Robert K. Wittman's action-filled career took him around the world, working to apprehend art thieves and recover stolen art worth hundreds of millions of dollars. His memoir, titled "Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures" and written with Philadelphia reporter John Schiffman, reads like an international spy novel except that his adventures were all too real - and often dangerous.
Wittman joined the FBI in 1988, trained at Quantico and received a posting to Philadelphia, where he was partnered with a respected agent who worked the occasional museum case. The month he joined the agency, two major Philadelphia museums were robbed: the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum. Wittman details the months of investigation that resulted in solving both cases - following tips, stakeouts and the like - plus the stories behind the stolen items and their often eccentric collectors.
He continued to work art cases referred to the FBI, and furthered his interest in art with a year's study at the Barnes Foundation, a private museum, where he "learned to see." His enhanced knowledge of art and art techniques enabled him to communicate with art dealers and pose as a collector when going undercover.
Art crime wasn't considered a high priority in federal law enforcement until the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Thieves made off with works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, Raphael, Degas and others, worth a staggering $500 million. This case, the world's largest unsolved art crime, is also the largest property crime in U.S. history.
Theft of art and antiquities became a federal crime in 1995. In 2005, the FBI formed the Art Crime Team, and Wittman was named full-time senior investigator. Over the years, he worked a number of high-profile cases and retrieved items including a rare Civil War battle flag from a black regiment, the war bonnet Geronimo wore at his final powwow, a 50-pound crystal ball once owned by the Chinese dowager empress Cixi, the golden armor of a Peruvian warrior king, and one of the original copies of the Bill of Rights. Wittman recounts the exciting stories behind each of these cases, so readers learn a bit of art history along with the pursuit of gangsters and con men.
Wittman is now retired, but his work lives on through the agents he trained and the cultural property he recovered. As he said, "Art thieves steal more than beautiful objects; they steal memories and identity. They steal history."
This book will satisfy mystery and true crime lovers as well as those curious about how art theft is investigated and prosecuted. The authors manage to incorporate both art history and art criminals in one riveting narrative.
Madeline Matson is reference and adult programming librarian at Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City.