The art world is one of the most secretive of global businesses, and the list of its crimes runs long and deep. Today, with prices in the hundreds of millions for individual artworks, and billionaires' collections among the most conspicuous and liquid of their assets, crime is more rampant than ever in this largely unregulated universe. Increased prices and globalization have introduced new levels of fraud and malfeasance into the art world--everything from "artnapping," in which an artwork is held hostage and only returned for a ransom, to forgery and tax fraud. However, the extent of the economic and cultural damage that results from criminality in the global art scene rarely comes to light. The stories of high-stakes, brazen art crimes told by art experts Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm are by turns thrilling, disturbing, and unbelievable (the imagination for using art to commit crimes seems boundless). The authors also provide a well-founded analysis of what needs to change in the art market and at museums.

From the authors of False Pictures, Real Money (about the Beltracchi art forgery case), Art and Crime includes a chapter on art owned by Donald Trump. It is a thoroughly researched, explosive, and highly topical book that uncovers the extraordinary and multifarious thefts of art and cultural objects around the world.

‍

“A clearly organised, sharply written and engaging addition to the genre of art-market crime compendiums.”—Ben Lewis, The Art Newspaper

"The tales they tell in Art and Crime are hair-raising. Some are well known and go back decades; others are more recent and involve prominent international figures. "—Financial Times

"The theft of the Mona Lisa and Hitler's collection of looted art: both figure in this  tome byjournalists Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm. The book mulls the art world's obsession with crime, stopping along the way to peel back the mystery surrounding a charitable fund from which Donald Trump allegedly diverted money in order to buy paintings." —ArtNews

"In Art & Crime, German journalists Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm detail the doings of a rogue’s gallery of art scammers, rascals and outright thieves. The action ranges from European watering holes to the New York townhouse of Imelda Marcos to the free port warehouses of Geneva and Singapore, where works of art, legally obtained and otherwise, can be discreetly traded."—The Washington Post