Reddit reviews The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft

According to modern books on art theft e.g. FBI agent Robert K. Wittman's memoir and journalistic research into famous modern art heists, the answer is probably not, at least as far as art crime goes. While there appears to be evidence that there are criminal gangs who specialize in dealing with stolen art, it's extremely unlikely that their operations are being bankrolled by a secretive, wealthy benefactor who hides away his stolen treasures for private use. There is one book called Stolen Masterpiece Tracker by a retired FBI agent named Thomas McShane which claims that almost every art theft ever is absolutely ordered by some rich person who hires a team of criminals, however he offers absolutely no evidence to support this and quite frankly the rest of the book makes him sound like a bit of a loony old man so I can't say I trust what he says (not a terrible read if you're really interested in the topic though).





The boring truth is that, as far as we can tell, most art is stolen as a type of black market collateral or bearer bond. Valuable paintings and other artworks are often bartered for drugs, held as collateral on loans between groups, and sometimes used like retirement funds for career criminals. I can't recall which exact painting it was, but a few years ago I was reading a news article, and one of the works listed in Museum of the Missing was found practically by accident when police raided an apartment looking for a suitcase of drugs, only to find that the case had already been exchanged for the stolen painting.




The laws in various countries for the statute of limitations and ownership also make using pieces as long term investments reasonably practical. If a thief can steal a painting and successfully hide it from law enforcement for the period outlined by the law, they can legally claim themselves as the rightful owners of that piece, even if they were convicted and served time for its theft. This often ends up being a few decades but nonetheless, for someone who has no legal money to invest it's a tempting prospect, especially when the punishments for such crimes are relatively lenient.




Other times it's the thieves themselves who want to keep the artwork for their personal collections. A recent example is a French man (sorry for the wiki link but I can't remember which books he was listed in) who simply liked the art so much that he wanted it for himself. There was a similar case investigated by the FBI of a man in New York a few years back who liked to use his stolen art to help him seduce the young men he brought home.




tl;dr As far as art crime goes, there are several motives for thefts, but as far as we can tell none of them involve a greedy billionaire hiring a gang to provide him with his own secret room of treasures. It's certainly possible that statistically there are one or two people like that in the world, but even if this were the case it would only account for a very tiny percentage of art thefts. In reality it's mostly just regular people being greedy.


If you're interested in learning about art crime I highly suggest starting with The Rescue Artist by Edward Dolnick. He's a good writer and is very thorough in his research. Other books I've enjoyed in addition to the ones I already linked are Provenance, The Forger's Spell, and The Gardener Heist. There are plenty of other great books on thefts throughout the more modern era, such as The Napoleon of Crime and Flawless that aren't strictly art related but still good reads.




*Sorry I don't list more specific citations, but it's been a while since I've read most of these and it's hard to remember which information came from which books or was shared among several books.



Edit: typo

The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser is an awesome book. I read it a couple years ago and was extremely intrigued when I heard Whitey Bulger was arrested. He was a main player in the book, I wonder if anything related to the art theft will come from his current trial.

As previously mentioned, The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser is a 'classic' in terms of art crime books. I would certainly recommend it,
along with The Art of Forgery by Noah Charney! Very, very informative, focuses on a lot of different cases. It's published by Phaidon, which can be a bit pricy, but I'd recommend checking out their website if your sibling is into art/history. They're notoriously good quality, and I'm sure you can find some of their stuff for cheaper on Amazon!

On a sidenote, I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger by Ken Perenyi is also a good read. It's the autobiography of an art forger who was active largely in the 60's-70's. It's moreso a memoir than anything else, but there's still some good chunks of information in it, and he does discussing running into trouble with the FBI. Personally, I really enjoyed it.

Some more suggestions: Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman (haven't read it, but it gets good reviews on Amazon), The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World by Anthony M. Moore (very basic, contains mostly well-known mysteries, but still good), Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith (fiction, nonetheless a good read, focused on art forgery), The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (won the pulitzer prize for fiction a couple years back, one of my favorite books).

Hope this helps! I'll add more if I think of any! :)

There are two books about this case, both of which I recommend: The Gardner Heist, by Ulrich Boser, and Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkjian. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and neither are definitive, but you'll have a pretty good picture of the case once you've read them.

They might like this book? https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Rembrandts-Untold-Stories-Notorious/dp/0230339905

In the recommended books there's also this one: https://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Heist-Worlds-Largest-Unsolved/dp/0061451843/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0061451843&pd_rd_r=1Q9BEAD93T7CM3ZAGAB9&pd_rd_w=TH7c7&pd_rd_wg=3oa6j&psc=1&refRID=1Q9BEAD93T7CM3ZAGAB9