Welcome to Litsy!

I know a family like the Breitweisers, the mother/son dynamic specifically. I could imagine Stephane & his mother's relationship so vividly while reading, her desire to protect her son at all costs. Anyway, The Art Thief is well researched and a fast paced narrative non-fiction/biography of 200+ art heists by a collector who just wanted to live surrounded by the art he enjoyed.

Book 156 of the year.

I read this with the #litsybookclub. It was very interesting and the art stolen was beautiful. I found myself going down a rabbit hole researching the art in this book.

Fascinating and wild ride! The story of an art thief like no other, his countless heists, his capture, and the aftermath. It's a quick listen, and I could not turn it off! If you read it (and I highly recommend it), DO NOT skip the authors note, Finkel details the incredible access he had to Breitwieser, investigators and psychologists notes, and more - it really adds a wonderful layer to the story preceding it!

Not what I planned on reading today (or even this month) but my hold came in and I was pretty quickly sucked in. The story moves quickly but ultimately there‘s not much depth to the narrative. The audaciousness of his crimes is shocking, but that‘s about it for me.

^p48 extra-ORDINARY

P109 “A meaningful collection […] offers these outcasts “a magical escape into a remote and private world,” and the collector‘s cycle of hunting & gathering, that primal human rhythm, is often the only activity that makes their life worth living.”

P109 “When the quest outshines the treasure, you don‘t want to stop questing.”

P 46 “Crime works best […] not with overpowering force, but when nobody knows it‘s being committed.”

^^P69, the fantasy

This book is so quotable, but feels like an undeserved rehabilitation, overly romanticized.

P 17 “To him, beauty is the world‘s only true currency, always enriching whatever its source. The person with the most beauty is therefore the richest. He has sometimes considered himself one of the wealthiest people alive.”

P 66 “Shady people have been peddling bright colors for 2000 years.”

P70 “Living lawlessly demands discipline.”

In crisp journalistic prose, a story of obsession & thievery. Finkel tries to get at the psychology of Stéphane Breitwieser, art thief for aesthetic pleasure rather than monetary gain, but he‘s just not that interesting beyond his extraordinary streak of success. Museum theft compared to terrorism in breaking public norms & societal bonds. 8 years of theft, 300 masterworks. Treasures destroyed in family drama. Lionizing a pathetic narcissist? 2023

Some exciting #bookmail today!

From the author of Stranger In the Woods, this nonfiction sounds wild! Will definitely be checking out. Love a heist story, especially in the summer.