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How I Went Undercover To Rescue The World's Stolen Treasures
Crown
June 2010
On Sale: June 1, 2010
320 pages
ISBN: 0307461475
EAN: 9780307461476
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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
that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover,
usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black
market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe,
Miami and Madrid.
In this page-turning memoir,
Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of
priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an
ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that
inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo
wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag
carried into battle by one of the nation’s first
African-American regiments.
The breadth of
Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to
rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet
and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim
of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an
original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam
that rocked the PBS series Antiques
Roadshow.
By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman
saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and
antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After
all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt
self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle?
They're both priceless.
The art thieves
and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor,
smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate
loners. The smuggler who brought him a looted
6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking
diplomat. The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms
from war heroes’ descendants was a slick, aristocratic con
man. The museum janitor who made off with locks of
George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra
bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d
filched.
In his final case, Wittman called on
every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take
on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the
vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious
art theft of all.
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