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Nov 25, 2007

Julia rated it:

This was just painful. What started out as somewhat interesting factoids about art history and art theft turned into patronizing speeches by so-called characters in this book. I admit to skipping about 50 pages in the middle, with absolutely no detriment to the plot. Stolen canvases, auctions at Christie's, paintings hidden under other art, it all seemed so promising.

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2007

Roberta added it

The Art Thief is an amateurish novel that lectures against romanticizing art theft while doing exactly that. The author is described in publicity material as the founding director of an international think tank on art crime with a board of trustees that “includes the respective art squad heads of the FBI, Carabinieri, and Scotland Yard, as well as renowned museum, art world, and criminology specialists.” They may not have read his novel. The book is populated with slapstick national ster More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2008

Kristin rated it:

The author (a term I use loosely) should stick to his day job - although in reading his profile, I believe he may not have one!!!

Did this man have an editor? He acknowledges one at the close. If indeed an editor exists with respect to the compilation of this book, perhaps he/she could have borrowed the author's thesaurus. A sample of editorial comments could then have included such notes as this:

"Mr. Charney, It is with most unfeigned sincerity that I present you More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Bözsi rated it:

I found this book interesting mainly for two reasons: 1/ it is an entangled and suspenseful mystery/detective story, but without a "main" detective; instead various experts end up discovering and piecing things together in much the same way a jigsaw puzzle set out on a table at Xmas might be worked on at any given moment by just one person, or two persons (not always the same two) or three or four. Each person is an expert in one major area: iconography of art; art museum curator More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 03, 2008

Katy-Del rated it:

The overall heist story, I found that interesting. But I really didn't like the lectures I was forced to wade through to get to the plot. Every character with the least bit of knowlege about art, has to expound at length, and I just found myself skimming and skipping these pages. Which is strange, because the subjects they lectured about are ones I find interesting and ones that I have read about in non-fiction, but I was totally uninterested in them in the way they were presented here.
More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 24, 2008

Keeley rated it:

I am not sure how I feel about this book. It was well written and the plot was thick and vibrant. The end completely caught me by surprise, I never guessed who the bad guys were. But the end was cut too short. I am still trying to piece together all that happened. I was really dissappointed by the amount of f-words the author used. I think it shows a lack of intelligence and creativity that all they can do is profane left and right. It was a huge problem for me. But I looked past that to see how More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Joanne rated it:

Mixed reviews. The info on the art world was great fun. Icons, symbols, art theft, history of paints, etc. - all fascinating. The plot was convoluted and the characters okay. If you enjoy fine art and a peek behind the scenes, you'd probably enjoy this book. There are lots of twists and turns.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Catherine rated it:

Yikes.
If I could have give this book no stars or half a star I would have...
I picked this book up for all the wrong reasons and I paid for it.

The only part I liked about the book was the background discussion on art and the great artists (and the description of the great meals the two french characters kept eating!); otherwise, the plot, the characters, the narrative, and the ending (ugh!) were horrid. Entirely unsatisfying.

The author is so self-indulgent in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

Heather rated it:

This book is essentially a mystery, a genre that I am rather unqualified to rate appropriately. Overall, I think the mystery aspect of the book was entertaining and not overtly obvious, so probably successful.

More than that, however, I adored this book. It is easily one of the best I have read. Of course, all of my reasons are selfish and probably not applicable to most people. This book appealed to all of my favorite things.

It made me feel smart. Scattered, untransl More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2011

Steven rated it:

Another good summer read. A nice narrative filled with facts that stick with you long after the book is done.

Page 6
"But it's a fake"
Genevieve Delacloche pinched the phone between shoulder and ear, and fumbled with the cord, which she had somehow managed to tangle round her wrists.
Her small office overlooked the Seine, with the yellow-gray stone medieval majesty of riverside Paris arched up on either side of the coral water. He desk was overcome with papers that More...

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Jun 27, 2011

Wesley rated it:

Should have been my kind of book: a mystery about art, museums, auction houses. And there are passages that I really liked: discussions of iconography, the process of painting and how to read a painting, the value of a work of art, forgeries and provenance, art conservation. But the writing is so bad that all else pales in comparison (which makes me wonder if the passages I enjoyed, which were much better written, were regurgitated from lecture notes from the author's student days at the Courta More...

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Apr 13, 2011

Christine rated it:

I have read many, many books but this is the first time I feel compelled to write a review. The premise of the book caught my attention but it took me 2 weeks to get through this one book when on average I read 3 books a week. I just seemed to start and stop reading it so many times as it took longer than normal to catch my interest.

I expected Gabriel Coffin to be the main character and 'detective' but he seemed like an incidental character. Coffin was a disappointment but Bizot and More...

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Mar 05, 2011

Danny rated it:

I was in the mood to like this book and was kinda pissed that it didn't follow through on what I assumed was it's awesome premise.

The author is an art historian who has his characters speak in long paragraphs about art history and the art world and say things there is no reason to say so that he can impart his wisdom to you, the lowly reader. I like art history sometimes, but I'd like to learn about it in a readable and straightforward fashion instead of this misguided attempt at More...

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Feb 04, 2010

Xanthe rated it:

I haven't been so captivated by a book and new author for a long time. Mr. Charney gives us an education in art and thievery and morality in addition to a mystery.

Much of the book is about authentication revolving around two stolen paintings White on White and Caravaggio's Annuciation - and philosophical renderings about art, what we value, what is in our museums, why collectors collect. After reading the book, I question whether all of the paintings we value in museums are authent More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 06, 2010

Diane rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 19, 2009

Vulva rated it:

I began reading this book, positive that I was going to hate it. I come from the Art History field, and you'd be surprised how many people just massacre art works with false information, or far-fetched ideas (Da Vinci Code, anyone?).
I was surprised to find accurate interpretations and readings; from an Art History point of view, all of his information was spot-on, and I couldn't help but smile at his various bits of information thrown in there.
That being said, the book built some mom More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2011

Maratara123 rated it:

This was a very neat book. It was fun because it offered a lot about the art world, which I don't really know much about. Charney has a very descriptive writing style that allows readers to feel as though they are right in the midst of the action, which made this all the more fun. Though I really, really, really liked this book, it only gets 4 stars because there were some things that Charney never quite tied together at the end. This is all about stealing artwork, so its a mystery. As some More...

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Sep 03, 2009

Ty rated it:

For the first almost half of this book, I found it guilty of something that is the reverse of most novels I dislike. Instead of having characters I didn't really get to know, and being drowned in plot, this book was almost all characters for the first half. Though in many ways they were cartoonish, stereotype characters, the provided enough entertainment value to keep on reading, (though the early signs were that the plot was getting lost in all of the personalities.

I laughed a few t More...

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Jun 08, 2009

Elsi rated it:

I still don't know whether I'd recommend this book or not. I enjoyed it -- for the most part -- but it left me feeling off-kilter. I'm not sure I can even explain why it failed to satisfy. It could be because there were a log of characters and I found it difficult to keep up with who was who and who did what. It could be because the author would stick in big words -- gratuitously -- almost to show off that he was an intellectual.

But, there were some excellent scenes in the book. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 16, 2011

Liz rated it:

Da Vinci Code-style art theft romp. No body count but just as many twists and turns, crosses and double crosses, although for all that it is actually a bit of a dull read. You figure out pretty early on that the fakes are real, the real ones are faked, and that most of the characters are implicated somehow. Beyond that I wasn't really bothered about exactly who what and why. It's difficult to care about the fates of characters who are frankly fairly two-dimensional, and so stereotyped it is at t More...

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May 29, 2010

Jessica rated it:

This art-theft mystery earned mixed reviews but I liked it. The plot revolves around stolen paintings and paintings hidden under paintings, and the author does a pretty good job with twists and turns. Some readers complained about the mini-lectures on art history but I enjoyed them and I am not knowledgeable about art at all. I think the problem with this book is the author is trying to do too many things--a caper, a whodunit, and a Da Vinci Code-esque cryptic--all while building literary cha More...

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Jul 02, 2009

RunRachelRun rated it:

A very good read - I always appreciate it when an author sprinkles in another language and doesn't include the translation. Don't look at the back cover of this book - Noah just looks annoyed that you've picked up his book and that you might take it home, a home that perhaps doesn't live up to his ruthlessly thought-out self-presentation. i can't figure out who he reminds me of... In any case, smart boy who's written a pretty dandy read. I do like it that he seems to have aged his main charact More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 07, 2011

Carole rated it:

I started reading this book thinking it would be a simple read. I ended up practically needing to make a graph to keep track of where the paintings were. It was sort of like a shell game. I definitely did not like the amount of profanity in the book. It was so unnecessary. The book had a lot of information about art, understanding art, iconography, etc. It found all of that very interesting and informative. The plot twists and turns ended up being a good little brain exercise, so I liked that. T More...

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Feb 03, 2010

Joanna rated it:

What is the value of a piece of art? Well, whatever you are able to convince someone to pay. This somewhat convoluted highly crafted novel attempts to illuminate this concept through the device of an artwork titled White on White. It's an abstract piece that is completely white which is meant to be a statement repudiating the iconographic art of other works. I spent a fair bit of time picturing this work and wondering if there were shades of white, or textures of white, or anything at all sk More...

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Mar 09, 2010

Cori rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Apr 30, 2009

Beth rated it:

This book was really disappointing. The author is an art expert, and the book is at its best when he is writing about art itself. Outside of that, though, the author isn't up to the story that he has created. It starts out as a complex theft story and devolves into a convoluted mess. It is like a bait and switched that is then switched again and again and again. By the end, it is hard to even figure out what happened. Throughout the interpersonal stories and dialogue seem to be taken from More...

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Feb 07, 2010

Alana rated it:

A beautiful Caravaggio altarpiece is stolen from a small church in Rome. A famous Malevich painting is stolen from the basement of the Malevich society - and a similar painting goes on sale at one of London's most prestigious auctions. Although the art thefts seem unconnected, the investigations in Rome, Paris and London begin to intertwine. And through it all, art investigator Gabriel Coffin offers his assistance and expertise in identifying and seeking out the stolen paintings.

Once More...

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May 21, 2009

Melissa rated it:

I feel that if you are an art buff: Professor, student, or historian, that you will love this book. I have a degree in the arts and I didn't feel as if I was being lectured at but more, given a refresher on what I already know. In fact one of my favorite characters was Barrow - the surly professor that adds humor to his lessons (wish I had a professor like this, I would have retained more). The other part that I loved was the description of the market in Portobella, very vivid and colorful expla More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Kura rated it:

Definitely a page-turner. I finished this in a day. I was surprised who was behind the thefts at the end. I can't say I've given art theft much thought and it was interesting to learn about it. This is obviously a subject the author knows well. The only things I didn't like was that at first it was confusing keeping track of the thefts and then the non-English dialogue. Not that you couldn't tell what was going on, but it was somewhat annoying to miss parts of the conversation. Other than those More...

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Oct 03, 2010

Jack rated it:

A delicious souffle of art, crime, food, and even a wee bit of sex. But international art theft - that alone is enough to whet my appetite. A Caravaggio stolen from a church in Rome, a Russian Suprematist canvas missing in London, chicanery and puzzles and people with hidden agendas - what's not to like?

Noah Charney spins a complex tale with efficient mastery. There are vivid characters in three cities, all chasing clues which may or may not be planted - and false. Trading More...

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