Update (7/6): I have now finished reading the excellent books by Jim Garrison and Cynthia Saltzman. (See my June 29 blog post below.) These books were so good I want to say a few words about each.

Let’s start with Saltzman. Her book retells the story of how so many works of looted art ended up in the famous Louvre museum in Paris, including Paolo Veronese’s “The Wedding Feast at Cana.” In brief, France stole these works of art after Napoleon’s various military victories across Europe in the late 1790s and early 1800s, but Saltzman also raises an intriguing legal and moral question. Specifically, since most of the stolen works of art that populate the Louvre were ceded by treaty after Napoleon’s victories, should this fact (the existence of a treaty) make any difference as to the legality of Napoleon’s thefts, or are these various treaties themselves null and void because they were imposed by military force?

Next, let’s turn to Garrison, who was the D.A. of New Orleans from 1962 to 1973. His fascinating book is about his three-year investigation into the JFK assassination and the case he brought against Clay Shaw, charging him with conspiracy in the murder of JFK. While the evidence against Clay Shaw is mostly circumstantial, consisting of the testimony of various witnesses who say they saw Shaw and Lee Harvey Oswald together in the months before the assassination, Garrison nevertheless presents a compelling case that Oswald was framed and that JFK’s murder was the result of a conspiracy. I visited the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza two months ago, but I don’t recall if there was any mention of Jim Garrison or Clay Shaw at that museum. If not, this omission needs to be corrected promptly.