By Robert K. Wittman, John Shiffman
The Wall road magazine called him “a residing legend.” The London occasions dubbed him “the most famed artwork detective within the world.”
In Priceless, Robert ok. Wittman, the founding father of the FBI’s paintings Crime staff, pulls again the curtain on his impressive profession for the 1st time, delivering a real-life foreign mystery to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.
Rising from humble roots because the son of an old broker, Wittman equipped a twenty-year occupation that used to be not anything in need of striking. He went undercover, frequently unarmed, to trap artwork thieves, scammers, and black marketplace investors in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.
In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the tales in the back of his recoveries of helpful paintings and antiquities: The golden armor of an historical Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that encouraged the Impressionist circulate. The headdress Geronimo wore at his ultimate Pow-Wow. The infrequent Civil warfare conflict flag carried into conflict through one of many nation’s first African-American regiments.
The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unrivaled: He traveled the area to rescue work via Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, usually operating undercover in a foreign country on the whim of international governments. toward domestic, he recovered an unique reproduction of the invoice of Rights and cracked the rip-off that rocked the PBS sequence Antiques Roadshow.
By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman kept enormous quantities of hundreds of thousands of greenbacks worthy of artwork and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t vital. in spite of everything, who’s to claim what's worthy extra --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into conflict? They're either priceless.
The artwork thieves and scammers Wittman stuck run the gamut from wealthy to negative, clever to silly, equipped criminals to determined loners. The smuggler who introduced him a looted 6th-century treasure grew to become out to be a high-ranking diplomat. The appraiser who stole numerous heirlooms from conflict heroes’ descendants used to be a slick, aristocratic con man. The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair simply desired to make a couple of additional greenbacks, figuring not anyone might pass over what he’d filched.
In his ultimate case, Wittman referred to as on every piece of data and event in his arsenal to tackle his maximum problem: operating undercover to trace the vicious criminals at the back of what could be the main audacious paintings robbery of all.
Read or Download Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures PDF
Best true crime books
Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most Heinous Murder Spree
Randy Kraft was once very smart, politically energetic, dependable to his neighbors, dedicated to his work--and the killer of sixty seven people--more than the other serial killer identified. This e-book bargains a glimpse into the darkish brain of a dwelling monster. "To open this booklet is to open a peephole into hell"
Drew Peterson Exposed Polygraphs reveal the shocking truth about Stacy Peterson and Kathleen Savio
Exposing the never-before-published polygraph result of Drew Peterson’s testimony, this illuminating expos? finds new information in a single of the main provocative and excessive profile legal investigations within the nation. October 28, 2008 marks the single yr anniversary of Stacy Peterson’s disappearance from her domestic in Bollingbrook, Illinois.
What makes wars drag on and why do they finish after they do? the following H. E. Goemans brings theoretical rigor and empirical intensity to a long-standing query of securities reviews. He explores how quite a few executive leaders investigate the price of conflict by way of family politics and their very own postwar fates. Goemans first develops the argument that aspects will salary struggle until eventually either achieve enough wisdom of the other's strengths and weaknesses to be able to agree at the possible end result of persevered conflict.
Of the main infamous unsolved instances within the annals of yankee crime, the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were the topic of exhaustive investigations, relentless hypothesis and a tangled internet of rampant rumors, crackpot conspiracies and darkish secrets and techniques. Now, for the 1st time, the reality in the back of those sensational circumstances is laid naked in homicide Rap, a uncooked and riveting account of ways a committed and pushed police detective spearheaded the duty strength that at last uncovered the stunning evidence in the back of the deaths of those rap song icons.
Extra resources for Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures
Example text
Then something extraordinary happened. One winter night in 1863, the temperature plunged below freezing and the terra-cotta mold froze. The back of its head split off, fell, and shattered. Rodin studied the mask that remained. It seemed to accentuate the creases and the texture of Bibi’s face, his broken nose and the man’s inner agony. The half-finished nature of the work, Rodin concluded, added depth. He had discovered a new form of sculpture, one he would employ again and again. “The mask determined all my future work,” Rodin recalled.
By protocol, the bureau generally assigns cases to the appropriate squad in the city where the crime occurred, regardless of expertise. Most art crime investigations are run by the same local FBI unit that handles routine property theft—the bank robbery/violent crime squad. Once assigned, the cases are rarely transferred afterward. For most middle managers, the priority isn’t cases, it’s careers. No supervisor wants to make a controversial decision, such as transferring a big case to headquarters or to an elite unit like the Art Crime Team, because it might insult or embarrass another supervisor, potentially crippling someone’s career.
For many years after 9/11, this worked to my advantage. I got to call the shots on my cases and remain in the shadows. Generally, my FBI supervisors were competent, or at least tolerable. They trusted me to do my job, and let me operate autonomously from Philadelphia. Operation Masterpiece, the name another agent gave the Gardner case, was different. Agents on both sides of the Atlantic were hungry to share a chunk of this grand prize. Supervisors in almost every office involved—Miami, Boston, Washington, Paris, Madrid—demanded a major role.