Fun and entertaining read. Was redundant after a while.

I liked the subject matter of the book and learning about the author's experience working for the FBI.

Incredibly interesting topic!

Overall, very interesting topic. And the growth of the FBI's art finding division was very informative.
One thing I wished was that the author's self importance and bias as not as prominent.

Wonderfully entertaining and educational read. Loved it!

To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say this detective has some very specific ideas about the whereabouts of the Gardner Museum stolen paintings. It was an interesting read, but the writing brought it to 3 stars instead of more. Recommended for an easy “hmm-that’s-interesting” read.

all reviews in one place: night mode reading; skaitom nakties rezimu

About the Book: Author tells us the story of how he found his footing in catching art thieves. Where his education on art came from, how he trained his eye on it, and what seems to be the future of this field. All wrapped in a very tense few stories of how he retrieved said art, what it was like to go undercover in attempts to buy stolen works, how he had to authenticate items as real by himself, and then make sure that during the arrest: no harm came to the piece. A very intriguing tale of a very special kind of crooks who, in a sense, try to rob us all for clients who absolutely are robbing us all (as you have to be able to afford all of this, and I’ve some opinions on pathological hoarding of wealth).

My Opinion: A great book on recovery of artworks, how it works, how it doesn’t work. How it’s stolen, how it’s found. What’s the difference between grave-robbers, people who loot tombs and other archeological places, and those who steal from museums. Wittman is not stingy with the nitty gritty details, and isn’t afraid to show himself in a not-so-shiny light too. The only slight problem is that at times details went overboard, thus making the road to the goal a bit more streched than it needed to be.

I might have given it 3 stars, but I was turned off by the ego of the author. He was always right, no one else was as good, and the way he talked about the FBI made me wonder why he ever wanted to work there. No doubt he did good things and was good at his job, but his attitude was what turned this book sour for me.

Interesting, although the framing wasn't the greatest - it revolves around the most famous FBI art theft case, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, which... still has not been solved. So you go into the grab-your-attention setting and details knowing that nothing's going to happen. At various points it's clear that there's a lot of FBI infighting, which is simultaneously out of nowhere and extremely boring - like, I wouldn't have wanted MORE info on that, but on the other hand LESS info would have made everything very confusing. The potted histories of some artists were also less than thrilling. It was kind of interesting, if you're interested in art theft during a certain period, but definitely not a re-read.