Book Review #2 ~ “The Art Thief” by Michael Finkel

As I might have said before, I don’t usually gravitate towards nonfiction books. However, the library challenge I mentioned in my last book review had a prompt to read a book about art or an artist. So, I picked up “The Art Thief” by Michael Finkel. This book is about Stephane Breitwieser, who stole around $2 billion worth of art around Europe in 8 years. Finkel detailed Breitwieser’s experiences by using some halters to write his heists like a fictional novel, while using other chapters to write about the possible reasons why Breitwieser would commit this crime so many times over. 

I really enjoyed this book, so much that I finished it the same day I started it. I really liked how the book was set up, with the stories that could be in a fiction book, along with insights from psychologists that have tried to figure out why Breitweiser stole so much artwork. It is important to note while reading this book that Breitweiser is an unreliable narrator, and there are speculations around his whole case, from what Anme-Catherine really did in the context of these crimes, to if Stephane had any say in what happened after he was eventually caught and everything inbetween.

I rated this book 4.5/5 stars and will be recommending it to people. I finished this book on July 8th and it was my 69h book of 2025. See you soon! xx Autumn