The Art Thief: A Novel

by Noah Charney

Book Overview

Rome: In the small Baroque church of Santa Giuliana, a magnificent Caravaggio altarpiece disappears without a trace in the middle of the night. Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416550313
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.9" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

An Intricate Read

What a great mystery! An intricate plot of theft, double-dealing, triple dealing and deception is presented by a cast of characters deftly built and maneuvered. This is not a standard mystery. Few, if any, clues are given to the reader to help solve the crime. The story is told with relish as several grand deceptions occur that are not revealed until the final pages. The fun is in getting there. It is a fun, sophisticated page-turner. Enjoy!

art+puzzle=great read

This is a terrific book. It had me going to the computer to look up the various artists and their works which was a great learning experience. 99% of the descriptions were accurate; however, the description of Caravaggio's Annunciation was incorrect and that bothered me a bit as this was a central artwork in the plot. The Art Thief is certainly worth the read and the re-read. Because of the complexity of the puzzling plot, dumb me had to read it again to understand all the intricacies. There were many funny bits along with the gotchas that held my interest throughout. Highly recommended to all who love art history, puzzles, unconventional characters and wit.

A Wonderful Book

This book is essentially a mystery, a genre that I am rather unqualified to rate appropriately. Overall, I think the mystery aspect of the book was entertaining and not overtly obvious, so probably successful. More than that, however, I adored this book. It is easily one of the best I have read. Of course, all of my reasons are selfish and probably not applicable to most people. This book appealed to all of my favorite things. It made me feel smart. Scattered, untranslated phrases in French and Italian made sense to me. Of course they were simple, conversational terms, but I was proud of my ability to read them. That being said, I think most of them could be understood in the context of the book without being able to translate them, so I hope no one is turned off by that. There are truly very few sentences in the book that are not in English, and none of them contain major plot secrets, so you would miss nothing even if you ignored them completely. For me, though, it was a satisfying discovery that I could translate them. The art works mentioned in the book brought to mind specific mental pictures for me. I loved the chance to flip through my mental art rolodex, and this reminded me exactly how much I love art history. I am newly motivated to continue pursuing an art historical graduate education in some sense. Overall, this book made me feel good about me. It's not really meant to do so, but it appealed to all of the things I am proud of, and so gave me a better sense of my own academic ability and worth.

Fascinating and educational

I'm surprised at the negative reviews. I read a lot of novels, probably at least one per week, and this is a great one. It is not only fascinating but also educational in the area of art and the inside workings of museums and art collectors. Highly recommended.

The Best book I've Read in Ages

Noah Charney was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1979. After graduating, he moved to London, where he studied at the Courtauld Institute and received a Masters for his work on seventeenth century sculpture in Rome. During this year he also, for fun, wrote his first novel, The Art Thief. He subsequently received a second Masters at Cambridge University, and began a PhD. As you can see from the above information the author certainly has the qualifications to write a novel involving the art world. This book is a really interesting and well written first novel, particularly if you have an interest in art and traveling. The plot involves the theft of two famous paintings, one in Rome, the other in Paris. The theft of these two paintings seems to start an epidemic of art thefts throughout Europe. The author has obviously done his homework as regards the European art world and the book moves along at a fair old pace, so much so that it is almost a travelogue of Europe. I really enjoyed the book. It was like a breath of fresh air to get away from the save the world in twenty minutes brigade and read a well structured novel with strong characters and an entertaining and enjoyable backdrop of art galleries, museums and auction houses in some of the most beautiful cities in the world. The author's love of his subject shines through the pages like a beacon and his enthusiasm automatically rubs off on the reader. This is one of the few books that I have read recently, where I was sorry when it ended. However after a debut novel such as this, I am sure there will be more from the author.