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Heist Society

Are you intrigued by the recent jewel heist at the Louvre? If so, here are some true stories of other heists and robberies.

The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession

by Michael Finkel

This riveting true story of art, crime, love and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost draws us into the strange and fascinating world of prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser, who stole and kept more than 300 objects until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

The Beatle Bandit : a serial bank robber's deadly heist, a cross-country manhunt, and the insanity plea that shook the nation

by Nate Hendley

Recounts the gripping true story of how, in 1964, a bank robber, wearing a mask and a Beatle wig, killed a man in a wild shootout, sparking a national debate about gun control, the death penalty and the insanity defense. 

The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century

by Kirk W Johnson

Documents the astonishing 2009 theft of an invaluable collection of ornithological displays from the British Museum of Natural History by a talented American musician, tracing the author's years-long investigation to track down the culprit and understand his motives, which were possibly linked to an obsession with the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying.

Flawless : inside the largest diamond heist in history

by Scott Andrew Selby

Presents an account of the largest diamond heist in history as "The School of Turin" stole half a billion dollars in diamonds and other valuables from the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium.

The Gardner heist : a true story of the world's largest unsolved art theft

by Ulrich Boser

Documents the unsolved theft of the lost Gardner masterpieces, tracing the research of the late art detective Harold Smith while recounting the author's own forays into the art underworld of looters, mobsters, and investigators.

Gèoring's man in Paris : the story of a Nazi art plunderer and his world

by Jonathan Petropoulos

Bruno Lohse (1911-2007) was one of the most notorious art plunderers in history. Appointed by Hermann Gèoring to Hitler's art looting agency in Paris, he went on to help supervise the systematic theft and distribution of more than thirty thousand artworks, taken largely from French Jews, and to assist Gèoring in amassing an enormous private art collection. By the 1950s Lohse was officially denazified but was back in the art dealing world, offering masterpieces of dubious origin to American museums. Afterhis death, dozens of paintings by Renoir, Monet, and Pissarro, among others, were found in his Zurich bank vault and adorning the walls of his Munich home. Jonathan Petropoulos spent nearly a decade interviewing Lohse and continues to serve as an expert witness for Holocaust restitution cases. Here he tells the story of Lohse's life, offering a critical examination of the postwar art world.

The Grave Robber : The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau's Quest to Set Things Right

by Tim Carpenter

Tim Carpenter-lead investigator of the FBI Art Crime team-uncovers over 40,000 artifacts and remains from around the world that had been stolen by a Midwestern graverobber.

Heist : the oddball crew behind the $17 million Loomis Fargo theft

by Jeff Diamant

Presents an account of the theft of $17 million dollars from Loomis, Fargo & Co. by David Ghantt, an employee of the firm, and the FBI's investigation of the crime.

A history of heists : bank robbery in America

by Jerry Clark

Discusses the history of bank robbery in the U.S. as well as how notable thieves have influenced American culture, and looks at how law enforcement's ability to thwart heists has improved in recent years

Hot art : chasing thieves and detectives through the secret world of stolen art

by Joshua Knelman

Hot Art traces Joshua Knelman's five-year immersion in the shadowy world of art theft, which takes him from Egypt to Los Angeles, New York to London, and back again, through a web of deceit, violence, and corruption. With a cool, knowing eye, Knelman delves into the lives of professionals such as Paul, a brilliant working-class kid who charmed his way into a thriving career organizing art thefts and running loot across the United Kingdom and beyond, and LAPD detective Donald Hrycyk, one of the few special investigators worldwide who struggle to keep pace with the evolving industry of stolen art. As he becomes more and more immersed in this world, Knelman learns that art theft is no fringe activity--it has evolved into one of the largest black markets in the world, which even Interpol and the FBI cannot contain. Sweeping and fast-paced, Hot Art is a major work of investigative journalism and a thrilling joyride into a mysterious criminal world.

The icon hunter : a refugee's quest to reclaim her nation's stolen heritage

by Tasoula Hadjitofi

Outraged after being offered a chance to buy stolen, sacred artifacts taken from her homeland of Cyprus during the war, the author begins a quest to obtain and restore these icons of her childhood and homeland.

The last good heist  : The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast

by Tim White

Examines the 1975 robbery of over one hundred safe-deposit boxes used by organized crime in Providence, a heist that was the biggest single payday in the history of the New England mob

Loot : the battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient world

by Sharon Waxman

Evaluates the debate over the ownership of great works of ancient art, documenting how countries where ancient civilizations originated are taking western museums to court to force the return of priceless objects. 

The Lufthansa heist : behind the six-million-dollar cash haul that shook the world

by Henry Hill

Describes the famous and previously unsolved 1978 Kennedy Airport heist that resulted in the world's largest unrecovered cash haul from the point of view of one of the crime's organizers who, along with this burglary, was memorialized in the film Goodfellas.

Master thieves : the Boston gangsters who pulled off the world's greatest art heist

by Stephen A. Kurkjian

A definitive account of the Boston criminal underworld's role in the infamous $500 million Gardner Museum art theft traces the contributions of master thief Louis Royce and gangster Ralph Rossetti while examining the FBI's controversial announcement that they had identified the responsible parties.

The thefts of the Mona Lisa : the complete story of the world's most famous artwork

by Noah Charney

A best-selling, Pulitzer Prize finalist examines the criminal biography of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, focusing on separating fact from fiction in the story of what is not only the most famous art heist in history, but which is the single most famous theft of all time.