The Art Thief | Michael Finkel

I hadn't read any reviews of this book. I just picked it off the library shelf of "best sellers" that you get for 2 weeks instead of 3. Best seller? Really? OK, I'll give it a shot. It's a "true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession" according to the cover and for a good 2/3 of the book it completely delivers. Quick set-up: This French guy is way around the bend on art and starts stealing it from smaller European museums with the help of his girlfriend with whom he has a very obsessive relationship. Over the course of 8-10 years, they successfully pull off more than 200 heists and haul away the loot worth an estimated $2 billion. Without weapons, in broad daylight, after paying for admission to the museum. He doesn't sell it. He NEEDS it in a way that most people don't need art. There's insights from several psychiatrists and psychologists on precisely what type of personality disorder this collector/thief suffers from. I was ready to lobby Hollywood to make it into a movie! It is a real page-turner, on the order of Erik Larson.

Then, the "shocking ending" that was touted on the back cover came into play, and the final endgame. Let's just say it wasn't what I had been led to believe. Let's just say I was disappointed, maybe a little let-down. It IS shocking, to be sure, but not at all in the way I was expecting. Maybe that's the difference between documenting a true story and writing a novel. Different choices would have been made were it fiction. All that said, it's a rather riveting read for a long while and it's a very interesting story.