Stolen Masterpiece Tracker: The Dangerous Life of the FBI's #1 Art Sleuth

by Thomas McShane, Dary Matera

Legendary FBI undercover agent Thomas McShane is one of the world's foremost authorities on the billion-dollar art theft business, and here he presents a unique memoir that provides a thrilling ride through the underworld of stolen art and historical artifacts. His expertise and indefatigable determination prompted FBI Director William H. Webster to name McShane as the Senior Investigator of the FBI's expanding Art Squad.

284 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Patricia Nedelea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, charming and also informative, full of data. A very pleasant read!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Undercover FBI agent shares knowledge of old world paints, painters' habits,etc, as he solves art thefts close to home for practically every reader. Lists of art pieces still missing, and links for descriptions.

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

- for 25 years McShane (and his various alter-egos) helped recover over $300 million worth of paintings (and other artwork) stolen from around the world.
- filled with colourful characters: foreign government officials, criminal masterminds, church leaders, deadly mobsters, multi-millionaires, brilliant con-men, art gallery and museum curators, Interpol Police, etc
-very entertaining

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book feels like I'm sitting in a bar, listening to this FBI agent telling me stories about his glory days. They're good stories. Is it riveting? No. Worth the time to read it? Yes. Learned a few things, too.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining book. Certainly not great literature, but written as a FBI agent would talk and see things.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs proofreading! The amount of typos was extremely distracting. Stories were interesting, but he describes everyone by comparing them to a celebrity the look like and all the celebrities are from the 1980s or before, so that didn’t really help me. I was not going to look them up. I enjoyed Robert Wittman’s book more. I did like his take on the Gardner Museum heist. It was a side I hadn’t heard/read before and I think he’s probably right. I also enjoyed the Intro and Epilogue for his take on the FBI and his job in it.

[Eric Armusik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling story about a masterpiece recovery division of the FBI. The stories are so incredible and the different ways Thomas went about recovering each of them are so entertaining. Brilliant book. I don't know who is more naive, the criminals or the justice system prosecuting them.