The Irish Game: A True Story of Art and Crime

Vermeer, Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens – the Beit art collection was worth millions. For decades Sir Alfred and Lady Beit had lived peacefully at Russborough House in Ireland. Until people started stealing their paintings…Of all the canvases at Russborough, it was Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid that most caught the public’s imagination. Twice stolen, once by an IRA sympathiser and then by notorious gangster Martin Cahill, it risked being lost from view forever, unless the Garda, together with Scotland Yard and some seasoned international art detectives, could contrive the perfect sting…Matthew Hart tells the riveting story of the theft and recovery of some of the world’s most important art, finding new leads and unexpected connections in the mysterious underworld of international art crime.

Reviews of The Irish Game: A True Story of Art and Crime

"Absorbing and fast-moving" — Christopher Hirst Independent "The reader is gripped from the start by the fun of the chase… This book is a fabulous read" Irish Independent "Hart writes, as it were, from the heart – he cares so intimately, knows so much and selects so impeccably" Sunday Times "A "good story", with cops and robbers, terrorists, nincompoops, useful historical background, lurid modern foreground and a style that reanimates the past… Fascinating" Independent on Sunday "Matthew Hart conveys the glamour, adventure, ruthlessness and even murderous nature of the trade with a novelist's grasp of narrative… Excellent" The Times