Reviews
Art world's Bonnie and Clyde?
Finkel shares the true story of Stephane Bretwieser and the art heists (plural!) that shocked the world in a gorgeous retelling.
I understand some readers didn't like how it almost reads like fiction but me, on the other hand, I had the time of my life. Finkel flawlessly weaves actual investigation findings, the truth about European laws and safeguards on art, and Bretwieser's unreliable perspective into delicious storytelling, you start to forget this brazen series of thefts actually happened in real life.
Bretwieser started out as an outlier in thievery; his primary purpose for stealing was not for turning a profit but admiring beautiful pieces from the comforts of his attic for free. But after one too many art pieces, historical artifacts, even fine churchware stolen, he starts to become the very thief he despises — stealing art with no regard for its beauty and preservation, and eventually, stealing for the highs of stealing. His once beautiful collection gets uglier as he adds to it and ultimately meets an ugly end; perhaps the biggest tragedy in this story.
You start to think "the sheer audacity of this thief!" but it becomes clear this petty obsession of "borrowing" art has exploded in his face, and he will probably continue to be a menace in the art world until he gets the help he needs.
He's right about one thing, though — the story of art has always been a story of stealing. His just got caught.
Highlights
Art may in fact have a Darwinian basis, perhaps as a way to attract a mate, though many art theorists now believe that the reason for art’s ubiquity is that humanity has overcome natural selection. Art is the result of facing almost no survival pressure at all. It’s the product of leisure times. Our brains, the most complex instruments known in the universe, have been released from the vigilance of evading predators and seeking sustenance, permitting our imagination to gambol and explore, to dream while awake, to share visions of God. Art signals our freedom. It exist because we’ve won the evolutionary war.
The story of art, Breitwieser says, is a story of of stealing. Egyptian papyri from the early written age decry the menace of tomb raiders. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, in 586 BC, hauled off from Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant. The Persians plundered the Babylonians, the Greeks raided the Persians, the Romans robbed the Greeks. The Vandals binged on the riches of Rome. Francisco Pizarro and Hernán Cortés, in the early sixteenth century, ravaged the Inca and Aztec. Queen Cristina of Sweden seized a thousand paintings from Prague 1648 and paid her generals in artwork.
The story of art, Breitwieser says, is a story of stealing...
Some grab works by wiring cash to a dealer; he acquires pieces with a Swiss Army knife.
There's a longer quote in between that highlights how everyone in the art world is basically complicit in theft in some way. This goes beyond petty looting.
Auction houses with their price-fixing schemes, entire collections seized during war. Leaves you guessing how much art in the Louvre are actually stolen... the British Museum.. coughs
If it seems that many of the museums that Breitwieser plunders are dangerously unprotected, that’s because they are...
In regional museums, there’s sometimes an implicit social pact in force. The museum will permit close access to priceless objects that are marginally secured, and the public in turn will leave these objects undisturbed, respectful of the idea that works of communal heritage ... should be open and accessible to all.
Breitwieser, with the support of Anne-Catherine, is a cancer on this public good. He rewards himself, and deprives everyone else.
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