Stealing the Show: A History of Art and Crime in Six Thefts

This book tells the previously untold stories of six major art thefts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, written by its former Chief Security Officer, John Barelli. Reader will be taken into the loading docks and curatorial offices, to the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing and its magnificent Engelhard Courtyard, the majestic Main Hall where the author stood opening many mornings as the world poured in, the Astor Courtyard and the Valez Blanco Patio. In the museum’s Arms and Armor department the author will point out that museum staff helped create the helmets that our soldiers used in World War, he’ll share with readers what happen to the coins in the museum’s fountains. At the heart of this book there will always be art—those who love it and those who take it, two groups of people that are far from mutually exclusive.