Art & Crime

October 11, 2021
In this engrossing account, Koldehoff and Timm (False Pictures, Real Money) survey the link between art and crime, starting with the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and including such recent sensational cases as the 2017 theft of a 220-lb. Canadian gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum. The authors make the case that in today’s unregulated art world, many crimes are committed for laundering drug money or hiding stolen assets. (To this day, the FBI suspects the Mafia was behind the unsolved 1990 robbery of 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.) While most readers know about the art stolen by the Nazis during WWII, it will be news to many that forgeries of Hitler’s own paintings, most of them fake according to one expert, remain a lucrative business. One chapter, “The Fakes President,” describes how President Trump siphoned funds from his charitable fund to buy art, including a portrait of himself. The authors also cover how, when Trump had the Bonwit Teller building demolished to build Trump Tower, he reneged on his promise to preserve the building’s Art Deco friezes and donate them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art—which was technically not a crime. Assured prose bolsters these fascinating tales. True crime fans and aficionados of culture will appreciate this dive into the dark side of the art world.

January 7, 2022

Koldehoff and Timm's (Falsche Bilder, Echtes Geld, or "Fake Paintings, Real Money," which hasn't been translated from German) ambitious work sets a lofty goal, seeking to illustrate the many ways in which high-profile art and criminal activity overlap. However, in its attempt to cover a huge swath of history and human behavior, the narrative becomes somewhat dry despite coverage of exciting topics such as black-market trade and museum heists. Koldehoff and Timm make clear that the intersections of art and crime are multifaceted, and they effectively examine the relevant issues but don't go further than surface-level details. Some of the best chapters cover the questionable art dealings of high-profile figures like Donald Trump and Imelda Marcos; the exploration of Nazi Germany's impact on the art world is especially well written. However, because much of the book eschews the human-interest elements that most often draw readers to true crime, the stories can feel unsatisfying. Readers, whether art enthusiasts or novices, will undoubtedly learn something new from this volume, but it's not as memorable an experience as it could be. VERDICT Readers interested in the art trade will benefit most from Koldehoff and Timm's work. Those seeking a true crime experience can find more engaging works elsewhere.--Sarah Schroeder, Univ. of Washington Bothell

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