Just a Chap Passing Through

by Bill Smith

The Museums -- The Collectors -- The Dealers -- The Artists -- The Felons -- The Fuzz -- The Feds -- And The Infamous Insurance Companies "For A Chap merely Passing Through, Bill Smith earned the respect, admiration and confidence of museum directors, curators, collectors and artists, as well as Scotland Yard, the FBI and Interpol, for his adjudicative talents, honed to skills by the Jesuits, brilliantly narrated here with his Celtic wit and charm." James B. Byrnes, Director Emeritus, the New Orleans Museum of Art. "He was the most famous adjuster in his field, a wonderful guy, very helpful to people all the time." Steven Weil, scholar emeritus, the Smithsonian Institution. "...Intimately chronicles the humor, grace and compelling humanity of this heretofore unsung hero. His manners, impeccable; his wit. deadly; his loquence, better than the Blarney Stone; his knowledge of the classics, profound; his canniness, slyer than any fox. The sum; Bill Smith, a rare true gentleman, suavely at home in the infinitely adjustable world of international art theft, quiet collaborator with Interpol and the police and hero of museums, galleries and collectors. Knowing him was like having James Bond for a friend." Vaughn Glasgow, The Social History of the American Alligator "He was one of the few people who understood this whole game. There were a handful of us out there who really did this whole thing, all based on the love of the art. He was one of the good guys." Robert Volpe, retired NYPD detective, Art Cop

416 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2005

About the author

Bill Smith worked his way through undergraduate school firing steam locomotives on the railroad, then paid for graduate school as a dormitory resident advisor. Three years later, he was the acting chief of television for a branch of the Air Force in Washington, then acting assistant to the under secretary of a federal department. He was the founding executive director of a state wide public broadcasting network, a founder of a seventeen state public broadcasting system, and the recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award.

See more books by Bill Smith at www.bsmithbooks.com