Art; the creation of something new, expressing emotions, ideas, and/or experiences through various forms and media. War; the armed conflict between states, nations, or differing cultures, ethnic groups, and ideologies, leading to the destruction or assimilation of the losing side. Art and war have been intertwined throughout the course of history.  During war, art is often destroyed or looted by soldiers for themselves, their family, or for their leaders to control. War also inspires art. Many famous artworks are depictions of war, such as The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello.

But crimes involving art don't just occur during war. Art theft and forgery are also common. In art forgery, someone creates and sales works of art which are credited to usually more famous artists. Multiple law enforcement agencies have divisions devoted to the handling of art crimes, including the recovery of stolen art.

Kansas Talking Books presents a list of books involving art in war and true art crimes. Find out how war influenced an art movement or how the art world is impacted by forgeries. 

DB 40324 The rape of Europa: the fat of Europa's treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas 
Describes the Nazis' attack on European artworks, documenting the pillage of entire countries and the destruction of "degenerate" art. Nicholas also tells how world leaders united to protect masterpieces while fighting the enemy, how ordinary people and experts made heroic efforts to save their treasures, and how the Allies sought to restore works to their rightful owners.

DB 43362 Beautiful loot: the Soviet plunder of Europe's art treasures by Konstantin Akinsha 
The authors, art historians and former Soviet museum curators, allege the Soviets stole more than two million pieces of art from Germany near the end of World War II. The loot included the famous "Trojan gold" excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s and masterworks by Botticelli, El Greco, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Degas.

DB 68758 Loot: the battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient world by Sharon Waxman 
American journalist examines the ongoing conflict between major museums where antiquities are displayed and the countries from which they were plundered. Includes discussion by prominent personalities from Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy as well as the Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, and J. Paul Getty Museum. 2008.

DB 87662 Grand illusions: American art and the First World War by David M. Lubin 
Professor of art examines the impact of American involvement in World War I on twenty-four painters, designers, photographers, and filmmakers between 1914 and 1933. Highlights works by Man Ray, John Singer Sargent, Anna Coleman Ladd, and James VanDerZee, among others. 2016.

DB 96461 Hitler's last hostages: looted art and the soul of the Third Reich by Mary M. Lane 
Journalist examines the Gurlitt family--father Hildebrand and son Cornelius--of Germany. Discusses Hildebrand's acquisition of more than one thousand pieces of art--often through foul means--for Hitler's Führermuseum, his concealment of the collection, and the disposition of the art after it was confiscated from Cornelius. Some strong language Commercial audiobook. 2019.

DBC18236 Treasure hunt: a New York Times reporter tracks the Quedlinburg hoard by William H. Honan 
This story has elements of a good mystery novel as well as intriguing art history. New York Times reporter William Honan describes how he first became interested in the missing Quedlinburg treasures - priceless medieval manuscripts and reliquaries - which disappeared from Nazi Germany in the final days of World War II. Honan tracks the treasures to a small Texas town and unravels the mystery of how they got there. Contains strong language.

DB 125833 Paris in ruins: love, war, and the birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee 
"From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the "Terrible Year" by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans--then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army after bloody street battles and the burning of central Paris. As renowned art critic Sebastian Smee shows, it was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist movement was born--in response to violence, civil war, and political intrigue. In stirring and exceptionally vivid prose, Smee tells the story of those dramatic days through the eyes of great figures of Impressionism. Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Edgar Degas were trapped in Paris during the siege and deeply enmeshed in its politics. Others, including Pierre-August Renoir and Frédéric Bazille, joined regiments outside of the capital, while Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro fled the country just in time. In the aftermath, these artists developed a newfound sense of the fragility of life. That feeling for transience--reflected in Impressionism's emphasis on fugitive light, shifting seasons, glimpsed street scenes, and the impermanence of all things--became the movement's great contribution to the history of art. At the heart of it all is a love story; that of Manet, by all accounts the father of Impressionism, and Morisot, the only woman to play a central role in the movement from the start. Smee poignantly depicts their complex relationship, their tangled effect on each other, and their great legacy, while bringing overdue attention to the woman at the heart of Impressionism."-- Publisher's description. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

DB 74650 Monuments men: Allied heroes, Nazi thieves, and the greatest treasure hunt in history by Robert M. Edsel 
Portrays the WWII special army unit--composed of architects, museum directors, curators, and archivists--formed in 1943 to recover cultural treasures that had been plundered by the Nazis. Describes the bombed historical buildings the group preserved and works of art it salvaged. 2009.

DB 76945 Saving Italy: the race to rescue a nation's treasures from the Nazis by Robert M. Edsel 
In this companion to The Monuments Men (DB 74650), the author discusses the efforts to keep cultural treasures from Italian museums and the Vatican from being plundered by the Nazis or destroyed by Allied air raids during World War II. 2013.

DB 72029 The Venus fixers: the remarkable story of the Allied soldiers who saved Italy's art during World War II by Ilaria Dagnini Brey 
Journalist recounts work of British and American art historians, scholars, and architects who, as Allied monument officers, salvaged Italian art and antiquities during World War II. Describes the officers' efforts to preserve Europe's cultural heritage by evacuating some pieces and restoring others that were damaged in air raid bombings. 2009.

DB 83425 The art of the con: the most notorious fakes, frauds, and forgeries in the art world by Anthony M. Amore 
Head of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents eleven cases of art fraud. Discusses the individuals involved, their motives, the methods used to perpetuate the fraud, and the ways the crimes were uncovered. 2015

DB 43737 False impressions: the hunt for big-time art fakes by Thomas Hoving 
Surveys the world of art forgery through the centuries. Recounts case histories in which inauthentic art works were foisted on curators, art collectors, and other experts. Examines forgers' motives and offers methods for detecting fake works of art.

DBG08906 Hot art: chasing thieves and detectives through the secret world of stolen art by Joshua Knelman 
Knelman spent four years immersing himself in the mysterious world of international art theft, travelling from Cairo to New York, London, Montreal and Los Angeles. He befriends the slippery Paul, a master art thief; and meets Donald Hrycyk, a detective working on a shoestring budget to recover stolen art. His investigation finds there are only a handful of detectives, FBI agents and lawyers fighting a global battle against the thriving black market of international art theft, estimated to be one of the largest in the world. Includes strong language. c2011. Marrakesh title.

DB 93863 Caveat emptor: the secret life of an American art forger by Ken Perenyi 
Memoir of a man who claims to have spent thirty years forging art masterpieces. Discusses becoming involved in a local art scene as a teenager in the 1960s, his development as an art forger, and the work he did. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2012.

DB 125478 Priceless: how I went undercover to rescue the world's stolen treasures by Robert K. Wittman 
"Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI's Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career, offering a real-life international thriller. The son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career going undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid. Wittman tells 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 rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation's first African-American regiments. The art thieves and scammers he caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners. Wittman has saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities, but he considers them all equally priceless."-- From publisher description. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

DB 61523 The rescue artist: a true story of art, thieves, and the hunt for a missing masterpiece by Edward Dolnick 
Chronicles the 1994 theft and recovery of Edvard Munch's The Scream, a painting valued at seventy-two million dollars. Describes the heist from Norway's National Gallery in Oslo and the subsequent three-month investigation by half-English, half-American undercover detective Charley Hill of Scotland Yard's elite Art and Antiques Unit. Strong language. 2005.

DB 62853 The Irish game: a true story of crime and art by Matthew Hart 
Journalist author of Diamond (DB 55703) examines the 1986 heist at Ireland's Russborough House during which Dubliner Martin Cahill stole eighteen paintings including Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid. Chronicles Scotland Yard's investigations and the sting that uncovered illicit drug connections and a stunning art discovery. 2004.

DB 67547 The forger's spell: a true story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the greatest art hoax of the twentieth century by Edward Dolnick 
Examines the dealings of small-time Dutch artist Han van Meegeren (1889-1947), who passed off his works as masterpieces by the seventeenth-century painter Johannes Vermeer, even selling one to Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Analyzes the forger's technique, talent for manipulating people, and trial for treason in Amsterdam. Some strong language. 2008.

DB 93814 Citizen Keane: the big lies behind the big eyes by Adam Parfrey and Cletus Nelson 
Profile of Walter and Margaret Keane, subjects of the 2014 Tim Burton movie Big Eyes, based on Parfrey's 1992 newspaper article of the same title. Examines their lives and works, including the fraud perpetrated by Walter in claiming Margaret's paintings as his own. Strong language, some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2014.

DB 71251 Vanished smile: the mysterious theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti 
Chronicles the 1911 disappearance of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece from Paris's Louvre Museum. Describes the investigation and search for suspects, which included Pablo Picasso and other modernist painters, before the portrait was finally recovered in Florence in 1913. Explores the crime as well as the painting's iconic, universal appeal. 2009.

DBC03893 Master thieves: the Boston gangsters who pulled off the world's great art heist by Stephen Kurkjian 
An award-winning Boston Globe journalist meticulously investigates the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery, exposing the plotters behind the heist, their motives, and details that the FBI has long kept secret.

DB 103290 The woman who stole Vermeer: the true story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House art heist by Anthony M. Amore 
Author of The Art of the Con (DB 83425) profiles Rose Dugdale--debutante and member of the Irish Republican Army--who led the group who stole artwork including work by Johannes Vermeer in 1974 to ransom it. Topics include Vermeer and the IRA in the 1970s. Some violence and some strong language. 2020.

Make any of these your next read on cartridge sent through the mail or download on the go with BARD. BARD, Braille and Audio Reading Download, is a download service provided by the National Library service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) giving all patrons access to almost the entire collection of books and magazines. Patrons can download these books to your mobile device through the BARD Mobile app, to play on a computer with BARD Express, or to a flash drive to play in the player using the BARD website. There are no due dates or expiration dates, and you never have to wait for a book to be returned as everyone can read the same book at the same time. For more information on BARD, contact the Kansas Talking Books office at 1-800-362-0699 or KTB@ks.gov, visit the BARD Resources webpage, or the NLS BARD website.