The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece?An Edgar Award Winner

By Edward Dolnick

Book Overview

In the predawn gloom of a February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo. They snatched one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's The Scream , and fled with their $72 million trophy. The thieves made sure the world was watching: the Winter Olympics, in Lillehammer, began that same morning. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police called on the world's greatest art detective, a half-English, half-American undercover cop named Charley Hill. In this rollicking narrative, Edward Dolnick takes us inside the art underworld. The trail leads high and low, and the cast ranges from titled aristocrats to thick-necked thugs. Lord Bath, resplendent in ponytail and velvet jacket, presides over a 9,000-acre estate. David Duddin, a 300-pound fence who once tried to sell a stolen Rembrandt, spins exuberant tales of his misdeeds. We meet Munch, too, a haunted misfit who spends his evenings drinking in the Black Piglet Caf and his nights feverishly trying to capture in paint the visions in his head. The most compelling character of all is Charley Hill, an ex-soldier, a would-be priest, and a complicated mix of brilliance, foolhardiness, and charm. The hunt for The Scream will either cap his career and rescue one of the world's best-known paintings or end in a fiasco that will dog him forever.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060531177
• ISBN13: 9780060531171
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A really interesting subject

This was a book I would not have purchased if I had not heard the author on the radio. I am so glad I did. While the book does jump around a bit, I didn't really find it distracting as the story and Charlie Hill are so fascinating! Even beyond the theft itself, I found myself wanting to know more about Edvard Munch. If you have a chance, read a bio on the artist first and then read this book. It's very interesting to know what Munch was trying to convey in his painting and give more insight as to why the painting is so valuable.

Excellent!

As someone who enjoys reading about true crime, I found this book a must read. It taps into a little known aspect of the crime world, art theft. The book is well written and engaging from page 1.

Using an Art Theft to Illustrate Art Stealing

There were two things that struck me about this book. First of course was the setting in the world of the very rich where art thieves steal priceless paintings. What I had to do first was turn to the pictures to see if they really looked like Cary Grant. Nope! Second was the comparison with a lot of other undercover police books that have come out in recent years. Most have dealt with drug enforcement. The world of the high end art thief seems a lot more civilized a place than some back alley heroin warehouse. Mr. Dolnich has written this book around the theft of a painting in Norway. He uses this central theme as a way to educate us all in the overall history of the big time art stealing. This is a book well written about an unusual subject and filled with some very interesting people.

There has never been a better book on art crime.

Using the 1994 theft in Oslo of Edvard Munch's The Scream as the foundation, Edward Dolnick paints a vivid picture of the world of art crime. He describes the thefts and occasional recovery of other great masterpieces and he destroys the myth of crooks with the charm and looks of Cary Grant, Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan. His interviews with cops, nobility, thieves, museum officials, fences, gallery owners and snitches reveal a raging war where fortunes are won and lost in a clash of class and culture. These are exciting stories, told with humor and enthusiasm. But the real delight is the central figure, Charley Hill, The Rescue Artist. Trained to be a historian (Fulbright Scholar), soldier (Vietnam vet), teacher (Belfast, N.I.) and Anglican priest (King's College, London) before choosing a career at Scotland Yard, Hill is a bundle of quirks and enigmas. And he is a hero we can admire. Going undercover with only his nerve and quick wits for protection, he has recovered works by, amomg others, Goya, Vermeer, Cranach, Metsu, Titian and Munch. He has a deep appreciation for the art and he relishes his role as a bridge between the tony society of the art collectors and the brutal gangs who steal the great works. This is the "true story" and it will grab and hold you from beginning to end.