The Rescue Artist: A True Story Of Art, Thieves, And The Hunt For A Missing Masterpiece (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
Dolnick, Edward. THE RESCUE ARTIST: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece. (2005). ****. “On a frozen February morning in 1994, two men in a stolen car skidded to a halt in front of Norway’s national art museum. They raced across the snow and grabbed a ladder they had stashed away the night before. Two minutes later, they roared off. Wedged behind the driver sat one of the most valuable paintings in the world: Edvard Munch’s The Scream.” So shouts the cover of this tale by Dolnick, which won him an Edgar Award for best Non-Fiction Work. Art theft is a wide ranging topic, much like art forgery. The author manages to cover most of the recent thefts of art that occurred in the mid-20th Century. What the book is really about, though, is a man named Charley Hill, an ex-soldier, an almost-priest, and an English/American mixture of charm and hokum. Charley, at the time, was working in the Art Theft divison of Scotland Yard, and had the reputation of knowing what he was doing in the recovery of lost art. He had a splendid reputation behind him. Scotland Yard provided Charley to Norway as an international gesture – also, on the chance that he succeeded, they would look pretty good; a plus that the department could really use. Charley worked on the case, along with an assistant and the rest of the Norwegian police force, on an undercover basis. He adopted the guise of a representative from the Getty Museum, which obviously had the money to pay some or all of the ransom demand for the return of the painting. Charley didn’t really know a lot about art, per se, but he boned up on the period, and especially on the life and works of Munch. His success, as did his successes in the past, depended in large part on his intimate knowledge of the psychology of art thieves. That, and convincing them that he was indeed who he said he was, enabled him to get in close to the real crooks. There were some tough times and tight spots that he had to make his way through, but his quest was ultimately successful. Along the way, we learn about the attitude of the world about expensive masterpieces, and what their value really means – both to the collector and to the crook. Lots of interesting stuff here. Recommended.
After reading and loving Dolnick's book, The Forger's Spell, last month, I was eager to read his much acclaimed book about art theivery, The Rescue Artist. The book focuses on the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch's ubiquitous painting, The Scream, from the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway. The theft itself seemed relatively amateurish, but nothing compared to the lack of security in the museum. The Scream was housed on the second floor of the museum right next to a window. There were no security cameras in the gallery room, and the painting itself hung on the wall - not enclosed by glass or attached to any type of alarm system. Dolnick's book follows the joint efforts of the Norway police and Scotland Yard to devise a plan to re-purchase the painting from the criminals. Along the way, Dolnick provides an in-depth history of high-profile art theft cases, undercover detective work, and the internal politics of police squads that put the recovery of stolen art belonging to billionaires on the back burner in favor of "real" crimes that need to be solved. The Scream is such a haunting image - it doesn't matter how many times it's reproduced or parodied - I find it mesmerizing everytime I see it in a book or on a postcard. The idea that such a prized piece could be stolen with seemingly little effort is amazing - and that people were able to orchestrate a sting to recover it is no less dramatic. The Rescue Artist is much more dry than The Forger's Spell and is not told with as much suspense. But, it is still meticulously researched and informative about the art world and it was an intriguing study of the lengths people will go to - to make millions and to have a unique treasure all to themselves.
What do You think about The Rescue Artist: A True Story Of Art, Thieves, And The Hunt For A Missing Masterpiece (2005)?
This was fine. It's a really great introduction to how undercover work functions, and art crimes in particular. I thought that the pacing was great, and the info Dolnick provided about Munch was the perfect amount, but it's very disjointed as a whole. It was hard to figure out Dolnick's view on art theft -- on the one hand he's tut-tutting that the police and courts don't take it seriously and then ten pages later "Ha ha, let me tell you another funny story about a robbery! Isn't this silly?!" Back when I read Tom Ricks' "The Generals" I noted how good he is with the nonessential-but-fun fact, and this book was a huge example of how bad it is when someone is not good with that. There were whole sections of the book that should have been preceded with "And now I'm going to talk about Henry VIII for NO REASON, other than people like Tudor stuff, right?"
—Claire
I'll admit it. I am officially obsessed with learning about art crime, which as Dolnick describes in "The Rescue Artist," is odd in the very way it combines the "grime and the sublime"–the beauty and elevated genius of great art, and the crooked back dealings of thieves and criminals. This book does a great job of retelling the multiple exploits and fabricated personas of Art Squad legend Charley Hill. While the book is supposedly centered around Munch's "The Scream," the book jumps around quite a bit, stopping to explore related subjects along the way, and may be irritating for people trying to follow the main storyline. Still, "The Rescue Artist" gives quite an interesting look at the motives and economics of art thieves.
—Taylor
I really enjoyed this book. It was primarily about recovering Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream" when stolen from the Oslo National Gallery on the opening day of the Lillehammer winter Olympics in 1994. The book bounced around between the story of that theft/recovery and other famous art thefts and recoveries, most featuring the very successful art detective from Scotland Yard, Charley Hill. We got some history and anecdotes from Charley's life. Some other reviewers didn't like the jumping around, but I found all of it fascinating, probably more so by the flow of the book than if it was told in straight chronological order. I also recommend "The Art Forger" by B.A. Shapiro, really loved that!
—Cathy
