Pre-Owned Treasure Hunt: A New York Times Reporter Tracks the Quedlinberg Hoard (Paperback) 0385332823 9780385332828

Written with the "excitement of a first-class thriller" "Publishers Weekly", this book retraces in gripping detail acclaimed "New York Times" reporter William Honan's odyssey from the New York art world to dusty, rural Texas, in pursuit of priceless art treasures stolen from Nazi Germany by an American G.I. Nearly half a century after the end of World War II, the famous and priceless Quedlinburg treasures were still missing. The Nazis had commandeered this magnificent hoard of medieval artworks and had hidden it in a cave on the outskirts of Quedlinburg - a quaint, cobblestone-paved village in central Germany. But soon after victorious American troops occupied Germany in April 1945, twelve of the treasures - worth more than $200 million in today's market - were found to have suddenly disappeared. For years after, the Quedlinburg case was known as the greatest and longest unsolved art theft of the century. Then, in 1989, William H. Honan, a senior reporter at The New York Times hungry for a high profile case, and Willi Korte, a colorful, wise-cracking German researcher, set out to track down the thief. It began to look like a hopeless task. After so many years, the trail had grown cold, and it seemed as if, should they be lucky enough to discover him, the thief might be ready to kill in order to protect his priceless booty. As the investigators scrutinized the art world and delved into old U.S. Army records, they gathered clues and suspects - some of them more than a little frightening. Then, after a series of hair-raising adventures, Honan made headlines around the world by identifying the thief and leading law enforcement authorities to a desolate, tumble-down farm town in northeastern Texas where the treasures had been hidden. Subsequently, Honan was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in investigative journalism.