Have you been following the news of the vanished 17th-century painting/Nazi loot discovered in Argentina?
Earlier in the week, Argentine authorities launched an urgent search for Portrait of a Lady (also known as Portrait of a Woman) by Italian painter Fra Galgario (Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi) after the work appeared in photographs of a house for sale in the seaside town of Mar del Plata. Originally taken from the family of Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker during the Second World War, it had ended up in the home of Friedrich Kadgien’s daughter Patricia. Kadgien was a Nazi official who fled to South America after the war.
When police raided Patricia’s villa, the painting had “vanished”, replaced by a tapestry, though the empty space on the wall told its own story. A criminal investigation for concealing stolen art is now under way, and Goudstikker’s heirs, backed by Dutch cultural experts, are pushing for the Fra Galgario’s recovery. The Kadgiens sound like a multigenerational bunch of delights.
As you can tell, we are gripped. If you want to read more on the topic, Dutch media brand AD broke the story, and Spanish news outlet El País have a great summary too. And we figure that once you tumble down the inevitable internet rabbit hole on this (because you will) you’ll need more to quench your art-theft thirst. There’s something about the mix of beauty, crime and intrigue that makes these stories so sexy and irresistible: priceless creations swiped in the dead of night, shadowy dealers and, if you’re lucky, the thrill of the recovery. So, here’s our pick of the best books, films and series on the subject.
Books
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013)
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (made into a film in 2019) kicks off with a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and a young boy stealing a Dutch masterpiece. It’s about trauma, obsession and the gravitational pull of art. We like it because it shows how one stolen painting can unravel and reshape an entire life. It’s long, and not quite The Secret History, but we got stuck in nevertheless.
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith (2016)
An elegant, time-slipping novel linking a 17th-century Dutch painter, a modern art historian and the forged canvas that haunts them across centuries. Smart about authenticity, female agency in art and the moral grey zones of fakes versus originals, this book is beautifully written yet slyly thrilling, pulling you into the tense world of connoisseurs and dodgy dealers.
The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva (2010)
Silva’s Gabriel Allon series (intelligence operative, art restorer – too many talents, frankly) hits a high point with this caper involving a missing Rembrandt. It’s fast, sexy and has that secret agent-meets-Christie’s auction vibe. Silva often weaves the murky world of art into this series. So, for more on things like tax-dodging Swiss freeports where art gets stored, read on.
The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild (2015)
A charming satire of the London art world, told partly from the point of view of a long-lost Watteau painting. It skewers dealers, oligarchs and art-world pretensions with delicious precision. We like it because it’s witty and tender, and because the idea of a painting narrating its own misadventures makes the whole thing sparkle.
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel (2023)
A real-life account of Stéphane Breitwieser, the Frenchman who stole over 200 artworks from European museums – just to hoard them in his attic. It’s jaw-dropping in scale and surprisingly intimate in motive. Stranger than fiction and about obsessive love, meticulous planning and the art world’s surprising fragility when confronted by one man with sticky fingers going rogue.
The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser (2009)
The definitive account of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery: 13 works, including a Vermeer and Rembrandt, are still missing 35 years later. Boser untangles mob ties and dead ends with the zeal of an obsessed detective. The case remains unsolved, with the empty frames in Boston’s Gardner Museum serving as chilling reminders that sometimes the world’s greatest thrillers never get closure.
Films and series
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, 1999)
Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in the original, Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo in the slick remake – both serve art theft with Champagne fizz. They make crime ridiculously glamorous: stolen paintings as foreplay. We like it because sometimes you don’t want gritty restitution drama, you just want a heist with snappy one-liners and designer suits.
The Monuments Men (2014)
George Clooney’s romp of a film dramatises the Allied group tasked with rescuing looted art from Nazi hands. Starry cast, sweeping score, lots of near misses in salt mines. The film frames restitution as an act of courage and devotion – less shoot-out, more “save the world by cataloguing” audacity. Schmaltzy but still inspiring.
Woman in Gold (2015)
Helen Mirren plays Maria Altmann, who fought the Austrian state to reclaim Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which was stolen from her family by the Nazis. It’s part-courtroom drama, part-personal reckoning, and all wrapped in Klimt’s shimmering gold. Importantly, it humanises restitution and reminds you that behind every canvas lies someone’s dignity and fight for justice. Oh, and a triumphant happy ending helps too.
Documentaries
The Rape of Europa (2006)
The definitive documentary on Nazi art plunder, charting how masterpieces were looted, hidden and, sometimes, returned. It covers Göring’s greed, Hitler’s museum plans and the long legal aftershocks. It’s sweeping yet personal, and survivors’ stories remind us these weren’t just stolen objects, but stolen lives and legacies. Also, this is where you see the real humans in both The Women in Gold and The Monuments Men, so it’s a great link to those too.
Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (2024)
PBS’s two-part series digs into Bruno Lohse, one of Göring’s favourite looters, who carried on dealing long after the war. This doccie is shocking and like this week’s news reminds us that even now, many restitution battles are still unfinished business, and that art crime casts a very long shadow.
The Painter and the Thief (2020)
A Norwegian artist befriends the man who stole her work, and what unfolds is a portrait of obsession, addiction and forgiveness. This flips the script: instead of cops and courts, it’s about empathy, vulnerability and messy bonds. Award-winning, beautiful, and proof that art theft isn’t always about the loot.
A note on podcasts
While there aren’t many entirely devoted to stolen art, there are some great specials and one-off episodes sprinkled across the airwaves. Dan Snow’s History Hit features a sharp deep dive with restitution lawyer Randy Schoenberg (he of the Woman in Gold case); Ben Lewis’s Art Bust is a stylish series on all flavours of scandalous art crime; and WBUR’s Last Seen remains the definitive audio binge on the still-unsolved Gardner heist. In other words: art crime (also) makes for good listening. Obviously.
Top image: Rawpixel/Currency collage.
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