Author Interview: Michael Finkel on "The Art Thief"
Hello, listeners! I’ve got a special surprise for you this week. I absolutely loved this new book by author and journalist Michael Finkel, and I didn't want to wait any longer to share it with you. Finkel's latest book, The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, is about the world's most prolific art thief-- and believe me, his story is stranger than fiction.
If you’re anything like me, you love art-- and you also love a good and unbelievable true story about bad things happening to art, too. So you may have encountered the remarkable story of Stéphane Breitwieser, the world’s most prolific art thief, in Finkel’s 2019 article “The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief” (GQ). Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, carried out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years, stealing more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.
In The Art Thief, Finkel elaborates on Breitwieser’s story and ultimate arrest—how he was able to steal everything from sixteenth-century paintings to a seventeenth-century sword to statues and carvings and musical instruments, adding up to more than $1.4 billion worth of art. This book is a spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius. Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content.This is riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost. It will change how you look at art and the museums that house it.
The book is out on June 27-- listen now for our in-depth conversation and preorder your copy now!
About the author:
Michael Finkel is the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit and True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he joined me via Zoom.
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