Book Reviews (マイブック評)

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

June 21, 2026

Rice Alumni Book Club chose this book for us to read this month. At the beginning I was so into the book because I was not familiar with the subject of art theft. We learn only 10% of art theft has been recovered, except the theft at the museums. We learn about the history of art theft. Stephane Breitwieser, the subject of this book, had trouble growing up, and the only time he feels he is worth something is when he steals art, from paintings to a church altar which weighs 150 pounds.

The book goes on, and he steals more and more. Even after he got caught he could not stop because he has to steal in order to keep his self-esteem. When he stole fancy clothes from the boutique on the way to his book signing, I thought “why do I spend my time learning about this horrible addict?” He lost his aesthetics in “art”. He just steals! I understand he remains on probation and surveillance until 2031. The estimate of his theft is about 2 billion!

The interesting story behind this book is that the author of the book was fired from The New York Times Magazine in 2002 for fabricating parts of an investigative article. Liar on Liar!