The Rescue Artist Part 18

An art historian by training and the author of that acclaimed doorstop of a book An Instance of the Fingerpost, An Instance of the Fingerpost, Pears has also written half a dozen less earnest novels that he calls "art history mysteries." This may be the best. Pears has also written half a dozen less earnest novels that he calls "art history mysteries." This may be the best.

Several years ago, after a career spent dreaming up art crimes, Pears nearly walked into a real one. On New Year's Eve 1999 he and a houseful of guests had gathered to ring in the new millennium. Shortly before midnight the baby began to howl. Pears dutifully grabbed baby and stroller and ventured outdoors in the hope that a change of scene would prove soothing. At that moment a thief broke into Oxford's Ashmolean Museum-only a few blocks from where Pears stood rocking the baby-and ran off into the night with a $4.8 million Cezanne.

Copyright A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers.

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THE RESCUE ARTIST. Copyright 2005 by Edward Dolnick.

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EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04184-5 FIRST H HARPER P PERENNIAL EDITION PUBLISHED 2006. 2006.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows: Dolnick, Edward.

The rescue artist: a true story of art, thieves, and the hunt for a missing masterpiece /Edward Dolnick.-1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-10: 0-06-053117-7.

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-053117-1.

1. Art thefts-Investigation. 2. Art thefts-Investigation-Norway. 3. Theft from museums-Norway. 4. Munch, Edvard, 18631944. Scream (Nasjonalgalleriet [Norway]) I. t.i.tle.

N8795.D65 2005.

364.16'2'09481-dc222004062060 ISBN-10: 0-06-053118-5 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-0-06-053118-8 (pbk.) 09 10[image] / /RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 10 9 8 7 6 5

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*Yet another Vermeer, The Astronomer The Astronomer, was confiscated by the n.a.z.is for the personal collection of Adolf Hitler. The painting had belonged to a member of the Rothschild family. Today it hangs in the Louvre.

Cellini made the saltcellar for King Francis I of France, in 1543. In his swashbuckling autobiography, the Florentine goldsmith tells of the king's reaction to a wax model of the proposed sculpture (and to Cellini himself). "This is a hundred times more divine a thing than I had ever dreamed of," the monarch stammers. "What a miracle of a man!"The king asks Cellini to name his price, Cellini does so (1000 gold crowns), and the royal treasurer hands over the money. Four robbers brandishing swords attack Cellini on his way home, but he holds them off singlehandedly, displaying such "skill in using the sword," he tells us, that the cowed thieves take him for a soldier.

*For clarity's sake, I will refer to Hill by his real name throughout. The alternative-switching back and forth between "Hill" and "Roberts" depending on whether the speaker knows Hill's true ident.i.ty-is appealing in theory but unpalatable in print.

*A pseudonym

*The story linking Krakatoa and Munch's evening stroll appeared in an article called "When the Sky Ran Red" in Sky & Telescope Sky & Telescope magazine in February 2004. The authors were physicists Don Olson and Russell Doescher and English professor Marilynn Olson, who also found the exact spot where Munch stood trembling against the rail. The newspaper stories cited in the text above were quoted in their essay. magazine in February 2004. The authors were physicists Don Olson and Russell Doescher and English professor Marilynn Olson, who also found the exact spot where Munch stood trembling against the rail. The newspaper stories cited in the text above were quoted in their essay.

*A pseudonym

*A pseudonym

*A pseudonym

*He had arranged to paint the cobbler's wife. "Every time I thought the picture was finished and saw myself wearing the shoes," Renoir lamented, "along came the aunt, the daughter, or even the old servant to criticize."

*The National Gallery in London outbid the Getty and kept Raphael's masterpiece in Britain. The seller, the Duke of Northumberland, pocketed $65 million ($40 million of it tax-free). In the 1980s, the painting had been attributed to a follower of Raphael and valued at $11,000.

*Almost everything written in Shakespeare's hand has been lost, with the exception of six signatures (each spelled differently). With Shakespeare out of the running, the record price for a handwritten doc.u.ment currently stands at $30.8 million, paid by Bill Gates in 1994 for a seventy-two-page ma.n.u.script by Leonardo da Vinci. The so-called Codex Leicester is a collection of scientific observations studded with drawings that probe such mysteries as the brightness of the moon and the meandering of rivers.

*Trench police estimated Breitwieser's haul at between $1.4 billion and $1.9 billion. Jonathan Sazonoff, a television producer and expert on art crime, suggests that a more accurate guess might be in the neighborhood of $150 million.

*Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, scholars say that the authenticity of the Louvre's Mona Lisa Mona Lisa is beyond question. The painting had been studied, photographed, and doc.u.mented minutely before the theft, and a host of before-and-after comparisons-such as an examination of the tiny cracks in the varnish that covers the painting's surface-establish its ident.i.ty beyond a doubt. is beyond question. The painting had been studied, photographed, and doc.u.mented minutely before the theft, and a host of before-and-after comparisons-such as an examination of the tiny cracks in the varnish that covers the painting's surface-establish its ident.i.ty beyond a doubt.

*It should perhaps be stated explicitly that the amount of art stolen by modern-day gangsters is dwarfed by the amount stolen by the n.a.z.is, gangsters backed by the full might of the state. All armies have looted, but the n.a.z.is made the process organized and efficient. In France alone, according to Hector Feliciano's The Lost Museum: The n.a.z.i Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art The Lost Museum: The n.a.z.i Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art, the n.a.z.is seized one-third of all art in private hands. The best account of the n.a.z.i a.s.sault on art is Lynn Nicholas's Rape of Europa Rape of Europa.

*The British journalist Peter Watson wrote The Caravaggio Conspiracy The Caravaggio Conspiracy about the case, in 1984. Watson believes that the painting survived its theft only to be destroyed in an earthquake in 1980. about the case, in 1984. Watson believes that the painting survived its theft only to be destroyed in an earthquake in 1980.