The Art Stealers

Book excerpt: Art stealing is as old as art itself. But in recent years, stimulated by the spectacular boom in art prices, stealing has mushroomed. Milton Esterow tells the entertaining and provocative story of this illicit trade in stolen masterpieces, including such sensational incidents as the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, the involvement of Picasso and Apollinaire in the theft of statuettes from the Louvre and the amazing robbery of a Goya portrait from London's National Gallery. Some of the criminals are greedy, some patriots, some true art-lovers and some just plain screwballs. All make fascinating true crime copy at the hands of a skilled and knowledgeable writer.