Art of the heist

These DVDs bring the viewer into the world of high-priced art and some of the most creative and daring criminals and forgers feeding on a frenzied and often overpriced market. Art of the Heist brings together a group of short British documentaries that were initially produced for television (in a Dateline or 48 Hours fashion). This well-produced and fascinating series re-enacts several notorious thefts including the unsolved case at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and of "The Scream" from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. Artwork taken as part of Nazi plunder is featured, including the theft and ultimate recovery of Gustav Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (popularly known as "The Woman in Gold"). The segment on "The Forger and the Conman" documents the "work" of John Myatt and is a riveting exposé of the world of art dealers and -provenance. When it comes to The Art of Forgery, the German documentary on Wolfgang Beltracchi (b. 1951) details how this clever, witty, and arrogant con artist managed to dupe the art world for decades as he created original paintings in the likenesses of early 20th-century masters. Including his wife, Helene, these bold charlatans managed to pass off nearly 300 phony paintings as master-works by leading European expressionist and surrealist artists. Although this crime was widely covered by the media at the time of the pair's arrest, the obsession with how this smug couple deceived so-called sophisticated connoisseurs is still mesmerizing and entertaining. VERDICT Both DVDs are highly recommended for most library collections.-Herbert E. Shapiro, Lifelong Learning Soc., Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.