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Priceless - Robert K. Wittman, John Shiffman - 2010
How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures
By: Robert K. Wittman, John Shiffman
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 06-01-10
Language: English
Genre: Personal Memoirs
Publisher: Random House Audio
Format: mp3 64/22.05 stereo
Publisher's Summary
The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend”. The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world”.
In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.
Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a 20-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.
In this compelling memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final pow-wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments.
The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow.
By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more - a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless.
In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all.
©2010 Robert K. Wittman (P)2010 Random House
Critic Reviews
"More realistic than The Thomas Crown Affair, more entertaining than Catch Me If You Can. It's hard to believe one undercover FBI Agent rescued so many cultural and national treasures......but it's all true.” (Jack Garcia, former FBI undercover agent and New York Times best-selling author of Making Jack Falcone)
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