The Art Thief - Noah Charney

*** - This book definitely has its fair share of puzzles, and I (like many) am fascinated by the world of art and art crime. I learned a lot about both while reading Charney's The Art Thief. The highlights by far are definitely Prof. Barrow's art history lectures. I enjoyed the book, but I ended up pretty confused about what painting went where - and I was a bit irritated when the exact same phrases popped up again and again. A good debut novel, but there's room for improvement.

The Story:

A beautiful Caravaggio altarpiece is stolen from a small church in Rome. A famous Malevich painting is stolen from the basement of the Malevich society - and a similar painting goes on sale at one of London's most prestigious auctions. Although the art thefts seem unconnected, the investigations in Rome, Paris and London begin to intertwine. And through it all, art investigator Gabriel Coffin offers his assistance and expertise in identifying and seeking out the stolen paintings.

Once the story takes off there is a dizzying number of forgeries, overpaintings, double-crosses, and unscrupulous collectors. There's a whirlwind of information being presented about the artists, about the consequences of art crime, and especially some fantastically colorful lectures on art history and certain paintings. There are puzzles and brain teasers - but to be honest it all ended up being a little much. It got to the point where I was writing down what was happening to what painting where...and I just felt jumbled and confused. Not the ideal denouement.

The author mentions in the interview at the back of my copy that he began work as a playwright - and I think it shows. Rather than draw us elaborate heist scenes or action-based chases, most of the action is recounted through dialogue between characters. At times it certainly has its charms, but it did get old when every move forward in Paris was shared over an elaborate dinner rather than getting to accompany the police to the scene. I was looking for a better balance between demonstrating character development and actual action scenes - otherwise many of the scenes can seem like info-dumps. This is especially noticeable when the same striking phrase ('violent ignorance') is used a few times in a similar context mere 50 pages apart.

Ultimately, The Art Thief misses the ideal balance between the thriller (like The Thomas Crown Affair) and a more character-driven story. But some of his characters are spot-on, and where Charney talks about art history and art crime, I was utterly fascinated. I would recommend this to readers who enjoyed the art references and discussions in Dan Brown's thrillers, but want someone who 'gets' art. Noah Charney does, and his Professor Barrow brings it to life AND makes you laugh.

The Art:

Many of Malevich's works can be found here, and here is one of the White on White series discussed in The Art Thief (in MoMA). The blurb about the Suprematist movement at the second link is particularly interesting.





Obviously, the Caravaggio mentioned in The Art Thief does not actually exist, but here is a painting of the Annunciation by Caravaggio. And here are a number of other Caravaggio works, if you are interested (the Bacchus and the Calling of St. Matthew are particularly nice). I've always had a soft spot for Caravaggio despite his tempestuous and pugnacious nature. This one has been my favorite ever since I first saw it in the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth when I was in high school.


And the Dürer engravings mentioned in the puzzles are here:
Melencolia I;
Knight, Death, and the Devil;
St. Jerome in His Study


For those of you interested in Professor Barrow's lectures (my favorite part of the book), here are some of the paintings he discusses from the National Gallery in London:

The Marriage Contract (aka The Arnolfini Wedding) - Jan van Eyck and one of his Self-Portraits
The Ghent Altarpiece particularly Adam and Eve

The Ambassadors - Hans Holbein (the Younger)

And Gabriel Coffin lectures about The Gardner Heist (incidentally I've got a book about this in my TBR pile!).



The Crime:

For more information on art crimes, you can visit the author's website, or the website of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA) - which also has a blog. Or you can read a Publisher's Weekly interview (quite short) with a master art thief.


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Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Vulpes Libris