Welcome to Litsy!

Unbelievable true story of the world‘s most successful (and eccentric) art thief. The writing is easy to follow, and the subject matter is clearly well-researched. The story itself is so incredible it almost seems like fiction at times. Would definitely recommend!

#WeeklyFavorites

Favorite of the month is a toss up between Sovereign and Three Holidays.

@Read4life

#TenBeforeTheEnd #6. #52Bookclub24 #MusicalInstrumentonCover. #NonfictionNovember

A light pick for this book about a young man with a certain set of skills who became a master art thief. It was a fairly slow but interesting read. 3.5 🌟

@ChaoticMissAdventures

This was an interesting story but I was irked that Michael referred to Stéphane Breitwieser as Breitwieser and everyone else, including his mother, got the last name treatment but Breitwieser's girlfriend & coconspirator was referred to only by her first name. It's so disrespectful and shows such disdain for a woman when she gets the first name treatment but men do not.

#Two4Tuesday

1) Sunsets Like you I‘m rarely up in time to see a sunrise.
2) Belgium, museums, theft

Just started the tagged book today in the hopes that it occupies my mind. Tagging everyone with a reminder to go vote if you haven‘t and play along if like me you need distraction. Added pics just because.

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView

Another one I read in my holidays. The story of a guy who steals art all over Europe, just to put it up and admire it in his attic. It took me half the book to realise that it‘s a true story. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into this world, still it didn‘t manage to completely grip me.

What a wonderful birthday package @AmyG Thank you soooo much. I love the sound of this book - and the calendar is perfect. That vintage vibe is soooo up my street. Thank you sweet friend. ❤️

Another VERY interesting non-fiction read. Art crime is a very curious topic, and the story of Stephane Brietwieser‘s thefts is very compelling. With art at the centre, the motivation for these crimes becomes much more nuanced and complex than more traditional crime stories. In addition to this, the extent of Breitwieser‘s offending is truly wild to consider. A really interesting read on many levels.

Read 4 books this summer. (Read this one after reading The Goldfinch). This was an incredible ride. The fact that it‘s real makes it even more stunning. If you liked “Bad Blood” you‘ll love this. It follows the outlandish exploits of an unrepentant, habitual art thief. I think that what is fascinating to me about this man is that if he looked different would he have gotten away with his thefts? Or released when he got caught the first time?

#ReadAway

One of my July #Roll100 picks (# 66 “Any Library Book) I finished it last week & found myself totally captivated by the story of Stéphane Breitwieser, a prolific art thief who along with his girlfriend stole more than $2 billion worth of art from museums throughout Europe, keeping them in his attic bedroom. There are times I rooted for the thief but as his collection grew, his hubris began to annoy me. A fascinating true crime read.?️

Fascinating and just so sad.

#SaturdayVibes

Ran my Saturday errands, went to the craft fair & bought more cute local cards & managed to hang out at the coffeeshop. I read the first few chapters of one of my July #Roll100 books while I ate my lunch & then switched to writing out #LitsyLove & card swap reply cards before coming home & taking a short nap because the nighttime sleep just isn‘t coming lately.

Is there such a thing as a victimless crime?

I have to admit that I found myself rooting for this art thief who stole millions of dollars worth of art from museums, just to take them home and admire them.

His brazenness and his girlfriend were tremendous assets.

I thought this short audiobook was entertaining and thought-provoking.

“Protecting a museum can feel paradoxical because its mission isn‘t to conceal valuables but to share in a way that makes you feel as close to a piece as possible, unencumbered by any security apparatus. Permanently ending nearly all museum crime would be easy: lock the works in vaults and hire armed guards. Of course this would also mean the end of museums. They‘d now be called banks.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is kind of a fascinating true crime story of art thief Stephane Breitweiser. The amount of art he stole in less than a decade is unbelievable and he kept it all in the attic of his house. The audio was about 6 hours long and is my May book club‘s choice 😊

#SpringSkies

I used this book that #InvolvesArt for a different prompt about a month ago & mentioned my library e-book hold was 16 weeks. Today it‘s 10 weeks! We‘re moving on up! ? The book is about Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who stole around 300 pieces of art. ?️

This nonfiction book about a guy who stole art just so he could look at it from his bed is psychologically riveting.

#ItTakesAllKinds

The latest #TrueCrime book in my TBR, I‘ve been waiting on the library e-book hold for a while now & it‘s still 16 weeks out. ??‍♀️

(I borrowed the background from a New Yorker article about the book‘s subject, art thief Stéphane Breitwieser) ?️

I‘m so ready for the #hyggehour readathon this week. No photos because I‘m sick 😫 The worst of it was yesterday, so tonight I‘m in my jammies at 8 pm but feeling better enough to get some reading in.

Road trip today with hubby. Tagged book is our chosen audio to accompany us.

Bag #3 done of Family Celebration and so is The Art Thief. This book ? I love that I‘ve been to some of the museums Stéphane stole from but what a misguided sense of entitled nonsense; he was above working, SB felt museums didn‘t allow people to interact enough with the art so he took it for himself so he could. His mother is the real monster

My latest Lego set : Family Reunion Celebration 🧧I‘m hoping to have this done for the Lunar New Year ( also this book is bat shit )

Now on audio. Sometimes I think narrators sound familiar and this one really does - Edoardo Ballerini - so I googled him. He read The Last Painting of Sarah de Vos which I listened to ( amongst many many others)

Really well written. Engaging and fast paced chapters. But, dang, this story is depressing. A prolific art thief, an addict really, and a crime spree that eventually ended but so much of the art was damaged or destroyed. I knew a lot of this story from newspaper reports, but this absorbing story definitely fleshes it out in a riveting story of the most prolific art thief of all time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I was super intrigued, and excited, to read this story, but hoped for more of a narrative style. It‘s a bit dry. Still, Stéphane Breitwieser is a unique thief. Supposedly it wasn‘t about the monetary value, but rather, being surround by beauty … which he and his girlfriend accomplice kept hidden in his mom‘s attic. The mom is easily my fave person in this whole bizarre debacle.

The true story of Stéphane Breitweiser, an art thief who stole over three hundred paintings, statues, and ceramics from museums beginning in the 90's. He stole not for the resale value of the pieces but instead made his own gallery in his attic room free of security and the ability to intimately study and interact with the pieces. The book very much reads like a fictitious story which made it very easy to follow and was absolutely fascinating

Stendhal syndrome: a clinical phenomenon in which the presence of a beautiful artwork causes intense physical/mental symptoms. Stephane Breitwieser thinks he has it. 🤔 He stole more than 300 artworks in 10 yrs, estimated to be worth over one billion dollars. He kept them crammed in his tiny attic room for his own pleasure. He stole from museums, castles & churches…during their open hours with no advance planning! Incredible! Fascinating account!

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Movie: Capote

Both the book and movie are based on real events. Also, they both are about obsession.

This author delights in writing novelistic non-fiction about eccentric anti-social dudes. This true story about a dangerous obsession is really good.

A quick read about an incredibly prolific French art thief. Finkel focuses only on the thief and his accomplice gf who were focused and brazen in their pursuit of collecting stolen artifacts for their own personal collection. What makes them unique in the world of art theft is that they stole art to keep and not to sell. They ended up with hundreds of artifacts crammed in their upstairs room of his mother‘s apartment. Good audio!

This book was bloody fascinating! An art thief who stole from various museums in Europe not to make money but to surround himself with beauty. 2 BILLION dollars of beauty! Displayed in one room! Over 200 heists across 10 yrs. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.

Unbelievable #truestory

📸 https://www.michaelfinkel.com/books/the-art-thief/

#summerendreadathon

I don‘t know much about art but boy do I love a good art heist mystery. This non fiction book tells the story of Stephane Breitwieser, art thief extraordinaire who stole what they estimate to be over 1 billion dollars worth of art from museums in Germany, France and Switzerland. I was fascinated by his audacity and sped through this book quickly. There are some dry moments but overall a fun read.

#weekendreads

Spent the day celebrating my mom‘s birthday now it‘s time for my Saturday night plans…

At just over 200 pages, Finkel keeps things tight, his focus solely on prolific art thief, Stephane Breitwieser, so it makes for a quick, compelling read. On the other hand, he barely skims the dark and complex subculture of art thieves.

I finished this book feeling sympathetic for Breitwieser. I don‘t think he is a bad person, I think he is ill. Without explicitly meaning to be, this book is a perfect example of the stigma around mental health.

*sigh of contentment*

Loved this! Could the author have gone even deeper? Sure, but it was also great as is. An ideal quick slumpbuster or (as it was for me) audio distraction during busy/stressful times.

Stéphane Breitwieser stole more than 300 irreplaceable artworks, worth around $2 billion, from museums throughout Europe so that he could turn his mother‘s attic, where he lived, into a treasure chest. His mother‘s actions were even more shocking (and disturbing). A crazy and compelling read.

Michael Finkel has a knack for finding the stories of unusual men (so far, it‘s always men) who live in a distinctive way. Here he follows a man who started stealing art simply because he liked it, and kept up at a rate unheard of in the art theft world. And he simply kept it all to enjoy. Really interesting, quick read.

This was a wild story about a man who stole art from several places in Europe with the help of his girlfriend, seemingly just because he could. Interestingly for me, I had just visited Gruyères Castle, one of the places he stole from. I cannot imagine trying something like that! I read The Stranger in the Woods by this author so I knew he would do a good job with an unusual story. The book cover is pretty ugly in my opinion, but the story is good!

Such a wild story and of course expertly researched and detailed by Michael Finkel. Stéphane Breitwieser stole more than 200 objects of art in broad daylight in multiple countries across Europe over the course of 10 years with the aim to own them for his pleasure and never sought to sell them for monetary gain. While he was daring & stealth his girlfriend almost always accompanied him & served as his lookout. It‘s a shocking story of audacity!

When life gives you mushy 🍌🍌🍌🍌😁 Enjoying this new book from Michael Finkel. Boring audio cover compared to the awesome hardcover design. It‘s also pretty short. Listening time under 5 hours.