Art Cop: Robert Volpe, Art Crime Detective

by Laurie Schneider Adams

Robert Volpe, a member of the New York City Police Dept, is a crime detective, specializing in art theft. This book tells of his experiences in various cases of missing art from legendary institutions such as the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of art.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1974

Reviews

[Scott Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing book for many reasons. While Volpe was NYPD's sole police oficer assigned to art related crimes for something like 10 years, the book only covers his first two years or so. As a result, there aren't actually a lot of interesting stories to tell. The book feels like 2 or 3 magazine articles padded out to book length. (At one point, the author devotes an entire page to Volpe's drive acroos town to a police station.) Also, the writing drove me crazy. At times it read like a novel, with lots of dull conversations and way too many physical descriptions, particularly of Volpe's mustache. Still, it's an interesting subject, and there were a couple entertaining and informative stories. But there just wasn't enough of them.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is definitely a product of it's time, a seventies themed non-fiction book about Volpe and his role as the one constant on the NYC "art squad." We get a kind of over-the-shoulder view of Volpe's adventures and investigations, following the mysteries he solves as they play out. There's a lot about his mustache, which is awesome, his blue jeans, his hot cars. It's kind of fawning, unless it's totally tongue in cheek.

There are some flaws, beyond the narrative stance, like many of the mysteries resolve themselves in ways that aren't all that satisfying-- people realize the jig is up and fold too quickly, or else something else is going on, but we never learn what. There's a paucity of real detective work on display here-- I'm sure it's happening, but the book doesn't really capture that. Instead, it's a lot of flash and bluster.

But it's still an intriguing window into someone's world, presented uncritically, and that's gotta be worth something.

[MEK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking forward to reading about Robert Volpe, the art cop who worked with Interpol and recovered many great pieces of stolen art. He died a few years ago and his son gained notoriety as a "bad" cop. This would be good for art crime aficionados and people who love cops and/or artists!