CURRENTLY READING
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
Monday, March 24 through Friday, April 4, 2025
Read by Bruce Bradley
Stéphane Bréitwieser is the most prolific art thief of all time. He pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight. His girlfriend served as his accomplice. His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion. He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom. He felt like a king. Until everything came to a shocking end. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, Michael Finkel gives us one of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of our times, a riveting story of art, theft, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.
THEME: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dutoit conductor, Kyung Wha Chung piano
(Vintage; ISBN10: 1984898450)
Readings are archived for just one week after their broadcast due to publisher copyright restrictions.
Latest Episodes
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The Art Thief 3 of 10 – How To Steal Art
The couple keep a scrapbook of news clippings reporting their crimes. We also learn about the dynamics of the couple during their thefts and the guidelines that must be followed.
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The Art Thief 2 of 10 – Breitwieser’s Muse
We learn about the unhealthy, irrational, and reckless relationship between Stéphane Breitwieser and his muse, Anne-Catherine. At 22 years old, they commit their first theft together — a silver-inlaid flintlock […]
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The Art Thief 1 of 10 – The Art Liberator
Stéphane Breitwieser and his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, steal a marble carving of Adam and Eve from a museum in Antwerp and return to their opulent bedroom lair filled with coveted […]
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Paris 1944 10 of 10 – Hemingway’s Road To Paris
Ernest Hemingway pushes toward Paris so that he can be present at its liberation. En route, he finally realizes his war fantasies as he encounters rebels and enemies that threaten […]
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Paris 1944 9 of 10 – Competing Factions Threaten The Shaky Peace
The Germans and the Communist-led Resistance attempt a truce but competing factions within the French freedom fighters and increasingly unruly German troops soon violate the terms and killings resume.
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Coming Next
Last Person Rural by Noel Perrin
monday, April 7 through friday, april 18, 2025
Read by jim fleming
Perrin’s second “final” collection of bucolic essays was written eight years after his supposedly ultimate compilation (Third Person Rural, heard earlier this year on CAD)—and it’s another appreciation of rural life and being a good steward of the land told with humor, warmth and a little bit of philosophy as well.
NPR’s Book Concierge
