 Chasing Vermeer is a 2004 children 's art mystery novel written by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett <unk> . Set in Hyde Park , Chicago near the University of Chicago , the novel follows two children , Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee . After a famous Johannes Vermeer painting is stolen on route to the Art Institute of Chicago , Calder and Petra work together to try to recover it . The thief publishes many advertisements in the newspaper , explaining that he will give the painting back if the community can discover which paintings under Vermeer 's name were really painted by him . This causes Petra , Calder , and the rest of Hyde Park to examine art more closely . Themes of art , chance , coincidence , deception , and problem @-@ solving are apparent . 
