The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. Random House in association with Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. Adult nonfiction.

    Most of us who admire paintings go to museums to enjoy and study them. Master thief Stephane Breitwieser stole over two hundred works of art over ten years and displayed them in secret rooms where he could admire them. With his girl friend as a lookout, he took more and more chances until he was finally caught. 

     The author cultivated a long relationship with Breitwieser in order to learn first hand just how the thefts took place and more about the motivation of the man. He had grown up with money, but by 1997, he and his mother were living on government aid.  Finkel has put together a fascinating book not only about this one thief, but that also touches on other art crimes.  There are no color photographs of the art, but some black-and-white ones are included. A timeline would have been helpful, but it is probably impossible to have a list of all the items he stole. Between his former girl friend, his mother, and other people, many stories about Breitwieser, arrested in 2019, have yet to be told.