One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the 21st century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser, is here laid out in broad, at times somewhat clumsy, brushstrokes by journalist Michael Finkel. Over the course of 11 years, Finkel, an American living in the south of France, got to know the prolific Breitwieser, who – along with his partner in both crime and romance, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus – successfully liberated items from over 200 museums and galleries in the 1990s and early 2000s, likely more places than anyone in history.

What makes this spree extraordinary though is that despite it carrying a value estimated at over $2 billion, Breitwieser’s haul was never stolen to be sold off. Instead, these pilfered oil paintings, engraved battle axes and medieval crossbows decorated a pair of small attic rooms in the home he shared with his mother. Finkel works hard to provide some insight into the mindset and motivations of his curious subject, and the story is truly fascinating, but occasionally ponderous prose and some bizarre choices of direction within the book ultimately make it feel like something of a missed opportunity.