind when she forges her way into a New England boarding school. She quickly discovers, though, that her past is inescapable. Her father has been accused of stealing already stolen masterpieces from a dangerous Italian billionaire…(excerpted from Booklist)
(Young Adult level ) UNCOMMON CRIMINALS (2011) by Ally Carter
Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life: Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she’s simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That’s why Kat isn’t surprised when she’s asked to steal the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners.
ONCE A THIEF by Kay Hooper
It had taken centuries for Max Bannister’s family to acquire their treasures, and now he’s been asked to risk his collection as bait for a master criminal…
ALWAYS A THIEF by Kay Hooper
The priceless, rarely displayed Bannister collection is about to be exhibited—and the show’s director, Morgan West, can’t ignore her growing uneasiness. She’s certain she hasn’t seen the last of the infamous cat burglar Quinn. But she never expected him to turn up at her apartment one dark night in desperate need of her help—help she can’t refuse. The mysterious master thief is playing a dangerous game, and it’s a game that just might get him killed.
(Children's book) FRAMED by Carolyn Keene
This is Nancy Drew, girl detective book #15
Nancy Drew tries to free a prince who has been framed for the theft of a painting
STEALING MONA LISA: by Carson Morton
This will be published in August 2011, but you can put requests on it in our catalog.
With all the careful brushstrokes of a classic, Morton gives us a historical tale of deception and theft surrounding the actual 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Great characters, a captivating tale, and vivid descriptions of old Paris…. (Excerpted from Library Journal).
RELUCTANT BURGLAR by Jill Elizabeth Nelson
If Desiree Jacobs knows anything, it's art. Her father, whose security company is internationally renowned, taught her everything he knew. Most of all, he taught her about honor, integrity, and faith. So surely God will forgive her for despising the one man determined to destroy her father's good name? Special Agent Tony Lucano knows Hiram Jacobs is an art thief. What he can't figure out is Desiree. Is she an innocent victim...or a clever accomplice?
RELUCTANT RUNAWAY by Jill Elizabeth Nelson
Museum security expert Desiree Jacobs doesn't mean to get in danger's path. But when a friend is in trouble you don't just walk away. No matter what your overprotective FBI agent boyfriend says! So when Desi and Tony's date at a presidential ball is interrupted by a frantic Maxine Webb Desi doesn't hesitate to jump in. Soon she's neck-deep in a confusing array of villains. Did Max's niece run away or was she taken? Is she alive or the victim of a perverse ritual?
THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MONA LISAby Robert Noah (1998)
A fictionalized account of the real-life theft from the Louvre museum in Paris in 1911 of Leonardo da Vinci's painting, Mona Lisa by an aristocratic Argentinian who masterminds the operation, his assistant who is a painter good at forgery, and a crippled urchin who is the actual thief.
PAINTED LADIES by Robert B. Parker
Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Boston PI Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting. The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen.
HOMEPORT by Nora Roberts
After an assault at her family home in Maine, Dr. Miranda Jones is determined to put the experience behind her. Distraction comes when she is summoned to Italy--to verify the authenticity of a Renaissance bronze of a Medici courtesan known as The Dark Lady. But instead of cementing Miranda's reputation as the leading expert in the field, the job nearly destroys it when her professional judgment is called into question. Emotionally estranged from her mother, and with a brother immersed in his own troubles, Miranda has no one to turn to...except Ryan Boldari, a seductive art thief whose own agenda forces them into a reluctant alliance. Now it becomes clear that the incident in Maine was not a simple mugging--and that The Dark Lady may possess as many secrets as its beautiful namesake once did. For Miranda, forced to rely on herself--and on a partner who offers her both unnerving suspicion and intoxicating passion--the only way home is filled with deception, treachery, and a danger that threatens them all.
THE ENGLISH ASSASSIN by Daniel Silva
Switzerland's shameful behavior in WWII provides the backdrop for this thriller that opens with Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and Israeli hit man becoming the apparent victim of a double cross. When he arrives to restore a Raphael owned by reclusive Swiss banker Augustus Rolfe, Allon not only discovers the banker dead but finds himself the number one suspect…
THE ART THIEF by Noah Charney
Three paintings disappear simultaneously in Rome, Paris, and London. It appears the thefts are linked.
NON-FICTION
STEALING REMBRANDTS: THE UNTOLD STORIES OF NOTORIOUS ART HEISTS by Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg This is on order; you can place a request on it.
This is a detailed look at numerous robberies targeting works by the great Dutch master over the past century.
THE GARDNER HEIST: THE TRUE STORY OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST UNSOLVED ART HEIST by Ulrich Boser (2008) 364.162 Bos
On March 18, 1990, thieves disguised as police entered Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and stole fabulous artworks including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer. By a bit of serendipity, a contributing editor at U.S. News, Ulrich Bosner, inherited the file of an art claims adjuster who had been investigating the theft, caught the investigative fever, and tells a gripping story of the search that still goes on today. (from Amazon.com)
ART AND CRIME: EXPLORING THE DARK SIDE OF THE ART WORLD by Noah Charney (2009)N8795.A78 2009
This is a collection of essays by international experts about the nature and depth of the lucrative global business of art crime.
STEALING THE MYSTIC LAMB: THE TRUE STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST COVETED MASTERPIECE by Noah Charney 759.949 Cha
Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece , often referred to after the theme of its center panel, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, represents the fulcrum between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and may be one of the most important artworks ever made. It is also the most frequently stolen artwork of all time.
Since its completion in 1432, this twelve-panel oil painting has been looted in three different wars, burned, dismembered, forged, smuggled, illegally sold, censored, hidden, attacked by iconoclasts, hunted by the Nazis and Napoleon, used as a diplomatic tool, ransomed, rescued by Austrian double-agents, and stolen a total of thirteen times.
In this fast-paced, real-life thriller, art historian Noah Charney unravels the stories of each of these thefts. (Excerpted from Amazon.com)
THE RESCUE ARTIST: A TRUE STORY OF ART, THIEVES, AND THE HUNT FOR A MISSING MASTERPIECE
by Edward Dolnick (2005) 364.162 Dol
On a frozen February morning in 1994, two men in a stolen car skidded to a halt in from of Norway's national art museum. They grabbed a ladder they had stashed away the night before, and two minutes later, roared away with Edvard Munch's The Scream lodged behind the front seat. This is a true story of art, thieves, and the hunt for a missing masterpiece. This book won the Edgar award.
THE FORGER’S SPELL by Edward Dolnick (2008) 759.949 Dol
Han van Meegeren was a no-account Dutch painter during World War II who dared to forge Vermeer paintings and conned Hermann Goering into believing it was the real thing.
THE LOST MUSEUM: THE NAZI CONSPIRACY TO STEAL THE WORLD'S GREATEST WORKS OF ART by Hector Feliciano 709.744 Fel
MUSEUM OF THE MISSING: A HISTORY OF ART THEFT by Simon Houpt (2006) 364.162 Hou
According to INTERPOL records, more than 20,000 stolen works of art are missing—including Rembrandts, Renoirs, van Goghs, and Picassos. Museum of the Missing offers an intriguing tour through the underworld of art theft. (Excerpted from Amazon.com)
PROVENANCE: HOW A CON MAN AND A FORGER REWROTE THE HISTORY OF MODERN ART by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo 364.163 Sal
A tight paced investigation of one the 20th century's most audacious art frauds, which generated hundreds of forgeries-many of them still hanging in prominent museums and private collections today. (from Amazon.com)
DVDs
THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, starring Pierce Bronson, Rene Russon, and Denis Leary. (1999) DVD
(We also have the version starring Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, and Jack Weston)
Billionaire Thomas Crown, who loves courting disaster and winning, steals a priceless painting in broad daylight from one of Manhattan's most heavily-guarded museums. He meets his match in an intelligent, cunning lady insurance investigator.
STOLEN Starring Blythe Danner, Campbell Scott, and Harold J Smith (2006) DVD
This is the movie version of the 1990 heist on the Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
we will take common household 'collectibles'--metal coat hangers and hosiery--and turn them into works of sculptural art! Your child will learn about the history of modern/contemporary art and then twist a hanger into a free form design, stretch a nylon hose over it and paint it! This program will meet on Tuesday, November 8th at 4:30 pm and Monday, November 14th at 1:00 pm in the Children's Department. Each session is limited to 20 children (2nd to 6th grade) so you'll need to register about a week in advance. Call 832-559-4235.
