"Priceless"

Robert K. Wittman, former FBI agent and skilled detective, tells his experiences of working undercover to take back stolen works of art and history in his autobiography Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures. Coincidentally, the Parisian art heist happened just a few weeks before the release of the novel. Wittman’s career took him to many different cities and countries, including Madrid, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. He often posed as a shady art collector or a millionaire in order to gain leads on where the stolen pieces could be. His work helped recover numerous items estimated at a total of $225 million such as “works by Goya, Rodin and Rembrandt, along with Geronimo’s eagle-feather war bonnet [and]…one of the 14 original copies of the Bill of Rights” (http://nyti.ms/aoQ6az). But the worth does not matter to Wittman. “After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into [a Civil War] battle? They're both priceless,” states an article on artdaily.org (http://bit.ly/934YA7).

Through his work with the FBI, he was able to take the fledging art crime department and transform it into the Art Crime Team, which runs art theft investigations. As an art enthusiast, Wittman believes “art thieves steal more than beautiful objects; they steal memories and identity. They steal history.” This viewpoint reinforces his passion for museum security and making sure items are returned to the proper owner. He feels the most at ease in the MET, mostly due to his long-standing relationship with the security chief there. In a recent trip to Constanta, Romania, where he helped assess the museum’s security, he said, “the place is a crime waiting to happen,” based on the lack of personnel and how the work was displayed. So even though he has retired from hunting down prized pieces, he continues to think in that mindset. He is thankful however to not be in high-stress situations anymore. In the book, he does impart some wisdom to potential thieves, stating, “famous paintings are exceedingly dumb things to steal because they are nearly impossible to sell.”

Priceless, released by Crown Publishers, is available at bookstores nationwide and at amazon.com.