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How Did a $2 Billion Trove of Art End Up in a Random Attic in France?

In a new book, Michael Finkel tells the story of Stéphane Breitwieser, “perhaps the most successful and prolific art thief who has ever lived.”

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By Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

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THE ART THIEF: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession , by Michael Finkel

At first, Stéphane Breitwieser, the subject of Michael Finkel’s “The Art Thief,” appears to be having an enviable amount of fun. Twenty-five years old and living with his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, in a small set of upstairs rooms in his mother’s home in a “hardscrabble” manufacturing suburb in eastern France, Breitwieser is unburdened by such quotidian concerns as a job, making rent or planning for the future. He fancies himself a purer sort of soul, so devoted to beauty he must, in Finkel’s words, “gorge on it.” Over the course of a dizzying 200 pages that are also an effective advertisement for Swiss Army knives (Breitwieser’s only tool), he removes artwork after artwork from museums — a.k.a. “prisons for art” — and becomes “perhaps the most successful and prolific art thief who has ever lived.” He piled all $2 billion worth of artifacts he amassed over eight years into that same attic in his mother Mireille Stengel’s “nondescript” stucco house.

Finkel includes satisfying evidence of this astounding loot in a color insert that shows a crammed jumble of “ethereal” ivory carvings, shining silver goblets, unctuous oil paintings and more. All this Breitwieser secreted away in the couple’s lair not to be fenced for money, but for the pair alone to enjoy waking up to in the morning: like George Petel’s 1627 sculpture “Adam and Eve” on the bedside table, next to a 19th-century blown-glass vase and a blue and gold tobacco box “commissioned by Napoleon himself.”

Finkel’s account, based largely on interviews with Breitwieser, is of a romantic hero who disdains practical details as much as security ones, and who is “crushed” when Stengel deigns to buy Ikea furniture. “I am like the opposite of everyone,” he declares, finding “his problem … incurably existential: He was born in the wrong century.” That Finkel aligns the reader’s sympathies with the point of view of the criminal makes for a heady rush of freudenfreude .

The romanticized portrait of a complicated male subject is a formula Finkel has found success with before: His best-selling previous book, “ The Stranger in the Woods ,” about the Maine hermit Christopher Thomas Knight, was similarly expanded from an article in GQ. Yet despite this book’s slim size, Finkel’s efforts to fill its pages eventually strain, padding them with generic musings on why people make art and head-scratching lines like, “Yellow is the hue least harmonious to a banana.” His reliance on tropes gives the book a paint-by-numbers feel: the bad boy; the cautious ingénue girlfriend who longs for a more normal life; the mother who “coddled” her son too much and claims she never once wandered up the stairs to confront what he was actually up to.

By the end, we’re left with signs that what we’ve been offered is only a rough sketch, not the more complicated truth. Finkel portrays Breitwieser as a pure aesthete motivated solely by aesthetic passion, but later he’s also arrested for simple shoplifting. Finkel writes that “the world’s beauty, to Breitwieser, peaks with Anne-Catherine and their art collection,” but in a shocking turn the author brushes past, Kleinklaus says under oath that Breitwieser hit her after learning she’d hid an abortion. “He scared me,” she tells a courtroom; to a detective, she says, “I was just an object to him.”

Finally, did Stengel really never suspect what her son was up to in her home? Was her frenzied “attic purge” — during which she hurled silver pieces into a canal and burned paintings in a forest — really the “ultimate expression of maternal love” Breitwieser interprets it to be? (She herself tells the police, “I wanted to hurt my son, to punish him.”) It is by far the most shocking act in the book, but — as with the characters of Stengel and Kleinklaus — Finkel leaves it frustratingly opaque. He renders every complication and contradiction in broad strokes, rushing ahead to a swift and unsatisfying conclusion, as though too taken in by his own romantic telling to disrupt it.

Great art, Breitwieser knows, surprises. “The Art Thief” — a popcorn flick of a book that will nonetheless keep readers riveted — does not.

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich is the author of the Lambda Award-winning “The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir.”

THE ART THIEF: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession | By Michael Finkel | Illustrated | 222 pp. | Alfred A. Knopf | $28

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He stole more than 300 artworks — and left us with big questions

Michael finkel details an audacious series of heists, and their compelling aftermath, in ‘the art thief’.

At first blush, the journalist Michael Finkel’s captivating new book, “ The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession ,” is all about heists. Over the course of 200-some snackable pages, Finkel revisits the exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, the most prolific art robber in history. From 1994 to 2001, the Frenchman, who usually worked alongside Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, his girlfriend at the time, swiped more than 300 works, with some estimates placing the total value at around $2 billion. Breitwieser had no desire to sell his bounty. Instead, he simply wanted to gaze on it. He saw his loot as a means toward connection. To him, the pieces were a portal to bygone eras — the late Renaissance and early Baroque, primarily — and their aesthetic pleasures.

But while the book is, as the subtitle says, a story of crime, it’s also, on a quieter level, an exploration of archiving and ownership. At the height of his infamy, Breitwieser viewed himself as an “art liberator.” He believed he could protect and appreciate historical treasures in ways that museums couldn’t. Breitwieser was delusional, obviously, and reckless. He crowded his plunder in a couple of secret attic rooms at his mother’s house, and much of it was later damaged or destroyed. But while he might not ask this explicitly, Finkel, through meticulous research and extensive investigation of trial and interview transcripts, does nudge us to consider: What is the best way to preserve the past? And how should we make it accessible?

“The Art Thief” is divided into 38 breezy chapters that trace, in a largely chronological sequence, Breitwieser’s rise and fall. Finkel opens with a vivid account of a 1997 robbery. Breitwieser and Kleinklaus, both 25 years old, are at the Rubens House in Antwerp, Belgium, and have as their target the German sculptor Georg Petel’s 17th-century ivory carving of Adam and Eve. In thrillingly granular detail, Finkel lays out the couple’s methods: Breitwieser surveys the rooms, etching floor designs and escape routes into his mind; when the area thins out, he springs into action, using his Swiss Army knife to unfasten the screws securing the piece; Kleinklaus, the sentinel, offers a faint cough whenever guards or tourists lurk nearby; once the coast is clear again, Breitwieser gets back to work.

“This is how Breitwieser progresses, in fits and starts, grasshoppering about the gallery, a couple of turns of the screw, then a cough, a couple more, then another,” Finkel writes. He describes the pair’s relationship as a kind of yin and yang: Breitwieser is skilled at detecting security flaws — fake cameras or cameras with very limited ranges, sloppy or shorthanded museum staff — while Kleinklaus has a keen eye for variables that could expose their scheme. “She’s aware, more than him, of people who appear to observe them suspiciously. He tends to be laser focused; she takes in the whole scene,” Finkel explains, adding that because this dynamic is so central to the duo’s success, Breitwieser “typically terminates a theft when she wishes, with only a little argument.”

From a former museum guard, a meditation on art, time and loss

In some ways, this line signals how the team’s crime spree will implode. Over time, Breitwieser becomes too cocky, too cavalier. During a 2001 solo mission, he snags a 400-year-old bugle, and in the process, he breaks both of Kleinklaus’s strict rules: He fails to wear gloves, and he steals from the Richard Wagner Museum, in Lucerne, Switzerland — a city where they’d had a run-in with the police before. Kleinklaus is outraged. The two return to the museum so she can erase her boyfriend’s fingerprints. But a man walking his dog notices that Breitwieser is anxiously watching the building, and he alerts an employee. Soon, two officers are loading the once-spectral art thief into their squad car.

The last third of the book — which charts the months after Breitwieser’s arrest, when the authorities attempted to figure out what happened to the stolen artwork — is particularly enthralling. In animated and colorful prose, Finkel summons the emotional intensity of a murder mystery. But old masters, not bodies, are missing. Breitwieser believes that his mother, Mireille Stengel, disposed of the objects to protect him after learning that he’d been arrested. Some, she tells the police, she chucked into the Rhône-Rhine Canal. Others, she burned in a forest — Breitwieser imagines that, in a clearing, “the heat climbs and paint runs like mascara, streaming over the picture frames,” Finkel writes. While Kleinklaus and Stengel either avoided prison time or served just a few months, Breitwieser spent several years in jail for his crimes.

It’s here, in the final section of the book, that Finkel scratches at especially interesting and ambitious questions. During his trial, Breitwieser characterized himself as a “temporary custodian” of the stolen art; he was going to return the pieces, eventually. The Swiss prosecutor, however, was having none of it — and cast Breitwieser as a menace who inflicted irreparable damage on heritage and culture. The director of a museum that Breitwieser had robbed took the stand and said, “More than the monetary value is the sentimental value” and “the relationship between the object and place.” She went on: “We can’t transform our museum into a safe. We serve the public.”

But how best to serve the public — to nurture a communal appreciation of our yesterdays? These courtroom exchanges surface some of the primary issues museums have been wrestling with in recent years. Though these institutions are seen as guardians of the past, they aren’t free of controversy. Problems abound.

For one: access. The price of admission can keep people away from the shared history they’re supposed to enjoy. (There’s a reason many were upset when New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art implemented a new entry fee in 2018.) Another issue is deciding what belongs on display in a museum. No site can include everything, of course. And to archive is, necessarily, to make difficult choices. Even so, the items accessible to the public suggest a lot about which slices of the past are apparently the most valuable or significant.

A stolen South Seas treasure that helps reveal colonial crimes

Breitwieser’s obsession was decidedly Western: “the exuberant European oil works that blossomed at the end of the Renaissance and the dawn of the Baroque,” Finkel explains. Despite that, Breitwieser’s story still speaks to questions of atonement, not least because it reminds us that those who claim pieces don’t always have the right to possess them. Dozens of the works he stole have never been found. They’re probably lost forever — he can never return them. By contrast, numerous museums today are confronting the fact that many of their pieces have had journeys marked by colonialism, and they’re starting to heed pleas for repatriation .

Finkel doesn’t touch on these themes directly. But he doesn’t have to. The invitation to probe is right there, for instance in how he depicts regional museums, which “will permit close access to priceless objects,” and “the public, in turn, will leave these objects undisturbed, respectful of the idea that works of communal heritage, often suffused with spiritual significance and a sense of place, should be open and accessible to all.” So “The Art Thief” is about heists, yes, but it also speaks to much more.

The Art Thief

A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

By Michael Finkel

Knopf. 222 pp. $28

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Book Review: ‘The Art Thief’ is an astonishing story that capitalizes on our love of true crime

This cover image released by Knopf shows “The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession” by Michael Finkel. (Knopf via AP)

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“The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession” by Michael Finkel (Alfred A. Knopf)

What is it about stories of transgression that keep us wanting more of them? Tales of heists, con artists and even murders permeate all corners of society, from Dostoevsky to “Tiger King.”

It is this insatiable thirst for accounts of crime – and if based on real events, all the better – that journalist Michael Finkel exploits in “The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession.”

It recounts the astonishing saga of Stéphane Breitwieser, the notorious art thief who stole hundreds of pieces of art between 1994 and 2001, mostly from museums throughout Europe – a collection which was estimated to be worth around $2 billion.

The level of detail Finkel is able to provide, thanks to extensive reporting and hours of interviews with Breitwieser himself, is uncomfortably gripping, as if the reader is watching these events unfold and working as an accomplice to the French robber’s crimes.

“The Art Thief” is the kind of book that is worth finishing if its subject matter gets one’s attention in the first place, given that the story only gets more scandalous and appalling as it progresses.

Given how much and how often he stole, it is inevitable that recounting so many details of these heists would dull one’s senses to each otherwise astonishing feat. Though it can sometimes feel like Finkel is belaboring his point, perhaps that is the author’s intention, a way of underscoring the extent of both Breitwieser’s skill and addiction.

Although the definition of a page-turner, this book will also likely force the reader to consider why details of this kind are so exhilarating to us in the first place.

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How an Art-Obsessed Frenchman Stole Museums’ Treasures and Stored Them in His Attic

By Alex Greenberger

Alex Greenberger

Senior Editor, ARTnews

Despite its title, journalist Michael Finkel’s new book The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession (Knopf) isn’t only about art crime. It’s also about addiction, the compulsion to continue doing things that you know are bad for you. Surrounding yourself with art, it turns out, can be one of them.

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One of his many heists took place in 1996, when, with his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, he visited the Alexis Forel Museum in Morges, Switzerland, where he stole a 300-year-old platter by Charles-François Hannong. Breitwieser was deft at undoing the gadgetry of display cases. Using a Swiss Army Knife, he reached what Finkel calls his “screw apotheosis,” undoing 30 of them.

Finkel describes this theft and countless others in present tense. You are there, experiencing the thrill of the chase alongside Breitwieser. “Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine. And, mercy, thirty,” Finkel writes of the screws. One can almost hear the case popping open, so vivid is the description. Much of The Art Thief unfolds in this way.

Not many pages later, again with Anne-Catherine, Breitwieser is described visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Angers the year after. He came across the copper painting attributed to Brueghel, Allegory of Autumn , in which a muscular man plucks fruit from a tree while buxom women and a child surround him, and decided he had to have it.

“Anne-Catherine positions herself at the stairwell,” Finkel writes, adhering to Breitwieser’s preferred “blend of one last name and one first” for himself and Kleinklauss. “She’ll cough if the guard takes his eyes off the cashier. Breitwieser climbs a chair, gloves on, and retrieves the work. He slides the frame under a display, and Anne-Catherine returns to wipe down the chair with her handkerchief, eliminating shoe prints too.” As they left, they bid goodbye to guard and a cashier sharing a kiss.

Spoiler alert: Breitwieser did eventually get caught for theft of these and 200-plus other art objects, and then he got caught again and again for other thefts afterward.

After serving two prison sentences (one for the thefts of the ’90s, the other for ones committed in the mid-2000s following his initial discharge), Breitwieser returned to his passion upon his second release. Between 2015 and 2016, he stole Roman coins from an archaeological museum in Strasbourg and paperweights from another nearby institution, and then traveled to Germany, where the plundering continued. “None of these,” Finkel reports, “are pieces he loves.” He was arrested once more in 2019.

How do we get from clandestine thief to sad-sack stealer? The Art Thief charts Breitwieser’s rise and fall in an attempt to account for his obsession. It’s mostly rise, very little fall, which is probably by design, since Finkel seems enamored of Breitwieser.

“I never found any art thieves who really compare to Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine,” Finkel writes of his research in the afterword, the only section penned in the past tense. “Nearly everybody else did it for money, or stole a single work of art. The couple is an anomaly among art stealers, but there does exist a group of criminals for whom long-term looting in service of aesthetic desire is common.”

Finkel locates the source of Breitwieser’s aesthetic desire in a childhood trip to the very Strasbourg museum from which he pilfered the Roman coins. “His finger snagged on a loose bit of metal attached to a Roman coffin,” Finkel says. “A coin-sized piece of lead broke off in his palm. He stuffed it reflexively into his pocket.”

This sounds like an awful tidy bit of myth-making, especially since it’s not easily verified, but Finkel presents it as truth. Even if it is apocryphal, that the narrative was put forward at all by Breitwieser is telling.

Breitwieser’s magnetism lay in his ability to make people believe he was a normal person doing sensible things—that he was just an average unemployed joe with a fondness for museums. This was a ruse. He reportedly even corrected a curator on the date of a 17th-century sword that he stole during one of his trials; he said he knew this because he’d read up on similar weapons in the library of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

At the very least, Breitwieser had a discerning eye. A typical person may not march into Sotheby’s and decide she must have a small Lucas Cranach the Younger painting. Yet Breitwieser did just this and, to mark his 24th birthday, managed to pick up a Plexiglas dome that held this work, sandwich the small painting between the pages of a catalogue, and secret it out of the auction house during public viewing hours. That painting wound up in the attic of Breitwieser’s mother’s house, where he slept amid all the other works he stole.

The jig was up on November 20, 2001, when, at the Wagner Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, Breitwieser stowed a 400-year-old bugle beneath his Hugo Boss trench coat. He was arrested, instrument still in tow. It wasn’t the first time the Swiss police had detained him in connection with an art heist, but the last time, he got away with it. This time, he wasn’t so lucky. He was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison.

Finkel seems to believe Breitwieser every step of the way, even when a healthy bit of skepticism is needed. He doesn’t appear to feel quite the same way about Anne-Catherine, who has alleged that Breitwieser abused her, both emotionally and physically, and that he “tormented” her into aiding in his thefts. Finkel does recount one time that Breitwieser hit Anne-Catherine, but by the time she is on the stand, claiming in 2004 that she “didn’t even know he stole art,” Finkel remarks that “Anne-Catherine had stretched the truth, seemingly past snapping, by issuing blanket denials.”

Facts are elusive in The Art Thief , and not only in the places you’d expect. This romanticized account of Breitwieser’s thefts glides over particulars such as the value of the works stolen. Authorities have claimed that Breitwieser obtained well over $1 billion in art, a figure that mysteriously balloons to $2 billion at points in The Art Thief . This is tough to believe because Finkel generally doesn’t provide valuations for individual works. If only Finkel lavished as much attention on these specifics as he did on the screws that bound the cases for each work Breitwieser accessed.

There are also more basic errors, like one in which Finkel states that Pablo Picasso was detained by the French police in connection with the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa . Actually, it was the poet Guillaume Apollinaire who was detained and later cleared. That Finkel was reportedly fired from the New York Times in 2002 for creating a composite profile subject out of multiple interviews doesn’t help his credibility.

But The Art Thief is really meant more as tasteful pulp than it is as deeply researched non-fiction. At just over 200 pages, it does succeed as a refined beach read that even will engender some of the same questions that good mysteries do.

Why, for example, did Breitwieser do it? It’s true that unlike most art thieves, Breitwieser made few attempts to sell the artworks, which he mostly saved for himself. It’s also true that he did little damage as he took them, except to the works themselves. Some were tossed out windows by Breitwieser, others may have been later destroyed by Breitwieser’s mother, who also received prison time. A number were never recovered.

Because Breitwieser isn’t like most other art thieves, he presents an interesting case. Across the years, analysts have been called in to psychologize both him and Anne-Catherine. (Finkel fails to mention that she did end up receiving a six-month prison sentence for handling stolen goods, instead reporting that she spent “exactly one night in jail” and that the conviction was expunged, “as if nothing had happened during her decade with Breitwieser.”) Breitwieser was determined by one to be “impulsive”; Anne-Catherine lacked “the strength to say no,” according to another. Yet Breitwieser, as one psychotherapist suggests, can’t really be helped because “there’s no criminal psychosis to treat or to cure.”

Whatever the case may be, Breitwieser did make some attempts to absolve himself for the sins he wrought upon museums across France, Germany, and Switzerland. He apologized to curators at trial, and in the book’s final pages, left with little money to his name, he seems to finally express some remorse. “I was a master of the universe,” Breitwieser remarks toward the book’s end. “Now I’m nothing.”

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Book Review: ‘The Art Thief’ is an astonishing story that capitalizes on our love of true crime

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“The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession” by Michael Finkel (Alfred A. Knopf)

What is it about stories of transgression that keep us wanting more of them? Tales of heists, con artists and even murders permeate all corners of society, from Dostoevsky to “Tiger King.”

It is this insatiable thirst for accounts of crime – and if based on real events, all the better – that journalist Michael Finkel exploits in “The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession.”

It recounts the astonishing saga of Stéphane Breitwieser, the notorious art thief who stole hundreds of pieces of art between 1994 and 2001, mostly from museums throughout Europe – a collection which was estimated to be worth around $2 billion.

The level of detail Finkel is able to provide, thanks to extensive reporting and hours of interviews with Breitwieser himself, is uncomfortably gripping, as if the reader is watching these events unfold and working as an accomplice to the French robber’s crimes.

“The Art Thief” is the kind of book that is worth finishing if its subject matter gets one’s attention in the first place, given that the story only gets more scandalous and appalling as it progresses.

Given how much and how often he stole, it is inevitable that recounting so many details of these heists would dull one’s senses to each otherwise astonishing feat. Though it can sometimes feel like Finkel is belaboring his point, perhaps that is the author’s intention, a way of underscoring the extent of both Breitwieser’s skill and addiction.

Although the definition of a page-turner, this book will also likely force the reader to consider why details of this kind are so exhilarating to us in the first place.

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Look Inside

The Art Thief

A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

By Michael Finkel

By michael finkel read by edoardo ballerini and michael finkel, category: biography & memoir | true crime | art, category: biography & memoir | true crime | art | audiobooks.

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About The Art Thief

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser. • “ The Art Thief , like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing.”— The New Yorker A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Lit Hub “Enthralling.” — The Wall Street Journal In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them. For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them. For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost. Cover images: (top) Bat by Albrecht Dürer. Bridgeman Images; (bottom) The Sleeping Shepherd (detail) by François Boucher © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

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Also by michael finkel.

About Michael Finkel

MICHAEL FINKEL is the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit and True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa. He lives with his family in northern Utah.

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A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Lit Hub “ The Art Thief , like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing. It is propelled by suspense and surprises….This ultra-lucrative, odds-defying crime streak is wonderfully narrated by Finkel, in a tale whose trajectory is less rise and fall than crazy and crazier….Part of what makes Finkel’s book so much fun is that, without exception, [Breitwieser’s] strategies are insane.” —Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker “A mesmerizing true-crime psychological thriller…. The Art Thief develops the tension of a French policier , where the crook (for whom you alternately feel sympathy and disgust) has Maigret or Poirot hot on his trail. The final outcome is a shock. Mr. Finkel tells an enthralling story. From start to finish, this book is hard to put down.” —Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal “Enthralling…In animated and colorful prose, Finkel summons the emotional intensity of a murder mystery. But old masters, not bodies, are missing…. The Art Thief is about heists, yes, but it also speaks to much more.” —Brandon Tensley, The Washington Post “Exhilarating…Finkel’s narrative thrills and electrifies, until it all barrels toward inevitable capture, two shocking betrayals, and an astonishing conclusion.” — Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire “Thrilling…Finkel deftly unspools the story of Breitwieser’s improbable years-long adventure.” —Geoffrey Gagnon, GQ “Meticulously detailed, [a] page-turning account….As much a crime caper as a psychological thriller, Finkel’s narrative interweaves gripping descriptions of Breitweiser’s in-plain-sight thefts armed with nothing more than stealth and a Swiss Army knife, a concise history of global art theft, and psychologists’ musings on Breitwieser’s unconscious motivations….Finkel deftly keeps us swaying between great sympathy for his central character and profound suspicion.” — Jenny McPhee, Air Mail “It is romantic to liken art thieves to Pierce Brosnan’s glamorous character in The Thomas Crown Affair. The reality is far less charming. Case in point: Stéphane Breitwieser, one of the most successful art thieves of all time. From roughly 1994 to 2001, Breitwieser executed more than 200 heists. The book’s first lesson? Europe has a lot of understaffed historic buildings. The second? Even a kleptomaniac with delusions of grandeur can be made mildly sympathetic in the hands of a skilled writer.” — James Tarmy, Bloomberg “ The Art Thief benefits from a built-in ticking clock as time runs out for Breitwieser and his girlfriend. Finkel controls the pace effortlessly, broadening and narrowing focus from the day-to-day of the thieves to the intricate plotting of their thefts and a history of art crime, as well as who steals and why. That combined with mounting dread for the artworks’ fate makes for a heart-pounding read.” — Maren Longbella, Star Tribune “Finkel turns his extensive research and interviews into a suspenseful story that reads like a novel. He relates Breitwieser’s technique in vivid detail, and then shows us what happened to an estimated $2 billion worth of paintings, sculptures and other works. Finkel explores the relationships between Breitwieser and the women in his life, along with interesting bits of art history. A true-crime thriller that’s a work of art.” —Suzanne Perez, KMUW Wichita “Finkel has crafted The Art Thief with finesse and élan. He tells his tale of obsessive desires and ornate objects in measured and unadorned prose; employs a supple structure that separates the multiple threads of the tale while also exploring their weave; and advances the linear plot with narrative strategies that not only anticipate its foregone conclusion without giving it away, but also incorporate into the unfolding events his retrospective analyses of them….[Finkel] manages point of view with deftness and purpose…. The Art Thief… morphs from an entertaining caper story into a claustrophobic study in pathology…An absorbing but disquieting read.” —Charles Caramello, Washington Independent Review of Books “This is an absorbing and astonishing portrait of a fascinating and complicated character—a riveting story of obsession and misplaced brilliance.” —Kirk Wallace Johnson, best-selling author of The Feather Thief and The Fishermen and the Dragon “In this masterful true crime account, Finkel traces the fascinating exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who stole more than 200 artworks…turning his mother’s attic into a glittering trove of oil paintings, silver vessels, and antique weaponry….Drawing on art theory and Breitwieser’s psychology reports, Finkel speculates on his subject’s addiction to beauty….It’s a riveting ride.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “The tale of a strong candidate for the title of ‘most prolific art thief ever….’ Finkel’s play-by-play of each theft has the pacing and atmosphere of a good suspense tale….The author describes each acquisition as well as Breitwieser’s simple but effective methods….Finkel’s extensive research, survey of art history, and hours of interviews with his subject combine for a compelling read.” — Kirkus “A riveting ride….An engrossing true crime narrative….Obsessive crime, dangerous beauty, ill-fated love: The Art Thief is the stuff of noir fiction, made all the more compelling and audacious for its authenticity .” — BookPage “From the opening chapter, Finkel’s tight prose heightens the drama of each theft, as Breitweiser and his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, who serves as his lookout, enter Belgium’s Rubens House amid visitors and guards….A fascinating read. Finkel will have art history and true crime lovers obsessively turning the pages of this suspenseful, smartly written work until its shocking conclusion.” —Library Journal “The Art Thief is both comprehensive and completely absorbing. It will have you wondering, as judges and juries did, if the defendant is a career criminal or simply an aesthete.” — Lorraine W. Shanley, BookReporter

Author Q&A

An Interview with Michael Finkel About THE ART THIEF What most captivated you about Stéphane Breitwieser’s story? First, there’s the sheer number of thefts. Very few thieves in all of history are known to have stolen from as many as a dozen museums or art galleries. Stéphane Breitwieser, with the assistance of his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, stole more than 300 artworks from some 200 places. Breitwieser averaged one theft every 12 days for seven years, an inconceivable pace. Intriguing too is how Breitwieser stole. His thefts all took place during opening hours, relying on stealth, intuition, and athleticism. He never brandished a weapon, or so much as threatened anyone in a museum with harm. Even more interesting is why . Unlike nearly every other art thief, Breitwieser was not motivated by money. He did not try to sell the works he took. He stole, he insists, only for the love of art, for aesthetic desire. There’s also the existence of the secret lair, where Breitwieser displayed all of his loot, worth an estimated $2 billion, and where he could admire the works to his heart’s content. Finally, there is the mother-son-girlfriend relationship triangle, and then, topping it all off, the spectacular way that everything in Breitwieser’s life came crashing down. This story, incredible yet true, is to me pure journalistic catnip.   How were you able to gain Breitwieser’s trust? In a word, slowly. Learning Breitwieser’s story required more than a decade of effort. I first requested an interview with him in 2012, via a personal letter. We exchanged occasional notes for four years before he agreed to meet me for lunch – and even then, just for an introductory chat, without my notebook or recorder. Breitwieser eventually agreed to a series of formal interviews, the first he had ever granted to an American. We spoke to each other in French. We also embarked on a couple of full-day road trips, visiting museums from which he had previously stolen. By the time I attended his most recent trial, in early 2023, nearly 11 years had elapsed since I’d mailed him my first letter.   What is it like to visit a museum with Breitwieser? It’s like a piece of performance art unto itself. Breitwieser, short and lithe, seems to blend into a room, to conform to its contours. He often stole while people, even guards, were nearby. Only his eyes, big and piercing and sapphire blue, are revealingly readable. When I accompanied Breitwieser to a museum, he’d walk swiftly and laconically past by works that didn’t strike his fancy. But when he came across a piece that ignited his aesthetic senses, his eyes would spring wide open with unrestrained wonder. His forehead wrinkled. He stood extremely close to the work, radiating a twitchy, electrified energy. I asked, as he examined a Renaissance painting with a religious theme, what he was thinking. He spilled forth with a description of the effects of the painting’s colors, and of the pleasing way in which the brush strokes flowed. He quickly scanned the room for the presence of guards and cameras and other tourists, then grasped my hand and guided my fingertips lightly over the surface of the work so that I could feel the rippled texture of the paint. He spoke of the enormous emotion contained in the painting. He shed a few tears. Then, finished with describing the front of the work, he continued with an analysis of how the painting was attached to the wall, and what would be the best method of taking it down. He mentioned where in the gallery he might stash the frame and pantomimed how he’d hide the painting against his back, beneath his coat. He demonstrated the pace he’d use while walking out of the museum. He described how he’d drive off – cautiously, as he eased his way out of the city, and then, once he hit the major roads, as fast as his car would go.   What was the relationship like between the two of you? Does a writer have to admire his subject in order to write about him? I was never quite sure how I felt about Breitwieser, a sentiment that persists to this day. Sometimes, I’m amazed by his crime spree and passion for art. Other times I feel disgusted by the selfishness of his actions – depriving everyone else of the opportunity to enjoy the works of art he stole, and rewarding only himself. At times, Breitwieser and I seemed to chat like old buddies; at other moments, our interviews became antagonistic and hostile. It’s certainly not necessary for a writer to admire the person he or she is writing about – a healthy ambivalence, I feel, allows for a more nuanced account. This permits the readers themselves to determine how they feel about a person as eccentric and troubled as Breitwieser. Breitwieser seemed to feel similarly uncertain about me – sometimes amiable, sometimes combative – and this oscillating mood was reflected in our use of language. During the course of our time together, we switched back and forth several times between the more formal French syntax, the one used in business settings, and the informal one used between friends. We never seemed to figure out which one we preferred.   How do you feel about Breitwieser’s belief that museums are just prisons for art? Does the fact he was motivated by aesthetics rather than money, and did not resort to violence, make his thefts in any way excusable? I visit museums wherever I’m traveling, but I admit that they really aren’t the best way to see art. Museums are often exhausting, uncomfortable, overwhelming. It doesn’t take long before my feet start to ache. It’s virtually impossible to find a comfortable place in which to admire and commune with a work of art. I won’t go so far as to say that museums are prisons for art, but Breiwieser does have a point. How much nicer would it be to see the Mona Lisa not in the midst of the Louvre’s rugby scrum but instead while sitting on a couch, beside a loved one, in your pajamas, sipping a good wine? I’ll also admit that the way Breitwieser stole – nonviolently, with aesthetic intentions and impressive finesse – does make me look upon his crime spree with some degree of empathy for his intense desire to possess the pieces. When Breitwieser spoke to me about other art thieves, like those who robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston by brutally slicing masterworks by Rembrandt and others out of their frames, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with him. Such crimes, he said, were the work of savages, not categorizable with his refined heists.   What was the most surprising discovery you made as you reported this tale? Most shocking to me was the realization that many museums, especially the smaller, regional places from which Breitwieser most often stole, really aren’t well protected. The problem is that a museum’s mission isn’t to conceal valuables but to share , in a way that makes you feel as close to a piece as possible, unencumbered by security apparatus. Museums, as Breitwieser seemed to point out every time we were in one together, already struggle to offer intimate encounters with art. Adding more guards, more security cordons, more fortified display cases, and more electric eyes is not likely to improve the experience. In regional museums, there’s often an implicit social pact in force. The museum will permit close access to priceless objects that are marginally secured, and the public, in turn, will leave these objects undisturbed, respectful of the idea that works of communal heritage, often suffused with spiritual significance and a sense of place, should be open and accessible to all. Breitwieser was a cancer on this public good.   The Art Thief , as well as your previous books, The Stranger in the Woods and True Story , are about obsessive and antisocial criminals. What do you find most compelling about the stories you choose to pursue – or do the stories pursue you? I deeply admire the world’s heroes and humanitarians, the valiant firefighters and fearless freedom fighters – I admire them like pristine and distant stars, untouchable. But when it comes to writing, I feel compelled to wallow in the mud. It’s the misfits, the scallywags, the rule-breakers, the criminal outliers that grab me. These are the people I like to speak with. I’m not trying to excuse their criminality, but I am interested in getting to know the whole of such people, flaws and virtues alike. I suppose that I simply find outlaws to be interesting and unpredictable conversationalists. And perhaps the feeling is somewhat mutual – these are the people who seem to like speaking with me. Each of my last three books began with a handwritten letter to a person in prison, and each of those letters elicited a response. Maybe, in truth, we choose each other. 

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The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

• By Michael Finkel
• Reviewed by Charles Caramello
• June 27, 2023

What happens when an aesthete turns fanatic?

A classic heist film — say, John Huston’s “Asphalt Jungle” (1950) — typically unfolds in three acts: disparate criminals form a team; they plan and execute a theft; and they get away, are apprehended, or are killed. Modern variants, such as Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (1992), dislocate and deconstruct that narrative pattern, in Tarantino’s case by eliding the heist altogether.

The pattern and its variants also hold for literary heist narratives. Specifics vary, but two fundamentals remain constant. Members of the team might be brutish or refined, impulsive or calculating; spoils might be currency, gold, jewels, artwork, antiquities, or documents; and the consequences might be smooth successes or bloody failures for all or some of the thieves. Whatever the variables, however, the generic narrative features 1) a team of criminals that pulls off 2) a single heist.

The serial-theft narrative, by contrast, features 1) a single thief, though often with an accomplice, who executes 2) multiple robberies. While the heist narrative explores the dynamic of dysfunctional individuals forming a functional team and elaborates the technicalities of the team’s single effort, the serial-theft narrative probes the psyche of its protagonist while reciting his repetitive, essentially ritual, acts. Either narrative might include the counternarrative of a police procedural.

An epitome of the serial-theft narrative, Michael Finkel’s arresting new character study, The Art Thief , plumbs the manic mind of contemporary French art thief Stéphane Breitwieser, records the scores of thefts executed by Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine Kleinhaus — his muse, girlfriend, and accomplice — between 1994 and 1999, and tallies over 250 Renaissance paintings and precious objets d’art stolen by the couple.

Though The Art Thief chronicles thefts and catalogues spoils, it primarily builds a detailed portrait of Breitwieser — an obsessional, delusional aesthete — while scrutinizing Breitwieser’s and Anne-Catherine’s (as Finkel refers to them) torturous love affair, peculiar dependence on Breitwieser’s mother, whose house they share, and engagements with the police, journalists, and psychologists who people the second half of the book.

Born in 1971 to an affluent family, Breitwieser, whose parents divorced when he was a boy, had to leave his large, art-filled home to move with his mother first to an apartment and then to the small suburban house that plays a major role in Finkel’s narrative. A petty shoplifter in his teens, he soon would graduate to amassing an art “collection” valued at over $1 billion. Few thieves have “have pulled off a dozen or more heists,” Finkel notes, yet Breitwieser “averaged a theft every twelve days for seven years.”

Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine met when both were 20, beginning a 15-year “saga.” Intensely in love and “perpetually broke,” they survived on Anne-Catherine’s small salary, Breitwieser’s unemployment benefits, cash gifts from his grandparents, and free rent from his mother. She lived on the first floor; the couple shared a “low ceilinged and cramped” two-room attic space. “Wedged into the bedroom is a majestic, four-poster canopied bed…where the young couple sleeps.”

The duo is prolific. In 1994, on their first heist, they steal an antique pistol; in 1995, on their third, they take their first painting. By early 1997, they “have stolen on three out of four weekends for close to two years.” They sell nothing, instead cramming every surface and wall of their attic with rare objects and valuable paintings. “They live inside a treasure chest,” Finkel writes, often lounging in bed trying to “identify the elements that attracted them to specific works” — pillow talk that alludes to the implicit eroticism of their robberies.

Hoarding, extremely rare among art thieves, focuses Finkel’s portrait. If “beauty is the…only true currency,” as Breitwieser believes, and art is the embodiment of beauty, then “stealing art for money…is disgraceful.” Stealing it for purposes of collecting, savoring, and sharing it in extreme privacy, however, is honorable, especially stealing from public museums, “prisons” for art that prevent its true appreciation. As Finkel observes, Breitwieser “takes only works that stir him emotionally.”

Breitwieser’s MO is highly tuned. Dressed stylishly, albeit in thrift-shop clothes, the couple favors regional and local museums with little if any security and few visitors. “Disgusted” by thieves who work in darkness, and especially by oafs who disfigure paintings while stealing them, Breitwieser steals only in daytime and only objects and “cabinet paintings” that can be removed cleanly and hidden in a backpack or under his clothes. With his one tool, a Swiss Army knife, he methodically dislodges the objects and paintings while Anne-Catherine stands guard.

Finkel credibly speculates that Breitwieser “does not enjoy his thefts,” that “his compulsion is collecting, not stealing,” and that “he’s amassing art, not adventures.” Yet Breitwieser chooses objects impulsively, enjoys the “hunt” and the “seduction” of theft (Finkel’s favored metaphors), and shares with Anne-Catherine a palpable erotic frisson when stealing. Though seemingly at odds, either or both readings of Breitwieser’s psyche may be true.

Whatever the case, the conflict between Breitwieser’s vigilance as a thief and purism as a collector marks the beginning of his end. He and Anne-Catherine had succeeded in heisting an “aesthetically dizzying” 16th-century silver German tankard, but Breitwieser, a purist who collects only “original and complete” objects, suppresses his instincts, violates his self-imposed rules, and ignores Anne-Catherine’s cautions: He reenters the museum to retrieve the tankard’s forgotten lid and is nabbed.

Despite his delusion that he was too cunning to be caught, in short, he was. His fall is long, acrid, and depressing. He and Anne-Catherine sour, quarrel, break up, quarrel again, and so on; she has an abortion (kept from Breitwieser) and, during their final breakup, has a child with another man. Breitwieser continues to steal, but he becomes sloppy. Over the next many years, he is arrested, imprisoned, arrested again, and so on. While Finkel’s book was in press, in April 2023, he was facing yet another trial.

The final mystery to this story concerns the 200-plus objects and 69 paintings that disappeared from the attic retreat. Finkel writes that art-crime detectives “prioritize recovering items over making arrests,” but that “overall…less than 10 percent of pieces are retrieved.” In this case, detectives found most of Breitwieser’s heisted booty at the bottom of a canal, but no one has found the paintings. (Revealing here that Breitwieser’s mother had a hand in the affair spoils nothing.)

Finkel has crafted The Art Thief with finesse and élan. He tells his tale of obsessive desires and ornate objects in measured and unadorned prose; employs a supple structure that separates the multiple threads of the tale while also exploring their weave; and advances the linear plot with narrative strategies that not only anticipate its foregone conclusion without giving it away, but also incorporate into the unfolding events his retrospective analyses of them.

The author, moreover, manages point of view with deftness and purpose. “The two of us,” Breitwieser says of Anne-Catherine and himself, “exist in a closed universe.” Finkel transports us to that universe and closes us in it, just as he locks us into Breitwieser’s skewed view of the art world and of his own criminal mission. The Art Thief , put differently, morphs from an entertaining caper story into a claustrophobic study in pathology, shifts in tone from spirited to creepy, and becomes, as a result, an absorbing but disquieting read.

Charles Caramello is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland and John H. Daniels Fellow at the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, VA.

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the art thief.

When a valuable Caravaggio altar piece disappears from a small church in Rome in a daring break-in, it is one of many art thefts reported each month to the overworked Italian police. Italy, a country virtually brimming with priceless art in all its forms, is ripe for the picking in the lucrative world of art crime.    Meanwhile, a rare Malevich painting is auctioned for $6.3 million to the London National Gallery of Modern Art. A Malevich expert suspects it is a forgery because she knows it to be secured in a Paris vault, but when she checks the vault she finds it missing. She is still suspicious of its authenticity because the famous white-on-white study could be easily forged due to its simplicity. The quandary arises of whether to expose its possible forgery, thereby embarrassing a major world museum and its cadre of art experts. But even that problem becomes moot when, within hours of its delivery to the National Gallery, the Malevich, genuine or not, is stolen in a daring midnight heist.    Now the shell game begins. First you see it, then you don’t; now you know which is the genuine article, and then it’s proven to be rubbish. Or is it?     Gabriel Coffin, world-renowned art expert, is called in to investigate the apparently unrelated burglaries that involve detectives from three nations. He in turn calls upon colleagues in the field of fine art to help trace the missing articles, worth millions to collectors and the criminal masterminds who pride themselves on their own high art form --- commissioned theft and forgery. Engaged in the hunt are two Parisian detectives who sometimes seem more interested in feeding their gourmand appetites than pursuing criminals. A relentless Scotland Yard inspector with no knowledge of art but as an expert in human nature has never failed to run his prey to the ground.    Author Noah Charney is an expert on art crime and the founding director of a consulting group on art crime prevention and solution. Art crime is considered high class, prestigious and intriguing. Wealthy collectors will pay huge sums to commission expert thieves to steal or even commit forgery of priceless masterpieces to add to their private collections. Less well-known pieces are stolen for lucrative resale to collectors in all parts of the world. It is the only form of offense where the public tends to cheer for the criminals --- the more adventurous and daring the caper, the higher the admiration.   Gabriel Coffin says: “But then, the public was not aware of how art crime funded more sinister activities, such as the drug and arms trades, and even terrorists. The average citizen felt somewhat detached, and sometimes threatened, by fine art. It was considered elite and evasive, beyond their mental capacities, and therefore frightening to many. It was with some satisfaction that the public read about gracefully orchestrated art thefts. It was a combination of voyeurism into a glamorous world apart, and a satisfying jab at an institution that felt exclusive.”   THE ART THIEF is more about the chase and less about the crime. Charney does not abuse his platform to preach about the criminal aspects, and the reader will be rewarded by learning a great deal about art history, especially iconic art.    The shell game continues to the very end. Who are the thieves, and who are the investigators? THE ART THIEF is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Reviewed by Roz Shea on January 24, 2011

The Art Thief by Noah Charney

• Publication Date: September 18, 2007
• Genres: Fiction , Thriller
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Atria
• ISBN-10: 1416550305
• ISBN-13: 9781416550303

• Biographies & Memoirs

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The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession Hardcover – June 27, 2023

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• Print length 240 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Knopf
• Publication date June 27, 2023
• Dimensions 5.66 x 1.01 x 8.56 inches
• ISBN-10 0525657320
• ISBN-13 978-0525657323
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Amazon.com review, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf; First Edition (June 27, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525657320
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525657323
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.66 x 1.01 x 8.56 inches
• #3 in Hoaxes & Deceptions
• #10 in Crime & Criminal Biographies
• #11 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

About the author

Michael finkel.

Michael Finkel is the author of "The Art Thief," "The Stranger in the Woods," an international bestseller, and "True Story," which was adapted into a 2015 motion picture starring James Franco and Jonah Hill. He has reported from more than 50 countries and written for National Geographic, GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Non-Required Reading. He lives with his family in northern Utah and southern France.

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Book Review: 'The Art Thief' is an astonishing story that capitalizes on our love of true crime

“The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession” by Michael Finkel (Alfred A. Knopf)

What is it about stories of transgression that keep us wanting more of them? Tales of heists, con artists and even murders permeate all corners of society, from Dostoevsky to “Tiger King.”

It is this insatiable thirst for accounts of crime – and if based on real events, all the better – that journalist Michael Finkel exploits in “The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession.”

It recounts the astonishing saga of Stéphane Breitwieser, the notorious art thief who stole hundreds of pieces of art between 1994 and 2001, mostly from museums throughout Europe – a collection which was estimated to be worth around $2 billion.

The level of detail Finkel is able to provide, thanks to extensive reporting and hours of interviews with Breitwieser himself, is uncomfortably gripping, as if the reader is watching these events unfold and working as an accomplice to the French robber’s crimes.

“The Art Thief” is the kind of book that is worth finishing if its subject matter gets one’s attention in the first place, given that the story only gets more scandalous and appalling as it progresses.

Given how much and how often he stole, it is inevitable that recounting so many details of these heists would dull one’s senses to each otherwise astonishing feat. Though it can sometimes feel like Finkel is belaboring his point, perhaps that is the author’s intention, a way of underscoring the extent of both Breitwieser’s skill and addiction.

Although the definition of a page-turner, this book will also likely force the reader to consider why details of this kind are so exhilarating to us in the first place.

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The Art Thief : Book summary and reviews of The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

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The Art Thief

A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

by Michael Finkel

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' rating:

Published Jun 2023 240 pages Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion Publication Information

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About this book

Book summary.

One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world's most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser's strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief , Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser's strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart's content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict's need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend's pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

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Media Reviews

Reader reviews.

"In this masterful true crime account, Finkel traces the fascinating exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who stole more than 200 artworks...Drawing on art theory and Breitwieser's psychology reports, Finkel speculates on his subject's addiction to beauty....It's a riveting ride." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) "From the opening chapter, Finkel's tight prose heightens the drama of each theft, as Breitweiser and his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, who serves as his lookout, enter Belgium's Rubens House amid visitors and guards....A fascinating read. Finkel will have art history and true crime lovers obsessively turning the pages of this suspenseful, smartly written work until its shocking conclusion." — Library Journal (starred review) "The tale of a strong candidate for the title of 'most prolific art thief ever....' Finkel's play-by-play of each theft has the pacing and atmosphere of a good suspense tale....The author describes each acquisition as well as Breitwieser's simple but effective methods....Finkel's extensive research, survey of art history, and hours of interviews with his subject combine for a compelling read." — Kirkus Reviews "It is romantic to liken art thieves to Pierce Brosnan's glamorous character in The Thomas Crown Affair . The reality is far less charming. Case in point: Stéphane Breitwieser, one of the most successful art thieves of all time. From roughly 1994 to 2001, Breitwieser executed more than 200 heists. The book's first lesson? Europe has a lot of understaffed historic buildings. The second? Even a kleptomaniac with delusions of grandeur can be made mildly sympathetic in the hands of a skilled writer." — Bloomberg "This is an absorbing and astonishing portrait of a fascinating and complicated character—a riveting story of obsession and misplaced brilliance." —Kirk Wallace Johnson, best-selling author of The Feather Thief and The Fishermen and the Dragon

Author Information

Michael finkel.

Michael Finkel is the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit and True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa . He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Book Review: ‘The Art Thief’ is an astonishing story that capitalizes on our love of true crime

The Associated Press

June 26, 2023, 10:18 AM

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“The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession” by Michael Finkel (Alfred A. Knopf)

What is it about stories of transgression that keep us wanting more of them? Tales of heists, con artists and even murders permeate all corners of society, from Dostoevsky to “Tiger King.”

It is this insatiable thirst for accounts of crime – and if based on real events, all the better – that journalist Michael Finkel exploits in “The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession.”

It recounts the astonishing saga of Stéphane Breitwieser, the notorious art thief who stole hundreds of pieces of art between 1994 and 2001, mostly from museums throughout Europe – a collection which was estimated to be worth around $2 billion.

The level of detail Finkel is able to provide, thanks to extensive reporting and hours of interviews with Breitwieser himself, is uncomfortably gripping, as if the reader is watching these events unfold and working as an accomplice to the French robber’s crimes.

“The Art Thief” is the kind of book that is worth finishing if its subject matter gets one’s attention in the first place, given that the story only gets more scandalous and appalling as it progresses.

Given how much and how often he stole, it is inevitable that recounting so many details of these heists would dull one’s senses to each otherwise astonishing feat. Though it can sometimes feel like Finkel is belaboring his point, perhaps that is the author’s intention, a way of underscoring the extent of both Breitwieser’s skill and addiction.

Although the definition of a page-turner, this book will also likely force the reader to consider why details of this kind are so exhilarating to us in the first place.

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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A fascinating read. Finkel will have art history and true crime lovers obsessively turning the pages of this suspenseful, smartly written work until its shocking conclusion. Library Journal

Masterful ... a riveting ride. Publishers Weekly, starred review

A mesmerizing true-crime psychological thriller.... The final outcome is a shock. Mr. Finkel tells an enthralling story. From start to finish, this book is hard to put down. The Wall Street Journal

The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing ... what makes Finkel’s book so much fun is that, without exception, [Breitwieser’s] strategies are insane. The New Yorker

Fascinating… has the pacing and atmosphere of a good suspense tale. Kirkus Reviews

The Art Thief chronicles one of the most outrageous crime sprees in history: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stéphane Breitwieser stole from more than 200 museums and galleries across Europe, amassing a collection worth an estimated $2 billion. He never resorted to violence – his audacious thefts all occurred during daylight hours, most with the aid of his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, who served as lookout. And unlike nearly every other art thief, Breitwieser did not steal for money. He displayed his treasures in a secret lair where he and his girlfriend could admire them. Yet even more astounding than his crimes is the spectacular events that brought everything crashing down. The Art Thief , based on a series of exclusive interviews with Breitwieser, the first he has ever granted to an American journalist, details a riveting story of love, crime, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

Gallery Of Images

The Apothecary  by Willem van Mieris, c. 1720, oil on wood. Stolen from the Pharmacy Museum in Basel, Switzerland. (Credit: © Pharmaziemuseum Universität Basel, Schweiz.)

Chalice, c. 1590, silver and nautilus shell. Stolen from the Art & History Museum in Brussels, Belgium. (Credit: © Royal Museums of Art & History, Brussels.)

Three Graces  by Gérard van Opstal, c. 1650, ivory. Stolen from the Art & History Museum in Brussels, Belgium. (Credit: © Royal Museums of Art & History, Brussels.)

Commemorative medallion, c. 1845, gold-plated silver. Stolen from the History Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland. (Credit: Courtesy of the Art and History Museum of Fribourg.)

Warship, c. 1700, silver. Stolen from the Art & History Museum in Brussels, Belgium. (Credit: ImageStudio / © Royal Museums of Art & History, Brussels.)

Chalice by I.D. Clootwijck, 1588, silver and coconut. Stolen from the Art & History Museum in Brussels, Belgium. (Credit: ImageStudio / © Royal Museums of Art & History, Brussels.)

Chalice, 1602, silver and ostrich egg. Stolen from the Art & History Museum in Brussels, Belgium. (Credit: ImageStudio / © Royal Museums of Art & History, Brussels.)

Landscape with a Cannon  by Albrecht Dürer, 1518, paper engraving. Stolen from the Fine Arts Museum in Thun, Switzerland. (Credit: Fletcher Fund, 1919 / The Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Scene from the life of Christ, c. 1620, Lindenwood. Stolen from the Art and History Museum in Fribourg, Switzerland. (Credit: Courtesy of the Art and History Museum of Fribourg.)

Festival of Monkeys  by David Teniers the Younger, c. 1630, oil on copper. Stolen from the Thomas Henry Museum in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France. (Credit: © Musée Thomas Henry)

Flintlock pistol by Barth à Colmar, c. 1720, walnut with silver inlay. Stolen from the Museum of the Friends of Thann in Thann, France. (Credit: Courtesy of La Société d’histoire, “Les Amis de Thann.”)

Still life by Jan van Kessel the Elder, 1676, oil on copper. Stolen from the  European Fine Art F oundation in Maastricht, Netherlands. (Credit: © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images.)

Stéphane Breitwieser in 2006. (Credit: © Julien Cassagne / MaxPPP)

Breitwieser’s mother’s house in Alsace, France. The top two windows look into the attic rooms that contained an estimated $2 billion in stolen art. (Credit: Michael Finkel)

A drawing Breitwieser made for the police, with specific dimensions and details, from memory. (Credit: Jean-Claude Morisod)

The Alsacian village of Thann, where Stéphane Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus committed their first theft together, of an 18 th  century flintlock pistol. (Credit: Michael Finkel)

The Alsace region of France, where Breitwieser grew up, sits in the northeastern corner of the country, along the borders of Germany and Switzerland. (Credit: Christophe Dumoulin / Getty Images)

In a partially-drained section of the Rhone-Rhine Canal in eastern France, crews search for stolen artwork that had been tossed into the murky water. (Credit: Cedric Joubert / AP)

Breitwieser, in his usual disguise, fake glasses and a baseball cap, stares at the ivory  Adam and Eve  he’d previously stolen. (Credit: Michael Finkel)

Stéphane Breitwieser (center) and his attorney, Jean-Claude Morisod (left), entering court in Gruyères, Switzerland in 2003. (Credit: © Luzerner Zeitung)

Sleeping Shepherd  by François Boucher, c. 1750, oil on wood. Stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts in Chartres, France. (Credit: © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, N.Y.)

Sibylle of Cleves  by Lucas Cranach the Younger, c. 1540, oil on wood. Stolen from New Castle in Baden-Baden, Germany. (Credit: open-source usage.)

Tobacco box painted by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, c. 1805, gold, enamel, and ivory. Stolen from the Valais History Museum in Sion, Switzerland. (Credit: Valais History Museum, MV 1444. © Musées cantonaux du Valais, Sion. Photograph by Heinz Preisig, photo-colorization by Dana Keller.)

Madeleine de France  by Corneille de Lyon, 1536, oil on wood. Stolen from the  Museum of Fine Arts  in Blois, France. (Credit: © Bridgeman Images.)

Adam and Eve  by Georg Petel, 1627, ivory. Stolen from the Rubens House in Antwerp, Belgium. (Credit: RH.K.015, Collection of the City of Antwerp, Rubens House.)

The author of  The Art Thief , dressed for Halloween. (Credit: Daniel Adel)

Righter of Words

editor, book reviewer, word lover

Book Review | The Art Thief

The main thing I have to say is: the AUDACITY of this man!

In The Art Thief , Michael Finkel relates the real-life tale of Stephane Breitwieser, who stole thousands of works of art in the 1990s and early 2000s, with the help of his girlfriend Anne-Catherine. Breitwieser’s devotion to art, nearly a compulsion, led to him having an attic filled with priceless works pilfered from museums across Europe. But problems with his relationship, and an act of hubris, led to Breitwieser’s being caught finally, though that was just the start of his troubles.

I listened to the audiobook of this, which means I had to look up how to spell everyone’s names. However, the narrator Edoardo Ballerini did an excellent job.

I didn’t know anything about this particular art thief, so reading about this was quite interesting. Much of it is written as if it’s a story, providing a lot of what Breitweiser was thinking during the most significant events (likely due to the extensive interviews Finkel was granted with him). Sometimes I had to wonder how much was fabricated or exaggerated, but considering what Breitweiser is like, that might just be me being a little jaded.

I found the explanations of Breitweiser’s methods to be so interesting—it’s remarkable what a person can get away with when acting calm and confident, and having just a tiny bit of inside knowledge about how a place functions. Especially when security guards and cameras factor in. The descriptions of Breitweiser’s relationship with Anne-Catherine were also intriguing; it’s a complicated love story that’s compelling to watch even as it crumbles.

The fallout of Breitweiser’s capture is great too, even while I want to scream at his mother to tell us the truth. It’s kind of agonizing to hear what happened to some of the art, especially the paintings. Finkel highlights how far people will go for love, even if that takes them down a path that causes harm.

There was some other cool art history interspersed. For example, somehow I had never heard that Picasso was kind of involved in an art theft, nor that the Mona Lisa had once been stolen! You learn something new everyday as they say, and I learned several new things at once while reading this.

In the end, The Art Thief tells an interesting tale. It’s not the most remarkable nonfiction I’ve ever read, but seems well researched and is told in an accessible way. What an odd story, centered around a rather odd man. It’s fun trivia I know now for sure!

The Art Thief will be published on June 22nd, 2023!

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THE ART THIEF

by Noah Charney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2007

A pseudo-intellectual mystery: If this is the best story Charney can build from his experiences, he is advised to keep his...

A novel about stolen paintings and forgeries by a student of art crime.

Two paintings—one an altarpiece by Caravaggio, the other a canvas by the Russian Suprematist Kasimir Malevich—go missing, and an eclectic team of detectives and art historians must find them in Charney’s debut. A Cambridge-trained scholar and the founding director of a consulting group on art-crime prevention, Charney is a pioneer in the use of art history to solve art mysteries. He is not, however, a natural storyteller or a gifted writer. The plot is an unwieldy, exasperating mess. There are too many principle characters for any of them to be fully developed, and the ostensibly comic characters—including a fat French inspector who is constantly eating or getting himself wedged into tight spots—are simply embarrassing. The author’s self-conscious attempts to gussy up this flaccid thriller are painfully heavy-handed. There is a surfeit of ugly, unilluminating metaphors—Charney often chooses two or three when one would have been enough. The smattering of French dialogue spoken by his Gallic characters is arbitrary and off-putting, serving to underscore the novel’s general pretentiousness. The book will no doubt earn comparisons to The Da Vinci Code , and such comparisons will be apt, up to a point. Like Dan Brown, Charney presents superficial windbaggery as up-market erudition. But Brown’s hero is a made-up scholar in a fictional field, while Charney is a real-life practitioner and—according to his press materials—genuine innovator in the world in which his novel is set.

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4165-5030-3

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2007

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

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Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

More by Kathy Reichs

by Kathy Reichs

by David Baldacci ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 2, 1997

Irritatingly trite woman-in-periler from lawyer-turned-novelist Baldacci. Moving away from the White House and the white-shoe Washington law firms of his previous bestsellers (Absolute Power, 1996; Total Control, 1997), Baldacci comes up with LuAnn Tyler, a spunky, impossibly beautiful, white-trash truck stop waitress with a no-good husband and a terminally cute infant daughter in tow. Some months after the birth of Lisa, LuAnn gets a phone call summoning her to a make-shift office in an unrented storefront of the local shopping mall. There, she gets a Faustian offer from a Mr. Jackson, a monomaniacal, cross-dressing manipulator who apparently knows the winning numbers in the national lottery before the numbers are drawn. It seems that LuAnn fits the media profile of what a lottery winner should be—poor, undereducated but proud—and if she's willing to buy the right ticket at the right time and transfer most of her winnings to Jackson, she'll be able to retire in luxury. Jackson fails to inform her, however, that if she refuses his offer, he'll have her killed. Before that can happen, as luck would have it, LuAnn barely escapes death when one of husband Duane's drug deals goes bad. She hops on a first-class Amtrak sleeper to Manhattan with a hired executioner in pursuit. But executioner Charlie, one of Jackson's paid handlers, can't help but hear wedding bells when he sees LuAnn cooing with her daughter. Alas, a winning $100- million lottery drawing complicates things. Jackson spirits LuAnn and Lisa away to Sweden, with Charlie in pursuit. Never fear. Not only will LuAnn escape a series of increasingly violent predicaments, but she'll also outwit Jackson, pay an enormous tax bill to the IRS, and have enough left over to honeymoon in Switzerland. Too preposterous to work as feminine wish-fulfillment, too formulaic to be suspenseful. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection)

Pub Date: Dec. 2, 1997

ISBN: 0-446-52259-7

Page Count: 528

Publisher: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1997

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

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by David Baldacci

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‘I’m a liar. I’m a thief. I’m capable of almost anything.’

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The girl on the cover of Patric Gagne’s new book, “Sociopath: A Memoir,” looks out impassively beneath uneven bangs, lips pursed in a way that suggests there’s trouble behind the mask, like the time she stabbed a grade-school classmate with a pencil or, as she grew older, broke into houses and stole cars.

An unapologetic confession or perhaps a warning comes a few pages inside: “I’m a liar. I’m a thief. I’m emotionally shallow,” Gagne writes. “I’m mostly immune to remorse and guilt. I’m highly manipulative. I don’t care what other people think. I’m not interested in morals. I’m not interested, period. Rules do not factor into my decision making. I’m capable of almost anything.”

That bold declaration leads one to wonder about the veracity of a memoir written by a confessed, if charming, part-time fabulist: “I’m not a perfect messenger,” Gagne said during a Zoom conversation while sitting in front of a bookcase in a house in a city she asked not to be identified over concerns that others with mental disorders might contact her. “I know my stories are true, but I also know not everyone is going to believe them.”

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Gagne’s tale is a map of psychological discovery and illicit tendencies. Published by Simon & Schuster, the new memoir traces the life of a girl who grew into a woman trying to understand her sociopathy, which today is often labeled as antisocial personality disorder. Gagne knew early that she was different, fighting an apathy that could spark an anxiousness that provoked destructive outbursts. She mimicked the emotions she lacked to fit into a world where novels and films tended to depict sociopaths as violent and soulless transgressors treading the fringes.

“Lying kept me safe. I was sliding under the radar,” Gagne, 48, said in the interview, estimating that as many as 15 million Americans may be sociopaths. (In an overview of Antisocial Personality Disorder, the Cleveland Clinic states that it “affects an estimated 1% to 4% of adults in the U.S.”; 4% of the current population is about 13.7 million Americans.)

“There’s nothing inherently immoral about having limited access to your emotions,” Gagne added. “Not all sociopaths are dangerous criminals. They’re not going to be easy to spot. They’re not going to be stereotypical monsters. You could be sleeping next to one. You could have, in fact, birthed one.”

A master of interior disguise, Gagne is married with two children and has settled into a well-to-do conformity. She is a former therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Her years-long mission has been to, as she puts it, demystify and humanize a condition that has been “misappropriated to cover all manner of sin.” She has learned to navigate the contours of love, empathy and other feelings even as in her younger days she felt the “cunning genius of [a] subconscious mind” — like a jazz composition of loose rules and shifting structures. She became less interloper than practiced assimilator.

“I find neurotypical people fascinating. You guys are like ice skaters. All of these colorful emotions,” said Gagne. “These little things you do. I could watch it all day. I don’t want to be an ice skater, but I really find it fascinating. In much the same way that neurotypical people find me fascinating. I’m not envious of it. But you guys have more pieces on the chess board than I do.”

Gagne said she is grateful not to possess some of those pieces, notably guilt and shame, which she sees in her Catholic-raised husband. “It seems,” she said, “like a very heavy and unnecessary burden.”

But she can telegraph moods. In 2011, when she was working as a therapist, she wrote and acted in a skit for the Groundlings comedy troupe. It was titled “Resting Bitch Face,” a phrase her sister whispered to her in high school whenever Gagne’s face slipped into a sociopathic gaze. That inspired the sketch about a hiring interviewer whose alternating expressions of smiles and scowls unnerve a job candidate played by Nate Clark.

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“I enjoyed working with her, but I wouldn’t characterize Patric as the warmest person,” said Clark, a writer and independent creative director, adding that Gagne was open about her sociopathy. “The ‘Resting Bitch Face’ sketch came from her personal experience. That makes good comedy. Her writing was always very self aware. She had intelligence and a lot of different experiences. I don’t think she cared what people thought of her. She had a unique point of view.”

The daughter of a music industry executive, Gagne lived in Florida before moving to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. Her impulses flared. She’d break into a house and sit in the quiet — stealing nothing — and then vanish into the night, her apathy jolted by an unlawful act that would calm her brain. She stole cars, joy riding for hours and later returning the vehicle, sometimes putting gas in the tank, a consideration she called a “karmic adjustment.” It was, in her telling, the thrill she craved, which was easily found in a city accustomed to reinvention and experimentation.

“In L.A., you can be anybody you want,” she said, remembering how people responded when she told them she was a sociopath: “They’d say, ‘Tell me more. Oh, let me hear about that.’ Everyone in Los Angeles, I think, has a streak of darkness. Certainly, that can be used negatively but also positively. Anyone and everyone who is a ‘misfit’ can find their place in Los Angeles. That was really true for me.”

She attended classes at UCLA — later earning a PhD from the California Graduate Institute of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology — and after graduation worked as a talent manager for her father’s company. The memoir offers an evocative glimpse of the music business, but, like much of the book, relies on pseudonyms, composite characters and long stretches of reconstructed conversations. The prose moves and the dialogue is sharp, but as in the case with Max, a star musician whose real identity is withheld, Gagne expects more than a degree of trust from the reader.

Kirkus Reviews noted that “the narrative itself, which relies heavily on conventions from the romance and thriller genres, has a markedly fantastical quality, and what emerges often seems to favor vivid storytelling and self-aggrandizement over honest introspection. . . Though the book is marketed as a memoir, it reads very much like a work of fiction.”

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Gagne said her intent was to protect the privacy of characters by not naming them, noting the flashes of criminality described in her story. “I’ve lived a very colorful life, and in the editing process, the more colorful stories rose to the surface,” she said, adding that the original manuscript was about 200,000 words. “I can understand how someone reading this might have that opinion where this just seems to fit together too perfectly.”

Publishers Weekly commended Gagne’s honesty and introspection. It praised the memoir as “courageously candid and sometimes shocking,” calling it a “no-holds-barred self-portrait [that] offers an illuminating glimpse at a mental health disorder long shrouded by shame.”

The book is most insightful when Gagne struggles to clinically define herself and how to relate to emotions she didn’t have or could only interpret or approximate. Her frustration is enveloping but she is a tireless investigator. She consulted psychology textbooks, journal articles and other research, including conversations with therapists and professors, but for years her essence appeared elusive. She writes: “While I could easily identify with most of the traits on the sociopathic and psychopathic checklists, I was only able to relate to about half of the antisocial ones.”

Unlike a psychopath, Gagne did not have brain abnormalities. With the help of counseling, she realized she was a sociopath, although she notes that there is not a “singular definition” for the term. She believed that most people like her could learn to control their impulses. In an interview, she said that early on she discovered how to repress violent urges, knowing that if she didn’t she would be outed as different and become a “walking red flag.” Today, she said, she has no desire to hurt people but must reign in other compulsions.

“It’s my internal philosophy,” she said. “If you act out, your family, husband, that part of your life will suffer but the sociopathic side that gets off on these things will benefit. Which one do you want to pick? Nine times out of 10, as much as I would like to get away with these occasional destructive acts, I will choose this life I have chosen to lead. You have to make sacrifices.”

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Much of the story tracks the often tempestuous relationship with her husband, David, a technology consultant. They met when she was a girl at summer camp and reconnected years later in Los Angeles. His was an enduring love, even as revelations about her disorder, including urges to break into houses, multiplied. “Why do you have a lock-picking kit?” he once asked her. David often felt irrelevant — that he cared about the relationship and she didn’t — and wanted things she could not give. Over time, and, again, through counseling, she said, their bond deepened and they had two children.

“David’s ability to accept my sociopathic symptoms,” she writes, “was nothing short of life-changing for me.”

But Gagne said her emotional detachment can complicate family life. It can also provide clarity and not let feelings get in the way of solving problems. When asked if her children — boys ages 8 and 13 — sometimes hoped for more emotion from her, she said: “They probably do. But I have worked really hard to give them the space to tell me things. Sometimes they say, ‘Mommy, I want X, Y and Z from you. Can you try and give me that?’ and I try.”

Gagne writes in the memoir that when her first son was born, “I was not overcome with emotion. I didn’t get the profound surge of ‘perfect’ love I’d been promised. ... I was unable to connect with my feelings — I was furious.” She later writes that she told her child: “‘You have a weirdo for a mom, babe,’ I said to him. ‘So I can’t promise your childhood is going to be entirely normal. ... But I can promise that I will never put you in danger. You will never be safer than you are when you’re with me.’”

It is not always easy. Life, with all its calibrations, turns on unpredictable things. Gagne’s X bio is at once matter-of-fact and slightly fantastical: “David’s wife. Mother of dragons. Writer. Doctor. Sociopath.” She said she has come far from the 9-year-old with uneven bangs on the book’s cover, the one who secretly stole a barrette from a friend’s hair, was once transfixed by Blondie, and would later quote Oscar Wilde — “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

But she still relates to that long-ago child: “I see myself in her. I know that stare. I know what you’re thinking, kid. I gotcha,” she said. “I’m also filled with compassion for her. ... No one empathizes with a kid who doesn’t experience the social emotions. Nobody empathizes with the sociopath. I had to use my own sociopathic experience, my own lack of that empathetic experience, in order to create it. No one is empathizing with me. However, I can empathize with that little kid.”

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Jeffrey Fleishman is a senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was the foreign and national editor. A 2002 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Fleishman was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. A longtime foreign correspondent, he served as bureau chief for The Times in Cairo and Berlin, and was previously based in Rome for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also was a writer on film, art and culture. Fleishman has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a finalist for the Center for Public Integrity’s Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. He is the author of five novels, including “Good Night, Forever” and “Last Dance.”

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John Barth, innovative postmodernist novelist, dies at 93

The Associated Press

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — John Barth, the playfully erudite author whose darkly comic and complicated novels revolved around the art of literature and launched countless debates over the art of fiction, died Tuesday. He was 93.

Johns Hopkins University, where Barth was an emeritus professor of English and creative writing, confirmed his death in a statement.

Along with William Gass , Stanley Elkin and other peers, Barth was part of a wave of writers in the 1960s who challenged standards of language and plot. The author of 20 books including "Giles Goat-Boy" and "The Sot-Weed Factor," Barth was a college writing instructor who advocated for postmodernism to literature, saying old forms were used up and new approaches were needed.

Barth's passion for literary theory and his innovative but complicated novels made him a writer's writer. Barth said he felt like Scheherazade in "The Thousand and One Nights," desperately trying to survive by creating literature.

He created a best-seller in 1966 with "Giles Goat-Boy," which turned a college campus into a microcosm of a world threatened by the Cold War, and made a hero of a character who is part goat.

The following year, he wrote a postmodern manifesto, "The Literature of Exhaustion," which argued that the traditional novel suffered from a "used-upness of certain forms." The influential Atlantic Monthly essay described the postmodern writer as one who "confronts an intellectual dead end and employs it against itself to accomplish new human work."

He clarified in another essay 13 years later, "The Literature of Replenishment," that he didn't mean the novel was dead — just sorely in need of a new approach.

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"I like to remind misreaders of my earlier essay that written literature is in fact about 4,500 years old (give or take a few centuries depending on one's definition of literature), but that we have no way of knowing whether 4,500 years constitutes senility, maturity, youth, or mere infancy," Barth wrote.

Barth frequently explored the relationship between storyteller and audience in parodies and satire. He said he was inspired by "The Thousand and One Nights," which he discovered while working in the classics library of Johns Hopkins University.

"It is a quixotic high-wire act to hope, at this late hour of the century, to write literary material and contend with declining readership and a publishing world where businesses are owned by other businesses," Barth told The Associated Press in 1991.

Barth pursued jazz at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, but found he didn't have a great talent for music, and so turned to creative writing, a craft he taught at Penn State University, SUNY Buffalo, Boston University and Johns Hopkins.

His first novel, "The Floating Opera," was nominated for a National Book Award. He was nominated again for a 1968 short story collection, "Lost in the Funhouse," and won in 1973 for "Chimera," three short novels focused on myth.

His breakthrough work was 1960's "The Sot-Weed Factor," a parody of historical fiction with a multitude of plot twists and ribald hijinks. The sprawling, picaresque story uses 18th-century literary conventions to chronicle the adventures of Ebenezer Cooke, who takes possession of a tobacco farm in Maryland.

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Barth was born on Maryland's Eastern Shore and set many of his works there. Both his 1982 "Sabbatical: A Romance" and his 1987 "The Tidewater Tales" feature couples sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Barth also challenged literary conventions in his 1979 epistolary novel "Letters," in which characters from his first six novels wrote to each other, and he inserted himself as a character as well.

"My ideal postmodernist author neither merely repudiates nor merely imitates either his twentieth-century modernist parents or his nineteenth-century premodernist grandparents. He has the first half of our century under his belt, but not on his back."

Barth kept writing in the 21st century.

In 2008, he published "The Development," a collection of short stories about retirees in a gated community. "Final Fridays," published in 2012, was his third collection of non-fiction essays.