What do you think?
Rate this book
The Picasso Ransom: and other stories about art and crime in Australia
A collection of forty-five true-crime stories about the visual arts in art theft, art forgery, art censorship, art vandalism, and protest art. The title comes from the famous artnapping of Picasso's Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria. One of the artnapper's demands was an art prize called 'The Picasso Ransom'. While that crime is famous, others stories of crimes, from the colonial to the contemporary, have faded from memory. Amongst them is the first break-in at the Adelaide Art Gallery, an entire exhibition of forged Pollocks, art prosecuted as pornography, decapitated statues, and burnt flags. There are great artists, including Renoir, Rover Thomas, Brett Whitely and Albert Tucker and some notorious criminals, including Murray Farquar, Steven Sellers, and Carl Williams. It is based on extensive research in newspaper archives, observing trials, interviews, and decades of experience in the art world.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 1, 2023
2 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 22, 2023
I enjoyed this a lot, in fact more than I expected. Entertaining and informative anecdotes about various art-related crimes in Australian history. The stories are arranged by themes, with jokey names for each chapter, such as "Self-righteous Pricks" for the chapter on censorship. This was nicely done, as in each case the artists or galleries were accused of crimes (obscenity, usually) while the author shows the real crime was censorship, vandalism, or intimidation.
July 1, 2023
To start with, I have a conflict of interest to declare: my husband is the author of this book, his second. I read some early versions of this and let me tell you, it has shaped up very well indeed! There are lots of fun stories and some of jaw dropping stupidity too. It was a great read and there is a real mix to keep things interesting. Andrew Rule, an Australian journalist who interviewed him for his true crime podcast, said that he devoured this book and thoroughly enjoyed Holsworth'se dry wit. Fortunatlely (or unfortunately), art crimes are still going on in Australia and around the world. so there may be another edition.
May 7, 2023
Even if you know nothing about art, this book is a page turner. The actual Picasso ransom is but one of nearly 50 tales, each selected thematically into logical groups, but never becoming a tiresome catalogue. The style is engaging, witty and opinion rich, it is very well researched but selective to salient details, pithy, penetrating and thought provoking. If you do know anything about art and especially Australian artists many names will be familiar, and the stories will add to your knowledge. It explores the human stories of the artists, and especially the sometimes hilarious tales of the criminals, who vary from really dumb theives to the diabolical and bysantine schemers who's webs of deceit span the globe. Highly recommended.
October 10, 2023
I was familiar with a number of the cases and yet Mark shon a new light on those for me. It’s a well researched and eclectic collection of stories and Mark has a pleasant turn of phrase.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.