The Rescue Artist is a true story about the hunt for one of the world’s famous painting, Scream by Edvard Munch, which had been stolen by two thieves from the National Gallery in Oslo way back in 1994. Prior to reading this novel, my idea of an art crime is akin to the movie, The Thomas Crown Affair starring Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo (I remember watching it at a premiere and two older Chinese men seated in front of us said, “Eh, this is a James Bond movie”. But in reality, art crime is a totally different world with its own set of “weird” rules. For one, who would want to buy the artwork when the whole world knows that it had been stolen? And do you know that Scotland Yard even has an Art Squad? And this squad had been quite successful in retrieving lost art.

 

The hero of this particular hunt is Art Squad member Charley Hill, who was responsible for several successful operations as well. The best thing about this book is that it incorporates a lot of facts on art crimes. So instead of getting just one art crime story, you read about all the others too. The author also explains why such and such artwork is expensive or why the painter is deemed to be great. He also included some pictures of the paintings. Thus, helping you understand the style, mood and quality of the paintings. You will appreciate the importance of museums, whether private or public, because all these artworks are unique in this world. There are a lot of quotes that will make you think deeper not just about art, but about life as well.

 

I’ve included an excerpt of the book that I found most trivial… ‘the ownership and whereabouts of the four most expensive paintings in the world are all unknown….. The four paintings are van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet, $82.5million; Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, $78.1million; Rubens’s Massacre of the Innocents, $76.7million; and Van Gogh’s Portrait of the Artist Without His Beard, $71.5million… (Then in 2004) a new painting, Picasso’s Boy with a Pipe has taken first place at $104million. Its buyer, too, is anonymous.”

 

So who owns these paintings now?  My guess is Bill Gates.  Being the richest man in the world, he probably owns one if not all of the paintings.