In Chasing Picasso: A True Story of A Daytime Heist on Art Hill, the author unveils the mysterious history and disappearance of a small Picasso painting from the Saint Louis Art Museum in 1973. The 1906 Rose Period oil painting has not been seen since it disappeared in a clandestine daytime theft under the watch of museum guards. The painting and the heist would have been forgotten altogether if it weren't perhaps for one curious author, C. Joan Baker. A quest she hopes ends with ...

The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.”In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career tha...

They stand proudly gazing across the Hudson River at the cliffs of New Jersey. Their brows are marked by ornamental pediments. Greek columns stand as sentries by their entrances and stone medallions bedeck their chests. They are seven graceful relics of Beaux Arts New York, townhouses built more than 100 years ago for a new class of industrialists, actors and scientists -- many from abroad -- who made their fortunes in the United States and shaped the lives of Americans.This book b...

• Winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime NonfictionThe Thomas Crown Affair meets The Devil in the White City in this fast-paced, character-driven story that breaks open the secrets of international art theftA major work of investigative journalism, Hot Art is also Joshua Knelman's tale of the young reporter chasing a story idea that turns out to be a globe-trotting mystery, filled with cunning and...

Former Boston Globe reporter Tina Cassidy delivers a remarkable account of one year in the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, America's favorite first lady and an international icon. 1975 was a year of monumental changes for Jackie: it was the year she lost her second husband, shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, saved one of New York City's cultural landmarks at Grand Central Station, and found her true calling—not as a powerful man's wife or the mother of future leaders, but as ...

“Michael Gross’s new book…packs [in] almost as many stories as there are apartments in the building. The Jackie Collins of real estate likes to map expressions of power, money, and ego… Even more crammed with billionaires and their exploits than 740 Park” (Penelope Green, The New York Times).A New York Times bestseller that unveils Fifteen Central Park West, the legendary Manhattan luxury apartment building, through a riveting mix of real ...

Edgar Award Winner for Best Fact Crime. "An entertaining account of the eternal struggle between high art and low cunning." — TimeIn the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in L...

Learn about the world's most notorious cons, heists, and murders in The Crime Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Crime in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and true crime experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Crime Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catchin...

Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg's Stealing Rembrandts is a spellbinding journey into the high-stakes world of art theftToday, art theft is one of the most profitable criminal enterprises in the world, exceeding $6 billion in losses to galleries and art collectors annually. And the masterpieces of Rembrandt van Rijn are some of the most frequently targeted.In Stealing Rembrandts, art security expert Anthony M. Amore and award-winning invest...

Why would a New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does a Jackson Pollock “drip painting” sell for $140 million?In the first book to explore and explain the economics of the modern art world, Don Thompson talks to auction houses, dealers, and collectors to uncover the strategies that power the market to make or break an artist’s reputation and produce such astronomical prices.“If you read no other book about art in yo...

In Breaking van Gogh, James Grundvig investigates the history and authenticity of van Gogh’s iconic Wheat Field with Cypresses, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Relying on a vast array of techniques from the study of the painter’s biography and personal correspondence to the examination of the painting’s style and technical characteristics, Grundvig proves that the most expensive purchase” housed in the Met is a fake.The Whe...

In the past decade, from Brighton Beach to Moscow, Toronto to Hong Kong, the Russian mob has become the world's fastest-growing criminal superpower. Trafficking in prostitutes, heroin, and missiles, the mafiya poses an enormous threat to global stability and safety. Today, the mafiya controls over 80 percent of Russia's banks and has siphoned off billions of dollars in Western loans and aid, almost certainly derailing the chance for a stable democracy there. But that is just the beginning,...