Yuriko Kuchiki (born 1950) is a Japanese journalist and nonfiction writer who investigates art theft, the art trade, and the history of collecting. Born in Tokyo, she graduated in social sciences from International Christian University, completed its master’s program in public administration, and pursued doctoral studies in political science at Columbia University. She served as deputy editor of the Japanese edition of Esquire from 1987 to 1992 and moved to New York in 1994. Her history of a dealership that sold Japanese and Chinese art to Western collectors and museums, “Hausu obu Yamanaka: Toyo no Shiho o Obei ni Utta Bijutsusho,” traces Yamanaka & Co.’s international expansion and the confiscation of its assets during World War II. Her investigation of the theft of Vermeer’s The Concert from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, “Kieta Ferumeru,” examines other art thefts and the FBI investigation to explore why paintings are stolen and why they can remain hidden for decades.
