The Rescue Artist : A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece
by: Edward Dolnick
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Product Description:
In the predawn gloom of a February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo. They snatched one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's The Scream, and fled with their $72 million trophy. The thieves made sure the world was watching: the Winter Olympics, in Lillehammer, began that same morning. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police called on the world's greatest art detective, a half-English, half-American undercover cop named Charley Hill.
In this rollicking narrative, Edward Dolnick takes us inside the art underworld. The trail leads high and low, and the cast ranges from titled aristocrats to thick-necked thugs. Lord Bath, resplendent in ponytail and velvet jacket, presides over a 9,000-acre estate. David Duddin, a 300-pound fence who once tried to sell a stolen Rembrandt, spins exuberant tales of his misdeeds. We meet Munch, too, a haunted misfit who spends his evenings drinking in the Black Piglet Café and his nights feverishly trying to capture in paint the visions in his head. The most compelling character of all is Charley Hill, an ex-soldier, a would-be priest, and a complicated mix of brilliance, foolhardiness, and charm. The hunt for The Scream will either cap his career and rescue one of the world's best-known paintings or end in a fiasco that will dog him forever.
In the predawn gloom of a February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo. They snatched one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's The Scream, and fled with their $72 million trophy. The thieves made sure the world was watching: the Winter Olympics, in Lillehammer, began that same morning. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police called on the world's greatest art detective, a half-English, half-American undercover cop named Charley Hill.
In this rollicking narrative, Edward Dolnick takes us inside the art underworld. The trail leads high and low, and the cast ranges from titled aristocrats to thick-necked thugs. Lord Bath, resplendent in ponytail and velvet jacket, presides over a 9,000-acre estate. David Duddin, a 300-pound fence who once tried to sell a stolen Rembrandt, spins exuberant tales of his misdeeds. We meet Munch, too, a haunted misfit who spends his evenings drinking in the Black Piglet Café and his nights feverishly trying to capture in paint the visions in his head. The most compelling character of all is Charley Hill, an ex-soldier, a would-be priest, and a complicated mix of brilliance, foolhardiness, and charm. The hunt for The Scream will either cap his career and rescue one of the world's best-known paintings or end in a fiasco that will dog him forever.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Interesting Topic, but it went on and on
At first, I enjoyed the book, but it just dragged on way too long.By the end, I almost didn't care anymore whether they were successful or not.The little side stories were interesting for awhile, but there were way too many of them.I did enjoy the photograph sections of the art work and real people in the story.
Rating: 
- Not as Interesting as the da Vinic Code
This is an interesting story about art theft, in general, and specifically the theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream. I found the interworkings of undercover police work fascinating. However, it is not as the story of the recovery is not as fascinating.
Rating: - So So story telling, good story
The subject was very interesting and it will probably be made into a good crime movie, but the writing was average and the plotline jumbled....
Rating: - Informative but tedious at points
Starting out with a detailed recounting of the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch's iconic painting entitled "Scream," the book ends with its recovery. Sandwiched in the middle is a lumbering tale about Dolnick's hero, a Scotland Yard cop of American British lineage, who specializes in art recovery. Dolnick is a fine writer; his dialogue flows and his descriptions are colorful and paint a good scene. His research and grasp of the art theft world and its motley crew is complete. He enthuses so much over ... Read More
Rating: - A good, really fast read
The Rescue artist is a swift and exciting book that revolves around Charlie Hill, an unforgettable (and quite real) detective on the hunt for missing masterpieces, in this case Edvard Munch's classic "Scream" stolen from a museum in Oslo, Norway. Dolnick writes crisp, well-turned sentences that pull the reader along. I felt like I was reading a good, long magazine article, like in the New Yorker. At times the story jumps and shifts around too much, and I had to backtrack a couple times to pick up ... Read More
- Interesting Topic, but it went on and onAt first, I enjoyed the book, but it just dragged on way too long.By the end, I almost didn't care anymore whether they were successful or not.The little side stories were interesting for awhile, but there were way too many of them.I did enjoy the photograph sections of the art work and real people in the story.
- Not as Interesting as the da Vinic CodeThis is an interesting story about art theft, in general, and specifically the theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream. I found the interworkings of undercover police work fascinating. However, it is not as the story of the recovery is not as fascinating.
- So So story telling, good storyThe subject was very interesting and it will probably be made into a good crime movie, but the writing was average and the plotline jumbled....
- Informative but tedious at points Starting out with a detailed recounting of the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch's iconic painting entitled "Scream," the book ends with its recovery. Sandwiched in the middle is a lumbering tale about Dolnick's hero, a Scotland Yard cop of American British lineage, who specializes in art recovery. Dolnick is a fine writer; his dialogue flows and his descriptions are colorful and paint a good scene. His research and grasp of the art theft world and its motley crew is complete. He enthuses so much over ... Read More
- A good, really fast readThe Rescue artist is a swift and exciting book that revolves around Charlie Hill, an unforgettable (and quite real) detective on the hunt for missing masterpieces, in this case Edvard Munch's classic "Scream" stolen from a museum in Oslo, Norway. Dolnick writes crisp, well-turned sentences that pull the reader along. I felt like I was reading a good, long magazine article, like in the New Yorker. At times the story jumps and shifts around too much, and I had to backtrack a couple times to pick up ... Read More
