Thieves of Baghdad
One Marine's Passion to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
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ISBN10: 1596911468
ISBN13: 9781596911468
Paperback
352 Pages
$18.99
CA$24.99
He is a spit-and-polish Marine, a competitive boxer, a classics scholar, and an assistant DA in Manhattan. When Baghdad fell, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos was in southern Iraq, tracking down terrorist networks through their financing and weapons smuggling—until he heard about the looting of the Iraqi National Museum. Immediately setting out across the desert with an elite group chosen from his multiagency task force, he risked his career and his life in pursuit of Iraq's most priceless treasures.
Thieves of Baghdad takes you from his family's flight to safety at Ground Zero on 9/11, to his mission to hunt down al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, and into the war-torn streets of Baghdad on the trail of antiquities. Colorful characters and double-dealing are the norm as Bogdanos tries to sort out what really happened during the chaos of war. We see his team going on raids and negotiating recoveries, blowing open safes and mingling in the marketplaces, and tracking down leads from Zurich and Amman to Lyons, London, and New York. In an investigation that led to the recovery of more than 5,000 priceless objects, complex threads intertwine, and the suspense mounts as the team works to locate the most sensational treasure of all, the treasure of Nimrud, a collection of gold jewelry and precious stones often called "Iraq's Crown Jewels."
An assessment of the connection between the antiquities trade and weapons smuggling, Thieves of Baghdad exposes sordid truths about the international art and antiquities market.
Reviews
Praise for Thieves of Baghdad
"[Matthew Bogdanos] is everything his new memoir makes him out to be: tough, smart, patriotic, a good father, a loyal fighter, a man of many parts. His sleuthing, courage and hard work in the months after the beginning of the Iraq War helped recover thousands of priceless objects from the ransacked museum."—The Washington Post
"The civilian world's most detailed look at how the thefts unfolded and the behind-the-scenes efforts to recover the priceless antiquities."—USA Today
"Warrior and prosecutor, classicist and amateur boxer, Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos faced one of the great legal and investigative challenges . . . getting to the bottom of the plunder of the National Museum of Iraq."—Chicago Tribune
"Bogdanos . . . has pursued the missing Iraqi antiquities with the same relentless fervor that earned him the nickname 'Pit bull' from the New York tabloids for his dogged prosecution of high-profile defendants like hip-hop impresario Sean Combs."—Art News
"Stolen priceless artifacts, cobwebbed hidden tunnels, an irresistible mystery, and an unstoppable hero. Best of all? It really happened. An incisive, penetrating look at what it truly takes to catch a thief. From war-torn Baghdad to the beauty of Babylon, Bogdanos doesn't just investigate—he attacks, dissects, and reassembles like an obsessive mater puzzlemaker. Part Indiana Jones, part CSI, and most important, all true."—Brad Meltzer
"Thieves of Baghdad is a riveting adventure, packed with wartime intrigue, the unique insights of a brave combatant, and the candor and humor of someone quite comfortable on the front lines, at home and abroad. This adrenaline-charged tale of intrigue proves once again that truth is much stranger—and far more interesting—than fiction. Matthew Bogdanos is a real-life hero, a scholar, and a natural-born storyteller, and he proves it all in this gripping new book."—Linda Fairstein
"A riveting, dramatically paced tale . . . There is YA appeal in the book's forensic themes and crime-scene analysis, a compelling urgency to the band-of-brothers teamwork within the tightly knit task force, and much to relish in vivid passages devoted to the artistic and cultural heritage of Mesopotamia. With refreshing candor, Bogdanos appraises the difficulties of diplomacy, intelligence gathering, and dealing with the media in a combat zone, and assesses formidable obstacles to international prosecution of illicit cross-border trafficking. Quotations from Greek, Latin, and German philosophers and English literature add linguistic appeal. Sixteen pages of color photos lend depth to the reader's sense of the artwork and destruction at the museum and complement the strong personalities described in the narrative."—Lynn Nutwell, School Library Journal
"Beginning with an Indiana Jones-like opening that finds him in the museum's bowels, Bogdanos chronicles a journey fueled by his passion for history and frustrated by erratic record-keeping and factionalism among Iraqis, not to mention the hazards of warfare . . . Bogdanos is a remarkable blend of warrior, academic and communicator, and he cuts through politics and hyperbole to tell an engrossing story abundant with history, colored by stories of brave Iraqis and Americans, and shaded with hope for the future."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)