In 1994 two important paintings by J.M.W. Turner-then valued at twenty-four million pounds-were stolen from a German public gallery while on loan from Tate Britain. In this vivid, personal account, Sandy Nairne who was then Director of Programmes at the Tate and became centrally involved in the pursuit of the paintings and the negotiations for their return, retells this complex, 8-year, cloak-and-dagger story, which finally concluded in 2002 with the pictures returning to public display at the Tate. In addition to this thrilling narrative, Nairne unravels stories of other high-value art thefts, puzzling what motivates a thief to steal a well-known work of art that cannot be sold, even on the black market. Nairne also examines the role of art theft within the larger underworld of international looting and illicit deals among art and antique collectors. The art heist, of course, is a popular theme of crime novels and films, and Nairne considers these depictions as well, investigating the imaginative construction of the art thief, the specialist detective, and the mysterious collector. Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners is a compelling, real-life detective story that will keep both art and mystery lovers eagerly turning pages.
Industry Reviews
'I was gripped by Sandy Nairne's matter-of-fact but hair-raising account of the efforts to reclaim the two Turners' - Philip Hensher, 'Books of the Year', The Spectator 'In Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners, Sandy Nairne describes going underground to help recover the booty of a daring heist. Superheroes all.' - Elaine Showalter, 'Books of the Year', TLS 'A fascinating read, delving into some of the important moral issues associated with the paying of recovery fees.' Alexander McCall Smith, 'Books of the Year', The Scotsman 'A thoughtful (and personal) entree into the business of art theft' - Sunday Times 'Sandy Nairne takes us into an art-and-underworld maze that matches Raymond Chandler at his most labyrinthine ... raise[s] interesting questions about why thieves steal art and why art theft should matter to us.' - RA Magazine 'A gripping account of the complex and delicate negotiations for the recovery of the Turners.' - Country Life '[A] vivid account of the workings of a hidden art world - the culmination of over eight years of research - has at its heart an exploration of different concepts of value.' - Apollo 'A stupefying amount of Nairne's life, as his riveting book reveals, was devoted to nerve-racking negotiations with mysterious middlemen, sudden and futile expeditions to Germany, tense meetings with loss adjusters, Tate trustees and detectives.' - The Observer 'Nairne's book is fascinating in its account of the astonishingly British way in which extraordinary legal precedents were set, and special permissions were sought, to legitimise the return of the Turners' - The Spectator 'Nairne's insider's chronicle of the investigation and subsequent recovery of the paintings via negotiation often reads like a fine arts version of The Thomas Crown Affair. And that romanticized perception - a crime of derring-do by suave gentlemen or plucky outsiders - is part of the problem.' - Washington Post 'Rarely does an institution victimized by an art theft recover its stolen works of art ... It is also rare that someone associated with the victimized institution writes an intriguing, in-depth account of the recovery effort. Sandy Nairne has just such a captivating account in Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners ... a dramatic narrative of the case that dispels many of the myths and misconceptions that have surrounded the circumstances of the works' extraordinary recovery ... I would recommend Nairne's new book to anyone interested in the intricacies of stolen art recovery.' - Art Theft Central 'A sensational, frank book' - Welt am Sonntag
