To Catch an Art Thief

The 1985 armed robbery of the Marmottan Museum in Paris shocked the art world. A team of pistol-wielding robbers stormed the museum in broad daylight, holding forty people hostage and escaping with nine masterpieces, including five by Monet. While the most audacious art theft of the period, the Marmottan Museum robbery represents only a small fraction of the thriving world of art theft in the 1980s. In a major city like New York, art galleries faced ongoing threats from shoplifting, employee theft, and burglary. To Catch a Art Thief is the fascinating result of one woman's research into the shady and high-stakes world of art theft. The author's extensive knowledge of art crime grew out of her dissertation research at Rutgers University. Writing as Vivian T-N Ho, artist and criminal justice scholar Dr. Truc-Nhu Ho explores the strategies used by art thieves and the countermeasures made by gallery security and law enforcement. She delves into the world of art fences and unscrupulous dealers willing to act as middlemen between criminals and collectors. The Marmottan robbery came to a happy conclusion: in 1990 the stolen masterpieces reappeared in Corsica. Few art thefts end so well. In To Catch an Art Thief, Dr. Ho explains why, supplementing her findings with actual cases courtesy of the New York City Police Department and extensive interviews with NYC art-gallery directors. Her research puts human faces on the men and women who fight to protect and retrieve valuable art.