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Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art Paperback – March 6, 2012

by
Joshua Knelman (Author)
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Joshua Knelman (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars 13 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 360 pages
  • Publisher: Tin House Books; 1 edition (March 6, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1935639382
  • ISBN-13: 978-1935639381
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #628,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsOne Slightly Used Mona Lisa For Sale
By Amazon Customer on March 26, 2012
Format: Paperback
Joshua Knelman is a brave man. Not only is he following around known art thieves and looters, but he even risked his life to meet with the LAPD--all for the sake of his book. Part real crime thriller, part documentary, this book combs the world of stolen art. It's amazing to think how museums and the police treat stolen art and what they do to prevent it. Even some places, like Toronto, have no force that specializes in stolen art, an estimated twenty million dollar industry. The book follows different points of views, brings up some ugly history, and finally showcases the best and the worst of the art world.

This book changed my perspective on stolen art. I imagined a seedy warehouse with men in trench coats passing notes back and forth, but Knelmas' book opened my eyes. The book is fascinating and gripping from start to finish. Knelman's writing style is both informative and intrusive. He tends to dig a bit deeper than his interviewees would like him to dig, but that makes the book even more compelling. I loved how, near the end, Knelman brings up a question that is very powerful. Does any of this matter? It is one of the few times a writer actually looks at what they're doing and asks something like that. Hopefully, all of his hard pays off, but, for now, I am grateful for a look into the real world of art.

*Originally published for San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review*
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3.0 out of 5 starsThere are only so many times one can say the same thing and retain interest
By T. Edmund on September 12, 2013
Format: Paperback
Hot Art started with the promised heat of the title. Everyone likes non-fiction that challenges common misconceptions about a subject and art theft is no different. Knelman dances between cops and robbers in his personal interviews and stories about the global blackish market for art.

The first problems began when information started repeating itself - OK typically it was from different sources, but it didn't make the book an enthralling read. If you pick up this book these are a few things you'll be hearing about:

- Art theft isn't like product theft - no serial numbers

- Auction houses and art dealers are either as criminal or at least enablers of art theft

- There isn't much money or interest in funding crime fighting units for art theft, although this is changing.

The most interesting parts of the book involve a gentleman named Paul turbo-charged ______ a bit of spider in the underworld who can't seem to stay out of trouble.

Overall however this book was too long and too conclusionless to really enjoy. I respected the amount of research and hard work behind the piece, but ultimately the final product was a let-down.
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4.0 out of 5 starsReal cops and robbers dish the dirt on art crime
By Lance Charnes on November 15, 2013
Format: Paperback
One of the main problems with nonfiction is that it can read like…well, like nonfiction. Given that the real world is stranger and more random than anything we can think up in a novel, there’s no good reason for this.

Hot Art doesn’t have this problem. The opening chapter – with the author riding along with LAPD detectives en route to an antique-store burglary in West Hollywood – reads like the start of a detective novel, and I fully expected Harry Bosch or Elvis Cole to be waiting at the scene. If later on the book settles into some talking-head action, the colorful characterizations of those heads keeps things from lapsing into textbookism.

Canadian journalist Joshua Knelman spent several years putting this book together, traveling as far afield as Los Angeles and Cairo to see the various gears of the art-crime machine grind away. While he stops in some of the expected places – both Dick Ellis and Robert Wittman make appearances – Knelman does something not very many other art-crime writers do: he also talks to the thieves themselves. Some of the liveliest chapters are those we spend in the company of Paul, a one-time Brighton “knocker” (door-to-door recon for art thieves) who became a central figure in the British art black market before retiring to more genteel pastimes, such as benefits fraud.

Another refreshing change is that Knelman doesn’t spend a lot of time on the marquee art thefts, the ones that get big headlines worldwide. His interviewees emphasize that the $6 billion annual illicit art market revolves around lesser-known artworks stolen from living rooms or offices, not the multimillion-dollar masterpieces that Paul calls “headache art.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsJUST SAYING WHAT I THINK
By D.O.L. on June 1, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
GREAT READ. AS A FORMER LAWMAN I LOVE TRUE CRIME STORIES AND THIS BOOK FILLED THE NEED. TELLS THE STORIES FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BADGE. BOB
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4.0 out of 5 starsA good read - weak story line.
By PatrickAtWhistler on April 25, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
A fascinating story of how art disappears and remains an enigma to dectives and particularly to disinterested police around the world. coule use a compelling story to help with the factual accouts.
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5.0 out of 5 starsHot Art
By Deborah R. Cooper on May 5, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Excellent book about a topic not much discussed in general conversation. Who would know except owners and those who investigate.
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1.0 out of 5 starsHot Art: too vulgair to wrap fish in
By Ton Cremers on April 1, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Just received Knelman's book HOT ART. While browsing this book I noticed my name and the Museum Security Network (MSN) in chapter 15, more specifically at pages 290 and 291 etc.

Fascinating reading: "The genesis of MSN didn't have to do with making money; it had to do with one museum security official coping with the aftermath of an armed robbery at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. In 1996, Ton Cremers was head of security when a group of seventeenth-century paintings were stolen. Cremers felt isolated and vulnerable. To soothe his lonesome paranoia, he decided to start his own website, as a way to tell his story as well as a place to post articles from the world media chronicling the rising number of museum thefts. The articles were comforting to him, because they indicated that he wasn't the only museum security director dealing with violent criminals........In 2000, Cremers held his first MSN conference, which attracted museum professionals from across the world, including the Getty's Bob Combs...".

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

There never ever was an armed robbery at the Rijksmuseum. Never ever ` a group of 17th century paintings were stolen' from the Rijksmuseum. I never ever organized an MSN conference.
Soothing my `lonesome paranoia'?
`Dealing with violent crimes'? As security director of the Rijksmuseum (and several other museums) I never ever experienced violent crimes.
What is this moron of an author writing about? I really lost all appetite to read the rest of this sensationalist book.
This books is even too vulgair to wrap rotten fish in.
Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art
Ton Cremers
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