When we think of high-value art heists, we envision clever, high-tech capers with a gang of thieves running multiple cons (such as the Ocean’s movies or The Italian Job). In 2017, while writing the first Karina Cardinal mystery, Isabella’s Painting, Ellen Butler interviewed an FBI agent who worked on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum case, and she came away with an eye-opening account of the underground art world. Fascinated, Butler delved further, spending hours researching dozens of the most notorious robberies in history, only to reveal that success in this field is through brute force or dumb luck. Rarely do they include a charming set of thieves stealing for a higher cause, or intricate con jobs with fancy computer hacking, but more often the benefit of poor security measures and situations where outside distractions are at play. To our great luck, Butler will join us to share the secrets of ten of the most infamous art heists in history, including some you know and others you may not from The Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum and The Scream, by Edvard Munch to “The Green Vault” jewelry heist and a movie-worthy theft, from the National Fine Arts Museum in Paraguay.
About Ellen Butler
Ellen Butler is the international bestselling author of the Karina Cardinal mystery series. Her experiences working on Capitol Hill and at a medical association in Washington, D.C. inspired the mystery-action series. Publishers Weekly called the Karina Cardinal mysteries, “intelligent escapism” and InD’Tale Magazine said, “unputdownable adventures that will take readers on an electrifying yet light-hearted and humorous journey.” Butler also writes historical spy fiction. The Brass Compass has won multiple awards for historical fiction including: a Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Award, Indie Reader Discovery Award, and a Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal. The second book in the duology, Operation Blackbird: A Cold War Spy Novel, is inspired by true events, and won a Next Generation Indie Book Award gold medal for historical fiction.
Butler regularly attends events and conferences to share her writing and publishing experiences through workshops, presentations, and panel sessions.
