The Art of the Heist

“A gripping tell-all . . . For a master of deceit, Connor is surprisingly candid . . . his book offers a fascinating look inside the mind of an unrepentant criminal.” —The Washington Post How did the son of a decorated policeman grow up to be one of Boston’s most notorious criminals? How did he survive a decades-long feud with the FBI? How did he escape one jail sentence with a fake gun carved out of soap? How did he trade the return of a famous Rembrandt for early release from another sentence? The Art of the Heist is a roller-coaster ride of a life, the memoir of America’s most infamous art thief, Myles Connor. Once a promising young rock musician, Connor instead became a thief with irresistible charm and a genius IQ whose approach to his chosen profession mixed brilliant tactical planning with stunning bravado, brazen disguises, audaciously elaborate con jobs, and even the broad-daylight grab-and-dash. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art . . . no museum was off-limits. The fact that he was in jail at the time of the largest art theft in American history—the still-unsolved robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—has not stopped the FBI from considering him a prime suspect. The Art of the Heist is Connor’s story—part confession, part thrill ride, and impossible to put down. “From his daring 1965 jail break at age twenty-two to his legendary career pilfering treasures from museums all over New England, Connor’s life is the stuff of adventure novels.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A dizzying account of bank robberies, museum break-ins, drug deals, and violent brushes with the law during a lifetime of thumbing his nose at authority.” —The Boston Globe “One of the most beguiling criminal memoirs ever written. . . . A rare gem of a book.” —T. J. English, New York Times–bestselling author of The Westies