A fascinating topic bogged down by repetitive writing and basic historical inaccuracies (which an excellent review from ArtNews goes into). The author has supposedly flubbed information before which is an unfortunate trait for a journalist to have. Knowing this made me a bit skeptical about how information was presented. 

I appreciated the time spent discussing other art thieves and how stealing art is often just a means to an end and contrasting those instances with Breitwieser’s supposedly genuine love of art. This had the potential for an interesting analysis if this section had been longer and more developed. There were brief mentions to book thieves at the very end of the book. It would have been nice to have gotten more information on that, especially since the author says that they are kindred spirits of Breitwieser’s in their motivation for stealing. It was a quick, mildly entertaining read, but I don’t think it does enough to make the initial concept feel fully fleshed out.