Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures [Kindle Edition]

Robert K. Wittman (Author), John Shiffman (Author)

Book Description

The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.”
 
In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.   
 
Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.
 
In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments.
 
The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow.
 
By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless. 
 
The art thieves and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners.  The smuggler who brought him a looted 6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking diplomat.  The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms from war heroes’ descendants was a slick, aristocratic con man.  The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d filched.
 
In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all. 


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former FBI agent Wittman, who created the agency's Art Crime Team and pursued a lifelong interest in antiques and collectibles, goes undercover to hobnob with infamous art thieves. The ineffective, the stupid, the clever, and the dangerous; Wittman befriends them all, in order to betray them, a fact that causes him a certain amount of angst. Among other challenges are bumbling agency bureaucrats and government turf wars when attempting to recover stolen art abroad. A fatal car accident that Wittman was involved in early in his career shaped his perspective: "I understood that because someone made a mistake in judgment, it didn't make him evil. My newfound ability to see both sides of a situation-to think and feel like the accused-was invaluable." Wittman keeps the narrative interesting, and reveals himself as something of a renegade: "Under the FBI's strict undercover rules, you're only supposed to work one case at a time. I never followed that rule." Keep the lies to a minimum, he advises, and avoid working in your home town.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Almost every case he recounts has enough intrigue and suspense for a Hollywood screenplay.”--The Washington Post

"Genius... Riveting.... Should be a TV series."--Los Angeles Times

"A rollicking memoir... investigative details dazzle... PRICELESS can read at times, not unpleasantly, as if an art history textbook got mixed up at the printer with a screenplay for THE WIRE."--The New York Times

"Riveting... superbly crafted... absolutely, hands down the best book ever written on art crime."--Associated Press

“I can’t think of a better title for a book than this one, PRICELESS.  Because this non-fiction story is priceless, a spellbinding narrative of an FBI agent’s journey into the crazy murk of what is perhaps the most fascinating criminal activity of all, high-stakes art theft into the millions upon millions.”--Buzz Bissinger, New York Times bestselling author of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and coauthor of SHOOTING STARS

"Entertaining...crime buffs will receive a painless education while they enjoy a lively account of art thieves and the man who pursued them."--Kirkus Reviews
 
"Wittman's memoir, PRICELESS, is a fast-paced, gripping narrative of stolen national treasures and those who traffic in them. An undercover lawman armed with wit and adrenalin, Wittman exposes the darkest corners of the art world and brings to justice the dangerous criminals who lurk there."--Laney Salisbury, co-author of PROVENANCE: HOW A CON  MAN AND A FORGER REWROTE THE HISTORY OF MODERN ART
 
"In one riveting sequence after another, Robert Wittman reveals the art world’s underbelly as it has never been seen, through the eyes of an undercover agent whose investigative acumen is matched only by his art-history chops. A true page-turner."--Benjamin Wallace, New York Times bestseller author of THE BILLIONAIRE’S VINEGAR
 
“With suspense, intrigue, and candor, FBI agent R...

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1923 KB
• Print Length: 338 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0307461483
• Publisher: Crown (June 1, 2010)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0036S4BRG
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,844 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #13 in Books > Arts & Photography > Business of Art

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun, exciting read June 4, 2010

By C. W. Caspari Jr.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Very much a page-turner. Wittman's got a lot of great stories to tell about why we should appreciate art, how some government agencies have a warped sense of priorities and of course the fascinating ways in which some of the most infamous property crimes in history have played out and his role in them.

There are suave characters, misfit gangsters and plot twists that can make you laugh or cry (depending on how much of an appreciation of art you may have - and if you don't have much of one, you will by the time you finish this book). Some of the "gangster talk" is right out of Hollywood; you wouldn't believe it if dialogue wasn't culled from bugged meet-ups and hidden video. But it's all real! And its told in a style that at times borders on gumshoe noir, which keeps the action lively.

Highly recommended for a fun summer read; I think anyone would enjoy this international thriller and might even learn something along the way.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect summer reading June 2, 2010

By Sam Spade

Format:Hardcover

Priceless has just about everything you'd want in a book, with appeal to all sorts of readers. In light of the recent art heist in Paris, this is timely and fascinating. Wittman's exploits do indeed read like a crime thriller, keeping the pages turning in a breathless fashion. I'll definitely buy more copies as gifts!

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE FBI AND STOLEN WORKS OF ART RANGING FROM REMBRANDT TO "THE-BILL-OF-RIGHTS" June 19, 2010

By Rick Shaq Goldstein

Format:Hardcover

If you are a connoisseur of crime books that range from criminal psychology to the Mafia to serial killers and beyond... and the thought of reading a book that revolves around some of the world's great works of art... including Matisse... Monet... Rembrandt... Picasso... et al... turns you off... or just plain scares you... hold on a minute! I have a large library of the aforementioned category of crime books and I was extremely apprehensive about buying this book for those very same "artsy" aversions. In retrospect... I'm thrilled that I took the chance and bought this book anyway. What the author, Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent does so magnificently is he draws the reader in with the usual promise of FBI crime titillation... then educates the reader so gently and rhythmically it becomes an almost subliminal indoctrination into what I had previously viewed as a "hoity-toity" upper-crust world that was not meant for me.

Wittman starts you off with names that any layman would be familiar with such as Rembrandt and Picasso... and then takes you on the same educational journey he himself traveled... such as getting educated in a course at an art gallery that simply takes you aback when you're told: "ON THE WALL IN FRONT OF ME, SURROUNDING A THIRTY-FOOT WINDOW HUNG THREE WORKS WITH A COMBINED WORTH OF HALF A BILLION DOLLARS." (Picasso's "THE PEASANTS"... Matisse's "SEATED RIFFIAN"... and Matisse's "THE DANCE".) What the author does from there on out is not only illuminate the world of art... but he shares such a strong empathy for the people whose works of art have been stolen. At times the victims are individuals... at times the victims are galleries... at times the victims are cities and states... and at times the victims are entire countries. As the flow of the story engulfs you... you... like the author begin to realize that it's actually humanity as a whole that is victimized by these thefts. Being that I consider myself an "average-Joe", I never thought I would feel this way towards these magnificent works of art. That is the gift of this book. Additionally... potential readers will be surprised that valuable artifacts from the civil war that have so much emotional familial value have been stolen and in many cases passed hands by cold-hearted swindles. The author and FBI have gone to great lengths in reacquiring these priceless antiquities and it is all detailed in this wonderfully touching story. I would have never volunteered to sit through a class that claimed to teach the things that I learned in this book... and I would have been far poorer if I had not read this book. Who knew that there were *FOURTEEN ORIGINAL COPIES OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS*... and one was missing for decades? The author shines a light on the fact that most "ART AND ANTIQUITIES THIEVES DON'T LOOK MUCH LIKE PIERCE BROSNAN OR SEAN CONNERY. RATHER, THEY LOOK LIKE GEORGE CSIZMAZIA AND ERNIE MEDFORD, THE ELECTRICIAN AND CUSTODIAN WHO SYSTEMATICALLY STOLE MORE THAN $2 MILLION WORTH OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND CIVIL WAR RELICS FROM A PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM." (Note the color pictures the author includes in the book verify that in spades!)

When you finish this first rate crime story you will find that you will be quite knowledgeable in the art field without having made much of an extended effort. It's kind of like walking in a warm summer tropical rainstorm... it was so enjoyable you don't even realize you got wet.