Inaccessible to many and incomprehensible to so many others, the high art space reveals its secrets through a person unknown to the general public, on the occasion of the arrest of George S. and the recovery of the legendary Picasso painting.
This person is not the infamous – as it turned out – oil painter, but a Dutch detective with a reputation and exploits that could well become a movie script. And this is what remains, since a book has already been made, the publication of which in Greek is already planned for the immediate future.
The reason for him Arthur Brand, an art historian, who is declared to the tax office as an investigator of crimes in the wider field of art and deals both with the recovery of stolen objects of value, but also with the uncovering of counterfeit works traded on the market. He estimates the value of the more than 200 stolen works he has recovered at more than $300 million.
In Greece, we learned about him widely in the past few days, mainly through tweet of what has lately been fueling the Greek reportage surrounding the theft and recovery of the two paintings by the Greek "artfreak". Having created a network of informants, but also through personal research, Mr Arthur Brand revealed information about George S., giving the impression that the confessed perpetrator had long been known to the Dutch detective, at least from the time of his infiltration as a volunteer in the British police.
It is worth mentioning that - as written by Arthur Brand on his personal Twitter account - the Greek authorities, following the revelations of the Dutch detective, contacted the Dutch police through Interpol, in order to find out more information about the activities of the "artfreak" in the Netherlands.
Arthur Brand's new book, Hitler's Horses, in Greek from OXY publications
Before it was even released in English, in February 2021, Oxy Publications acquired the rights to the latest of his two books Arthur Brand, the Hitler's Horses, with the Greek release set for the first quarter of 2022!
In the Hitler's Horses describes the true story that made him world famous Arthur Brand, that of the discovery of the lost "Hitler's Horses", two life-size bronze horses that stood outside Nazi Germany's Chancellery and were believed to have been destroyed during bombing in World War II.
THE Arthur Brand in his book he describes how he managed to infiltrate the underworld of art and extract information from neo-Nazis, former agents of Ka-Ghe-Be and smugglers of millions about the statues that he finally managed to hand over to the authorities.
The translation and editing of the Greek edition will be done by the historian, professor and director of the Museum of the City of Athens, Stefanos Kavallierakis.