Review by Choice Review
Houpt offers an illuminating analysis of modern art theft, deeming it a "sophisticated international operation." He documents this claim through myriad examples over the past century that have resulted in the disappearance (and, on occasion, rediscovery or repatriation) of paintings, sculptures, books, and decorative arts. Recounted are notorious events such as the 1990 heist that left the Gardner Museum with empty frames in place of valuable paintings, along with less familiar incidents. In addition to outlining the details of these events, Houpt scrutinizes the perpetrators as well as the financial and cultural impact of art theft. He profiles unlikely individuals who have committed such crimes--from college students to security specialists, from art dealers and aficionados to emphatic patriots. A very brief bibliography of 15 sources is helpful; specific details provided throughout the text yield further references. The appendix provides details and illustrations of 64 missing works. Carefully researched and amply illustrated, Houpt's study will interest the casual reader as well as those seeking a brief introduction to the field. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; undergraduates through graduate students. J. Decker Georgetown College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
There's nothing as tempting to a thief as a work of art, it would seem, but it wasn't always so. Although Houpt shows how stealing art has been a sport of rulers (notably Napoleon and Hitler) for centuries, he traces the current epidemic of art theft to the inflation of auction prices that began in 1958 and continues to this day. When houses like Sotheby's trumpet their sales records--$104 million for a Picasso!--what's a self-respecting art thief to do? In this brief and lively book, Houpt laments the transformation of art into an international commodity and sketches a series of quick portraits of famous latter-day art thieves and the intrepid detectives who try to catch them. In a few cases, Houpt has already been outpaced by events. Munch's The Scream, stolen from a Norwegian museum in 2004, was recently recovered, and the Picasso sales record was eclipsed this year by the sale of a Klimt (once looted by the Nazis) for a reported $135 million. --Kevin Nance Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Houpt is best known for his vibrant arts and culture column in Canada's Globe and Mail. This his first book-length production explores the subject of art theft and its multivalent consequences, from its historical and ethical implications to the complexity of post-recovery restorations. It is one of the first books to cut such a wide and incisive swath across the subject, addressing everything from wartime looting and collector-initiated heists to the motivations behind other historically documented cases of art larceny. Each chapter contains three to four full-page, illustrated features that highlight thefts of exceptional infamy, profile the detectives and agencies working on art crimes, or provide a glimpse of the contemporary technologies employed to facilitate the recovery of stolen work. The concluding "Gallery of Missing Art" serves as a visual reprise of the thefts discussed in previous chapters and offers a valuable record of many works still unaccounted for. Informative and insightful, this book is highly recommended for art history and cultural history collections. With a foreword by Julian Radcliffe, whose London-based Art Loss Register reunites stolen artworks with their rightful owners. [See the Q&A with Houpt, p. 86.-Ed.]-Savannah Schroll, Weirton, WV (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
