Steal a work by Piet Mondrian? (8)
I believe the answer is:
abstract
'steal' is the definition.
(abstracting is a kind of stealing)
'a work by piet mondrian?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'work' could be 'act' (synonyms) and 'act' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abstract that I've seen before include "Remove - what isn't tangible" , "Sketchy summary of the main points" , "hard to understand" , "Academic" , "Summary; remove" .)