Customer Reviews

Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I work for a global insurance broker with an international art practice that insures many of the world's great museums. I am also an avid art collector. Unlike Christian and Doomjesse, I found this book very useful for the opposite reasons. Personally, I found the "breezy" style of writing a pleasant change from the scholarly style of most art books I read. This is a great overview that anyone can understand. The illustrations are wonderful. We need more books on art that entertain and perhaps, for the novice, stimulate further interest in a subject. While it is a valid criticism to say that this book is not a comprehensive history, I came away wanting to know more and I can talk to my associates in the art practice in a more educated manner.

This is a nice beginner. It doesn't give an in-depth story of most crimes except the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum theft. The author seems mostly interested in paintings (though a quick mention of a few sculpture thefts is included). It barely covers any thefts in Africa, Asia (excluding Russia), or Latin America. So basically you're left with a beginners text on American and European museum thefts.

On the plus side it is well laid out with lots of pictures including some full page pictures of missing art. Overall, it's a pretty coffee table book that most people can easily read. I just wanted a little more depth.

This books seems to serve as the underlying notes for the novel and just published book, "The Art Thief", by Noah Charney, which is a very twisty and complicated "Who Done It" about multiple art thefts.

This one is an interesting read. However, I would leave "The Art Thief" on the shelf for someone else to steal.

I thought the topic was very interesting but the book skimped over the deatils - either it was trying to cover too broad a topic or each missing object was not covered in enough depth...there are fascinating stories behind these thefts and I got no sense of who had stolen the art works or why they had taken such 'criminal' risks.

I read this book cover to cover in two days, as part of the research for a lecture series I am hosting. I found it interesting and generally informative, but rather broad.

While there is quite a lot of detail on specific cases, including the stories of art that was stolen and what happened to it, the information is relayed rather anecdotally, making referencing or research quite difficult. In my case, I found it helpful to take notes about these specific cases and record page numbers so I could find the information later. Specific cases weren't indexed or organized easily enough to find later).

Furthermore, while the book was a very interesting read, and covered a variety of topics, it was very introductory. Excepting the fact that there were plentiful details on the individual cases, the topics discussed were barely introduced before moving on to the next section.

I'd happily recommend this book to someone with passive interest in the topic or for someone seeking to gain a broad understanding, not for anyone with specific research interests!

The large color photos are nice, especially one before-after set showing how badly theft damaged Rubens "Tarquinius and Lucretia" (1610).

However, I'm reading "Rape of Europa" by Lynn Nicholas, pretty much at the same time, and the similarity of phrases is disappointing. For example, compare

page 56 of MoM (published in 2006)
"Hitler had ordered the destruction of all infrastructure in the occupied countries as German troops retreated so that the Allies would find only a devastated wasteland."

with

page 316 of RoE (published in 1995)

"...in August 1944 Hitler had ordered all military installations, utilities, communications, archives, monuments, food stores, and transportation facilities destroyed as the German armies retreated, so that only a wasteland would await the Allies."

Ignoring the redundancy of "devastated wasteland," the two phrasings seem quite similar to me and therefore "Museum of the Missing" seems a bit of a re-hash. Yet the "Rape of Europa" is not included in the Selected Bibliography of "Museum of the Missing".

I agree with other reviewers of "Rape of Europa" that photos would have filled a need to see the works Nicholas describes so intriguingly. However, I also see why -- her book was quite a feat, and adding photos would have likely doubled the timeline for publication.

While "Museum of the Missing" has nice photos and some charming anecdotes, I get the uneasy feeling that they've been told elsewhere, better.

Sorry to be unfriendly!

Noiw this is better than fiction! Exciting! Real life adventures of missing art and I enjoyed this book immensley and purchased several for friends. Don't miss it.

This is a book you will pick and and leaf through just for the art history if nothing else. What makes it so much more than just your average coffee table book is the little known details of famous art thieves and their craft. I loved the glimpse into the world of auction houses and collectors who are too rich to be famous in the usual sense. The subject matter is fascinating when presented in such a lucid and well organized manner. The illustrations are top-notch. A must for serious museum goers and art history aficionados.