![]() There is no doubt in my mind that Wittman sees himself as a crusader against people who would rob the world of its history. If places can absorb memory, why not objects? The items Wittman covers in the course of his career are valuable, but what makes them priceless is the history associated with them. The French have a phrase: lieu de mémoire, which is basically the idea that places are imbued with the memory of the events that happened there. Every chapter focuses on one case, and the variety of stolen objects in the book and their history is really fascinating. ![]() Priceless is basically the memoir of his decision to join the FBI, how he founded the crime team, and the more awesomer cases he investigated (including the Gardner Museum heist, which is actually what the book opens with). Wittman was the founder of the FBI's art crime team and the only full-time undercover agent on the team from 2005 until his retirement in 2008. ![]() And I didn't expect it to be as gripping and un-put-downable as any fictional thriller. I didn't expect to find it so touching or moving it brought me to tears. I'm not sure what I expected when I picked up Priceless, but I didn't expect to learn things about art from it. ![]() This may be one of my most surprising reads of the year. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |