Review: Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures, Robert K. Wittman
with John Shiffman, Crown Publishing: 2010.
Priceless opens
with an undercover art sting in Miami Beach, complete with a yacht, a Rolls
Royce, and two French henchmen from the European art underworld. This is the first glimpse we get of our
protagonist, Robert Wittman, in this sting known better as Bob Clay, and the
only thing odd about this Miami Vice-inspired scene is that it is a true
story. Wittman, founder of the FBI’s
Art Crime Team and senior investigator for the Bureau until his retirement in
2008, has some great stories to tell from his many years investigating art
crimes. He lays them all out for the
reader like a holiday feast, and even includes some tantalizing hints about the
most famous art heist of recent history, the Isabella Stewart Gardner theft in
1990. Wittman relays these stories in a
bit of an unpracticed voice that is more beat cop than storyteller, but the
reader can’t help but be intrigued and caught up in this view into a world we
never see.... Read our full book review in the upcoming Spring 2014 VAM Voice member news magazine.
Interested in hearing more about the FBI art crimes
unit? Don’t miss the Keynote
Presentation at the 2014 Annual Conference, where our speaker will be Gregg
Horner. Horner is a current member of
the FBI art crimes squad, and will share some of his experiences with our
attendees on Tuesday, March 18th.
He will also be a part of a session later that morning on theft in
museums.
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