The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Thief

“Theres a rush to it, an elevation of the senses. . . . Its a sweet feeling, one Ill never get tired of, not on my twentieth heist, or my fiftieth, or my hundredth.”

Once a promising young rock musician, the son of a decorated policeman, Myles Connor became one of Bostons most notorious criminals—a legendary art thief with irresistible charm and a genius IQ whose approach to his chosen profession mixed brilliant tactical planning with stunning bravado, brazen disguises, audaciously elaborate con jobs, and even the broad-daylight grab-and-dash. New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, Bostons Museum of Fine Art . . .no museum was off-limits. The fact that he was in jail at the time of the largest art theft in American history—the still-unsolved robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum—has not stopped the FBI from considering him a prime suspect. Optioned for film by the Oscar-winning screenwriter and director William Monahan (The Departed), The Art of the Heist is Connors story—part confession, part thrill ride, and impossible to put down.

Myles J. Connor grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, the son of a decorated policeman. During the 1960s and '70s he was the leader of a successful Boston rock-and-roll band, Myles and the Wild Ones. He robbed his first museum when he was twenty years old. Shortly after, he gained notoriety for his daring escape from a Maine jail, and for his involvement in a dramatic shoot-out with Boston police. Connor has planned and executed numerous bank robberies and museum heists, several of which are told here for the first time.

Coauthor Jenny Siler, the author of six novels, first met Myles in the fall of 2007. Together, Jenny and Myles have interviewed many eyewitnesses to the events described in the book. For help in reconstructing and corroborating Myles's story, Jenny has combed through numerous documents, including newspaper archives, police reports, court records, transcripts of FBI interviews, and personal correspondence.