The different motivation of the greatest looters in history is a theme which is examined throughout the book. From Sargon II who ruled Syria between 721 and 705 BC, Alexander the Great, Cesare Borgia, Gonzales the Spanish conquistador who defeated the Incan Empire, Francis Drake, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Hermann Goering and Adolf Hitler, we eventually reach the twenty-first century where looting continues world wide and hardly a day goes by without news in the media of the latest audacious art theft.