The Rescue Artist (37 page)

Skater (Portrait of William Grant)
(Stuart), 78

Smith, Adam, 137

Smith, John, 239

Sorensen, Gunnar, 242-43

Spiel, Robert, 149

Spring Evening on Karl Johan Street
(Munch), 81

Still Life
(Munch), 82

Stolen art

financial aspects of, 139-40

insurance and, 27-29, 63

organized crime and, 152-56

ransom for, 32, 50

recovery rate, 1, 13-14

rewards offered for, 21-22

speculation about thefts

commissioned by art

collectors, 72, 133-34, 143, 145-49, 189

Storm on the Sea of Galilee
(Rembrandt), 240

Storr, Paul, 195

Strictly Private
(Marquess of Bath), 236

Stuart, Gilbert,
Skater (Portrait of William Grant),
78

Study for a Portrait
(Munch), 19

Sunflowers
(van Gogh), 129

Sybille of Cleves
(Cranach), 144-45

Tate Gallery, London, 27, 155-56

Tate Modern Museum, London, 15

Tête de Femme
(Picasso), 215

Thieves.
See
Art thieves and crooks

Thoré, Théophile, 61, 246n

Thune, Jens Kristian, direction, Norway’s National Gallery, 93-94

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

Rape of Europa,
14

Rest on the Flight into Egypt,
236-37

Trace art recovery company, 237, 238

Trump, Donald, 137

Turner, Frederick Jackson

Light and Colour,
155

Shade and Darkness,
155

Turow, Scott, 99

Tveita Gang, Norway, 160-62

Ulving, Einar-Tore, role in theft/recovery of
The Scream,
94-95, 97-99

C. Hills “prop trap” left for, 163-66

C. Hill’s suspicions of, 98-99

first meetings with C. Hill, 107-12

leads C. Hill to
The Scream,
220-26

meetings with T. Johnsen, C. Hill and “Psycho,” 203-5, 217-19

painting hidden in

summerhouse of, 207-9

Plaza hotel meetings with T. Johnsen and C. Hill, 113-20

stopped by traffic police, 197-98

trial for theft of
The Scream
and, 234, 235

United States

poor security at art museums in, 15

theft insurance in, 27

Valfierno, Eduardo de, 146-48

The Vampire
(Munch), 18-19

theft of, 160-61, 234

van Gogh, Vincent, 13, 48, 129

Irises,
48

Portrait of Dr. Gachet,
48, 131, 137

Portrait of the Artist Without His Beard,
137

Sunflowers,
129

Van Ruysdael, Salomon, 64

Velázquez, Diego, 63

Verdens Gang
(Norwegian newspaper), 10

Vermeer, Johannes, 12

The Astronomer, 12n

The Concert,
12, 14, 62, 240

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,
61

Girl with a Pearl Earring,
61

Girl with a Red Hat,
61

The Guitar Player
12, 124-26

Head of a Girl,
62

Lacemaker
, 62

Lady Playing a Guitar,
60

Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid,
12, 59-60, 63-77, 122, 126, 246n

life and art of, 60-63

The Procuress,
61

Woman with a Pearl Necklace,
62

Young Woman Seated at a Virginal,
62

Young Woman Standing at a Virginal,
62

Vestier, Antoine, 77

View of Florence
(Bellotto), 126-27

Violence associated with art crimes, 57-58, 123, 124, 154, 155

Walker, Sid

role in sting to recover
The Scream,
108-11, 117-18, 165, 205, 217-19, 229-31

undercover investigations by, 168, 169, 213

Walle, Marit, 8

Wallis, Henry, 140-41

Death of Chatterton,
141

Watson, Peter,
The Caravaggio Conspiracy
(Watson), 154n

White Duck
(Oudry), 239

Widdrington Hill, Zita (Charley

Hill’s mother), 38-39

Williams, Paul, 67

Wilson, Peter, 129

Wilton House, England, Rembrandt painting stolen from, 192

Woman Reading a Letter
(Metsu), 69, 244

Woman with a Pearl Necklace
(Vermeer), 62

Worth, Adam, art thefts perpetrated by, 150-151

Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company, 129

Young Woman Seated at a Virginal
(Vermeer), 62

Young Woman Standing at a Virginal
(Vermeer), 62

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T
he cops and robbers who specialize in art crime are few in number and wary of strangers. My guide to their ranks was Charley Hill. In a life marked by unlikely choices, Hill’s decision to take an outsider behind the scenes ranks as one of the most surprising. The most important access Hill provided was to his own thoughts. I pestered him with questions in long interviews in London, New York, and Washington, D.C.; in short stints on the Staten Island ferry, a double-decker bus in London, and at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington; and in endless e-mails. For his patience in putting up with so intrusive a visitor, and for his forbearance in agreeing from the start that he would have no say in whatever I eventually wrote, I’m deeply grateful.

I had wanted to write about thieves who steal art and the detectives who chase them since 1990, when two crooks snatched $300 million of art from the Gardner Museum in Boston, my hometown. Two of my good friends, Reed Hundt and Bill Young, helped me turn that vague hope into a specific plan. At every stage of the process, from the earliest outline through draft after draft, Bill and Reed served as unpaid but overworked advisers.

No writer can have better colleagues than grown children who are writers themselves. My two formidably talented sons, Sam and Ben, labored mightily to round their father’s prose into shape.

Michele Missner, a researcher who is herself a precious find, cheerfully unraveled countless mysteries both large and small. Katerina Barry, an artist and a computer savant, took time from her own projects to gather and arrange pictures from around the globe. Pat Barry, a writer and historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of English (as opposed to American) slang and usage, labored valiantly to help me dodge the pitfalls that bedevil an innocent abroad.

Rafe Sagalyn, my agent and my friend, shepherded this project along from the beginning. Hugh Van Dusen is as superlative an editor as his reputation would imply, and that is high praise indeed.

For Lynn, for bottomless reserves of inspiration, insight, and encouragement, my fervent and inadequate gratitude.

P.S. Insights, Interviews & More…

P
RAISE FOR
The Rescue Artist

“Dolnick raises good questions about museum responsibility, the complexities of criminal motivation and the sheer madness of the human drive to attach obscene price tags to objects that were created for loftier purposes.”

—John Loughery,
Washington Post

“Art theft generates between four and six billion dollars a year in revenues, according to Interpol. That makes it number three in illicit commerce, behind drugs and illegal arms. An engaging tour of this little known world is found in Edward Dolnick’s
Rescue Artist.”

—Monica Gagnier,
BusinessWeek

“Riveting. … Readers entering the little-known world of Hill with Dolnick as guide are unlikely to exit willingly.”

—Steve Weinberg,
Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A masterful portrait of the ‘rescue artist.’ “

—Karen Algeo Krizman,
Rocky Mountain News

“The Rescue Artist
is an action-packed investigation of the whole sordid history of art crime. … Dolnick, with his seasoned journalistic background, writes with a crisp, breezy style that runs with the speed of thieves purloining stolen canvases.”

—Donald Harington,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“[A] fascinating, stranger-than-fiction story. … The prose is quick, witty, wildly intriguing, and Dolnick’s voice really shines through as he reports the story with a contagious excitement for the topic. … Dolnick pieces together an exceptional book of art thieves, art detectives, artists, and their works, and even after the first chapter it is hard to put the book down and not feel slightly more refined and sophisticated with all the acquired art knowledge.”

—Ben Taylor,
Albuquerque Journal

“A highly accessible and well-written book that often evokes a crime novel rather than a work of nonfiction….
The Rescue Artist
will satisfy both the reader who would like a good mystery yarn to enliven his or her summer reading as well as someone who wants a crash course in art theft, art recovery, police undercover work, museum security (or the lack thereof), and even a primer on many of the world’s great works of art and the lives of the artists who created them.”

—Lawrence M. Kaye and Howard N. Spiegler,
New York Law Journal

“Edward Dolnick has given us much more than an outstanding detective story that happens to be taken from real life. He has provided us with an insider’s view of the hidden world of art theft, where paintings by old masters are used to settle gambling debts and priceless canvases are rolled up carelessly in the trunk. This is a fascinating tale, expertly told with characters as crisply drawn as any Rembrandt and the sort of intrigue generally found only in a thriller.”

—Arthur Golden, author of
Memoirs of a Geisha

“The Rescue Artist
is a masterpiece. Engrossing, entertaining, often surreally hilarious. In all, a feat no less impressive than the heist of
The Scream
in under a minute using nothing but a ladder.”

—Mary Roach, author of
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

“A lively and literate romp through the world of big-time art crime, led by Scotland Yard’s rumpled undercover ace, Charley Hill. … A rollicking good ride.”

—Gerard O’Neill, co-author of
Black Mass:
The Irish Mob, the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal