Art Heist / Animal Testing

About the show

In the first half, journalist Michael Finkel joined George Knapp to discuss The Art Thief, his new book on Stéphane Breitweiser, the notorious French art "collector" whose compulsions led him to steal about $2 billion in museum masterpieces. Breitweiser was distinct among other art thieves both in volume —he's known to have stolen from over 300 museums, far more than his colleagues in crime— and in his motivation, said Finkel: he never resold the pieces he stole, but instead kept them because he loves art. Raised in a wealthy family with its own expensive collection, Breitweiser initially stole works of art to get revenge on his father, who took several pieces with him when he left the family. He hated being labeled an art thief, preferring instead to be known as a collector with unorthodox acquisition methods, Finkel explained.

Along with his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, Breitweiser perfected a system of stealing that exploited weaknesses in museum security. They seized on the opportunities presented by lax security guards, gaps in camera coverage, and display cases that were easy to break into. But the couple didn't engage in extensive planning and strategizing: the spontaneity and serendipity of stealing on impulse were part of the thrill.

Incredibly, over their seven-year spree, the criminal duo averaged a theft every twelve days. In contrast to the vast majority of other art thieves, they stole while the museums were open, appearing unassuming as they slipped the priceless pieces into their clothing. There were numerous close calls, Finkel went on, with the couple narrowly escaping encounters with police and museum staff.

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On average, nearly 60,000 dogs are used in experiments each year in the United States, and tens of thousands more are held in laboratory breeding facilities. Commonly, dogs and other animals are used to test the toxicity of various pharmaceutical products, effectively poisoning thousands of animals to determine drugs' levels of fatality. At the end of the experiments, the dogs are typically killed. Zaher Nahle, Senior Scientific Advisor for the Center For a Humane Economy, and Tamara Drake, its Director of Research and Regulatory Policy, joined in the second half to reveal the cruel truth behind medical testing on dogs in the US.

Recently, an 80-year-old statute that mandated the use of animal testing was changed, Drake noted, and regulatory agencies are updating their standards where animals are concerned. While this is good news, added Nahle, the demand for dogs in experimentation is actually increasing because using the animals is more profitable. For Nahle and Drake, the tragedy in this situation is that most animal testing is ineffective and unnecessary.