0:00:15 > 0:00:18If I walked into a museum and did this to one of the Old Masters,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21then understandably you would be horrified.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23But if I walked into the museum,
0:00:23 > 0:00:25lifted the same painting off the wall,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29dodged all of the hi-tech security and spirited it away,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31then perhaps, if you're being honest, a small part of you
0:00:31 > 0:00:34might admire the daredevilry of the act.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39Which begs a question - just what is it about art theft
0:00:39 > 0:00:41that we can't resist?
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Every year, hundreds of thousands of works of art are stolen -
0:00:49 > 0:00:52stolen from homes and galleries in every corner of the world.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57Only a fraction will be returned to their rightful owners.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Now, you might think that none of this really matters.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02I mean, who cares if a few galleries or rich, old men
0:01:02 > 0:01:03lose the odd painting?
0:01:03 > 0:01:06After all, they're works of art, they're probably insured,
0:01:06 > 0:01:07no-one's hurt.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10And we can all still see these paintings at the click of a mouse.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Except I believe that's a load of baloney.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Because original masterpieces are more than paintings,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20they're part of our history.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22And their theft is an assault on all of us,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25robbing us of our cultural heritage bit by bit.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31'I'm going to visit the scenes of these audacious crimes,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34'places all over the world that have lost precious objects
0:01:34 > 0:01:36'that enrich our lives.'
0:01:38 > 0:01:42'I want to know - who are the faceless criminals
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'stealing the world's greatest works of art?
0:01:45 > 0:01:50'Why are they doing it, and why does so little ever return?'
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Welcome to world of international art crime,
0:01:56 > 0:01:59where some of the most beautiful paintings on the planet
0:01:59 > 0:02:02end up in the hands of some pretty nasty people,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05where some of the most expensive paintings anywhere on Earth
0:02:05 > 0:02:08seemingly disappear into thin air,
0:02:08 > 0:02:10and where not everything is as it seems.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Boston, Massachusetts.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27On St Patrick's Day 1990, this city was the site
0:02:27 > 0:02:31of the greatest art theft in history.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Most of the city was partying, but the streets outside
0:02:34 > 0:02:37the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum were quiet.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43The museum is the former home of a wealthy Boston socialite.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46It's America's first great private art collection,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50and was Isabella Stewart Gardner's gift to the people of Boston.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Her museum is packed with artistic treasures
0:02:55 > 0:02:57from all corners of the globe,
0:02:57 > 0:03:03including pictures by Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06But that night 23 years ago,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09the integrity of this beautiful collection would be shattered.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11DOG BARKS
0:03:13 > 0:03:15At 1:24 in the morning,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18a car approaches the employee entrance at the Gardner Museum.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Two guys get out of the car and they ring the buzzer,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24and announce to the guard that they are Boston police
0:03:24 > 0:03:28and they say they're responding to a disturbance.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Against protocol and policy, the guard buzzes them in.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37There were only two guards in the entire museum. One was on the door,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40and the other one was upstairs patrolling the galleries.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44Opening up this side door proved to be a fatal mistake
0:03:44 > 0:03:47because as soon as the robbers - masquerading as policemen -
0:03:47 > 0:03:50were inside, they quickly took charge of the situation.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53They asked the guard to step away from the desk.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Big mistake. Behind that desk was the panic button,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58it was the last line of the museum's defence.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01They then asked him to summon his colleague downstairs,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03and as soon as he arrived, the thieves knew
0:04:03 > 0:04:04they had the entire museum -
0:04:04 > 0:04:09which from the outside seemed so impregnable, this stronghold - at their mercy.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15The fake policemen bundled the guards down the corridor,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19bound their hands and announced, "This is a robbery."
0:04:22 > 0:04:25The biggest art theft in history could begin.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32Among the stolen items were three Rembrandts, one Vermeer,
0:04:32 > 0:04:37five works by Degas, a Manet and, weirdly,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40an eagle from the top of a Napoleonic battle flag.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48In total, 13 works of art, many crudely cut from their frames,
0:04:48 > 0:04:54valued today at 500 million - more than £300 million.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59The value of these pieces... You can't put a price tag on them.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Just because of the history of the museum,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04what Mrs Gardner put in place there.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08These 13 pieces are taken from a collective work of art
0:05:08 > 0:05:09that she left the city.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13And in a real sense, it's a hole in her collection,
0:05:13 > 0:05:14and it's a hole in our hearts,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16not just for the museum but for all of Boston.
0:05:17 > 0:05:23A part of our heritage has been stolen from us. It's a barbaric act.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25JOURNALIST: Given that these pieces are very well-known,
0:05:25 > 0:05:30- who could possibly keep them? - That's a very good question.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34Only probably a person who was determined to keep them
0:05:34 > 0:05:36private for the rest of their life.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42So, what can we say about this extraordinary crime?
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Well, the targets seem to be very particular.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Of all the thousands of works of art inside that building,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53they zeroed in on 13 specific objects.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55So, it seems almost perfect.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57No-one has ever been arrested for the theft,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01none of the art has ever been recovered. In fact, this looks like
0:06:01 > 0:06:06a sophisticated, well-executed, very clever crime.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Exactly the kind of crime we associate with art theft.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18Hollywood has given us a certain image of art crime.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22It's a world of daring thieves, laser trip wires
0:06:22 > 0:06:24and urbane, sophisticated billionaires.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26ALARM SOUNDS
0:06:26 > 0:06:31People like the fictional art thief, and connoisseur, Thomas Crown.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34In the film, he is the classic Hollywood art thief.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38The expensive clothes, the refined good looks,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and the unflappable poise under pressure.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46Crown makes stealing art look stylish, sexy, and glamorous.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48And he only steals the best.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51In this case, an important and valuable Monet.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56And back in the real world, the paintings stolen
0:06:56 > 0:07:01from the Gardner were very important, and very valuable indeed.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05One of the most valuable paintings stolen from the Gardner is this.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08It's The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee by Rembrandt and,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11traditionally, Rembrandt has been very popular amongst art thieves.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14In this instance, the thieves really struck gold
0:07:14 > 0:07:17because this picture, it's Rembrandt's only seascape
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and it even contains a self-portrait of the artist in the midst
0:07:20 > 0:07:24of the melee, holding on to his hat and staring out at the viewer.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28It was painted in 1633, and it depicts a famous biblical scene
0:07:28 > 0:07:31of Jesus with his disciples in a fishing boat
0:07:31 > 0:07:34that's got into all sorts of trouble as it's been struck by a tempest.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38To show off his talent, Rembrandt deliberately decided to depict
0:07:38 > 0:07:41this moment of maximum danger, when all of those disciples
0:07:41 > 0:07:45are about to lose faith, they fear that they're about to die
0:07:45 > 0:07:49only, before, they're then calmed by the contrasting, very calm
0:07:49 > 0:07:52and serene figure of Christ himself sitting in the boat.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56It's an example of a young artist flexing the muscles
0:07:56 > 0:07:59of his artistic powers.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06But The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee isn't the most valuable painting
0:08:06 > 0:08:09in the Gardner loot. That honour belongs to this.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11It's The Concert, by the 17th century Dutch artist
0:08:11 > 0:08:14and contemporary of Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18It's a typical Vermeer scene of well-heeled people
0:08:18 > 0:08:21making music in a very refined, opulent interior.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24But all isn't quite as straightforward as it seems
0:08:24 > 0:08:27because this is very much a world of artifice.
0:08:27 > 0:08:33It contains these paintings within paintings. Two Arcadian landscapes.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35But then, there's this image, this third painting.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39It presents a brothel-goer who's interested in a prostitute
0:08:39 > 0:08:42who's playing a lute, whilst this old crone of a procuress
0:08:42 > 0:08:46is negotiating a fee. Maybe we're meant to try and draw
0:08:46 > 0:08:50some subtle comparisons between them.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53But that sense of complicated open-endedness,
0:08:53 > 0:08:58that sense of sexual intrigue, is the hallmark of Vermeer.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03And in 1892, Isabella Stewart Gardner paid 29,000 francs,
0:09:03 > 0:09:056,000, for this picture.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10Today, it's estimated to be worth 300 million,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12roundabout £184 million.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15This is one of just 36 paintings attributed to Vermeer
0:09:15 > 0:09:19still in existence, and that rarity is right at the heart
0:09:19 > 0:09:20of its stratospheric value.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Almost all the other Vermeers in the world
0:09:23 > 0:09:27belong to one museum or another and none are minded to sell,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30which means that no matter how much money you have,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Vermeer's work is simply unbuyable.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36So in order to acquire it, you'd have to steal it.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40The Gardner theft certainly seems to fit the idea
0:09:40 > 0:09:44of a connoisseur art thief, but there are also puzzles.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47'If you're going to steal a Vermeer,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51'why not steal the equally valuable pictures nearby in the Gardner,
0:09:51 > 0:09:56'like Titian's Rape Of Europa or Michelangelo's Pieta?'
0:09:56 > 0:10:01And why waste time on this odd little finial?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04What's the finial? I've never quite understood this.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07The finial rested atop a Napoleonic flag
0:10:07 > 0:10:08from his first regiment.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10- So it's just a kind of ornament at the top?- Yeah.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15- And not actually worth very much money at all?- Exactly.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20The more you look at it, the more curious this robbery seems.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24The varied, mismatched collection of stolen art suggests to me
0:10:24 > 0:10:28that if a connoisseur was indeed behind this, then he - or she -
0:10:28 > 0:10:33appears to have had very specific, even idiosyncratic tastes.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Presumably they, or the mysterious, shadowy power
0:10:38 > 0:10:41that was paying them to commit the crime,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44had a particular love for Rembrandt and Vermeer
0:10:44 > 0:10:48as well as a keen interest, presumably, in Napoleonic history,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51hence that unremarkable finial that went missing.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56So, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this couldn't be
0:10:56 > 0:10:58an opportunistic, random act.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02It must have been a very precise and deliberate crime.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Nine years after the Gardner, another museum was hit.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15And again, the robbery had all the hallmarks
0:11:15 > 0:11:17of a Thomas Crown-type heist.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20- NEWSREADER:- 'Police have revealed more details
0:11:20 > 0:11:22'about the theft of a £3 million Cezanne painting
0:11:22 > 0:11:24'from a museum in Oxford'
0:11:24 > 0:11:25on New Year's Day.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29They believe the landscape was stolen by professional art thieves
0:11:29 > 0:11:32from the Ashmolean Museum for a private collector.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Picture the scene: Oxford, eve of the millennium.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43And just like in Boston, the whole city's out partying on the streets.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Up on the rooftops, skulking about in the shadows,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49a thief is going about his business.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Now, police have got a theory. They think that this thief
0:11:52 > 0:11:55took advantage of scaffolding to get up onto the roof
0:11:55 > 0:11:59of the Ashmolean Museum and he made his way across
0:11:59 > 0:12:02till he found the skylight that he was looking for,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04and he removed a section of the glass
0:12:04 > 0:12:08and, using a rope ladder, then lowered himself into the museum.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15The thief dropped a smoke canister which set off the fire alarm.
0:12:15 > 0:12:16ALARM SOUNDS
0:12:16 > 0:12:19But that meant guards couldn't enter the gallery -
0:12:19 > 0:12:22fire regulations prevented it. Quick, cunning,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26and with a particularly inventive use of a smoke bomb.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30You can see why it reminded so many of The Thomas Crown Affair.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34This was the thief's target,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37The View Of Auvers Sur Oise by Paul Cezanne.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Cezanne is an exceptionally important figure in modern art.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Picasso called him "the father of us all"
0:12:45 > 0:12:49because he laid the foundations for the radical developments of cubism.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55He's not replicating the real world in any illusionistic fashion.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Instead, you start to see Cezanne
0:12:57 > 0:13:01putting down in places these careful, parallel brushstrokes,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05leaving patches of canvas bare. He's placing blocks and dabs
0:13:05 > 0:13:09of colour next to each other, like a kind of patchwork.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11"This is artifice," he's saying,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13"this is a work of art. It isn't the real world."
0:13:13 > 0:13:16And that was what he would be remembered for,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19so this is why it's an important picture because
0:13:19 > 0:13:22it's a transitional canvas leading towards the great art
0:13:22 > 0:13:24that Cezanne produced towards the end of his life.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30So, the Ashmolean theft looks like an example
0:13:30 > 0:13:33of a professional art thief, stealing to order
0:13:33 > 0:13:35for a Cezanne enthusiast.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39One man whom I hope can shed light on this shadowy figure
0:13:39 > 0:13:43is Dick Ellis, who set up the Met's Art and Antiques Squad,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47and is now one of Britain's most successful art crime investigators.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50In your career, have you ever come across
0:13:50 > 0:13:54some nefarious billionaire who has commissioned some criminals
0:13:54 > 0:13:56to steal a work of art to order
0:13:56 > 0:14:01- so that he, or she, can venerate this piece at home in private?- No.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05- Never?- Never. I think it's...you know, it's a lovely concept,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08but it's not the reality.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11- It's fiction?- Complete fiction.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14So the mysterious private collector, on whom this crime
0:14:14 > 0:14:18was initially pinned, is about as real as Thomas Crown himself.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20Life isn't like the movies.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23But who, then, has been stealing art from museums
0:14:23 > 0:14:26like the Gardner and the Ashmolean?
0:14:26 > 0:14:29Who was stealing it? Well, these were people who had previously
0:14:29 > 0:14:31been doing armed robberies.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34A lot of the time, they were organised crime groups,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38these were people who had made career decisions. They're at the age
0:14:38 > 0:14:40when people were leaving school and thinking,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44"Am I going into insurance? Am I going into...you know, whatever?"
0:14:44 > 0:14:47These people made career choices that they were going into crime.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51- So they're nasty sorts?- They were professional criminals.- Tough people.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55'So, the reality is rather different and more mundane.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58'We're dealing with everyday criminals,
0:14:58 > 0:15:00'not billionaire connoisseurs.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03'And presumably, these criminals believe they can
0:15:03 > 0:15:06'sell the paintings back onto the legitimate art market.'
0:15:08 > 0:15:10'One organisation has been set up specifically
0:15:10 > 0:15:14'to prevent them from doing so.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17'The Art Loss Register is the world's biggest database
0:15:17 > 0:15:21'of stolen art. It's run by Julian Radcliffe.'
0:15:23 > 0:15:27'His mission is to help return stolen paintings like this one,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30'to their legitimate - and grateful - owners.'
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Standard Dutch school of that sort of time.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37'The register also tracks art thefts from around the world,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40'in order to choke off the trade in stolen paintings.'
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Every year we search about 400,000 items
0:15:45 > 0:15:47looking for those that are stolen.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Those searches are what produce the actual matches
0:15:51 > 0:15:52which are on that board.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58If you say, "What is the overall recovery rate of stolen art?",
0:15:58 > 0:16:02it is disappointing, it's probably only 15%.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06- It's a very...very small fraction. - It is.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09The effect of the register is to make it difficult for stolen art
0:16:09 > 0:16:12to be sold for cash on the legitimate market, so criminals
0:16:12 > 0:16:17must be finding other ways to convert their thefts into money.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21They realise some cash value in the underworld.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24There's a criminal and he owes you a million dollars,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27he only has half a million dollars, he'll give the picture and say,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30"I'll get the other half a million dollars next week.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32"You keep the picture in the meantime."
0:16:32 > 0:16:33We know that that happens.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38'This is very different to the idea of
0:16:38 > 0:16:42'a billionaire aficionado stealing art for the love of it.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47'It's not simply about selling art back onto the market.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50'It seems that art can be used by thieves
0:16:50 > 0:16:52'as a kind of underworld currency,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55'greasing the wheels of the criminal economy.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58'And that explains why great paintings
0:16:58 > 0:17:01'have been targeted for decades.'
0:17:01 > 0:17:0460 million, 61 million...
0:17:04 > 0:17:05The more valuable art is,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09the greater weight it carries as collateral for criminals.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12As the art market has risen over the past 60 years,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16it's little wonder that art thefts have also increased.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20The work of some artists has shot up in value by 1,000%
0:17:20 > 0:17:23since the late 1950s and since then,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26the record for the most expensive painting at auction
0:17:26 > 0:17:28has been broken more than ten times.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31As art prices rose,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35the near impossibility of selling paintings on didn't deter criminals.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Quite the opposite.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Starting in 1960, there were world records prices for Picasso,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Cezanne and Rembrandt that were announced on television.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46And dutifully watching television, like the rest of us,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48were members of organised crime groups
0:17:48 > 0:17:53and they stole exactly what they saw on television was valuable.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57MUSIC: "C'e Un Tic" by Zerosospiro
0:18:00 > 0:18:04'In 1969, here in Sicily, a TV programme was broadcast
0:18:04 > 0:18:08'which attracted the attention of the local criminal fraternity,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11'and it featured the work of one of Europe's most celebrated
0:18:11 > 0:18:13'and notorious artists,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17'who, by the time he arrived here in the early 17th century,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21'was on the run, wanted for murder. Caravaggio.'
0:18:23 > 0:18:25He was famously arrogant, tempestuous,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28forever getting into sword fights and brawls.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31There's this great anecdote about how he once
0:18:31 > 0:18:33threw a plate of scalding artichokes over a waiter
0:18:33 > 0:18:36because he thought the waiter had disrespected him.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39But he was also an unbelievably gifted artist,
0:18:39 > 0:18:41a genius who was decades ahead of his time.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52It's wonderful coming to Italy because elsewhere,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55masterpieces, they get cordoned off in museums and galleries,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58but here, some of the greatest paintings in the world
0:18:58 > 0:19:00still hang in these tiny churches that commissioned them,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04like this place. The Oratory of Saint Lorenzo
0:19:04 > 0:19:05in the heart of Palermo.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09But whilst that's a blessing, obviously, it can also be a curse,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14because, one night in 1969, two men saw this church
0:19:14 > 0:19:18featured in a television programme about Italy's artistic treasures.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Inside, they learned, was one of the final works of Caravaggio.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25So they decided to take a closer look.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Ludovico Gippetto is a local art historian.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18This is really quite an odd experience for me because usually
0:20:18 > 0:20:22I'd come into a space like this to rhapsodise about a work of art.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27But this isn't a real masterpiece, this, obviously is a replica
0:20:27 > 0:20:31of a Caravaggio, of his Nativity which he painted for this very space
0:20:31 > 0:20:36in 1609 when he was on the run in Sicily just a year before his death.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42And it's better I guess than just having bare brick
0:20:42 > 0:20:44and staring at an empty frame.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50This is a scene, a stock religious scene,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53where the Virgin Mary has given birth to Christ.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Caravaggio is injecting this brutal note of realism,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02there is nothing prettified here.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Even the Virgin herself,
0:21:04 > 0:21:09well, she doesn't look like she's glowing with divine inspiration,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11aware of what she's just done.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Instead, she is completely exhausted.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19But she's staring down, despite that exhaustion, with tenderness,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23at her child who has just been plonked on the floor beneath her.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Following the theft, there were several questions.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Who were the thieves and what were their motives?
0:21:34 > 0:21:38This being Sicily, one organisation quickly came under suspicion.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Italian police estimate that half a million works of art
0:22:17 > 0:22:20have been stolen in Italy over the last four decades.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26And this confirms what Julian Radcliffe of the Art Loss Register told me -
0:22:26 > 0:22:30that stolen art works as a criminal currency.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33The ordinary foot soldiers of the Mafia have been stealing paintings
0:22:33 > 0:22:36to sustain their criminal activities for years.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43But the theft of this Nativity was so outrageous,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46it spurred the Italian state into action.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50They established the world's first specialist art crime department.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54One of its leaders was General Giovanni Pastore.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57I start by asking him what we know for certain about this case.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16For years there was silence.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Then slowly, repentant Mafia soldiers began to talk.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23And what they said was alarming.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29One, Gaspare Spatuzza, claimed the Nativity was used as a trophy
0:23:29 > 0:23:34by Mafia bosses, and took pride of place at secret mob gatherings.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37However, he also claimed that after it was damaged,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39the bosses judged it worthless.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46So it was doused in petrol and set alight.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51But Giovanni is unconvinced by the claims of former Mafiosi.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Giovanni won't be drawn.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20This is clearly a case full of cul de sacs and false leads.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22You've investigated this for many years.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26In your opinion, what do you think has happened to the painting?
0:24:54 > 0:24:58It's been decades now since anyone laid eyes on this painting.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03I get the feeling from talking to Giovanni that all the rumours
0:25:03 > 0:25:05surrounding its whereabouts are just that -
0:25:05 > 0:25:11rumours, stories from former Mafiosi which may or may not be true.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17I can't help thinking the chances of ever seeing the painting again,
0:25:17 > 0:25:19in all its glory, are slim.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31The FBI have valued the lost painting at round about 20 million,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34which I suspect may even be an underestimate.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38But still, standing here, monetary value is totally immaterial
0:25:38 > 0:25:42because instead of a brilliant picture which was designed
0:25:42 > 0:25:44specifically for this space four centuries ago,
0:25:44 > 0:25:49we're left with this milky approximation of the original.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52It's...it's a sickly ghost of a masterpiece.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54And why has this happened, for what?
0:25:54 > 0:25:58So that some gangsters can show off a trophy to a bunch of other gangsters?
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Or maybe use the painting as collateral to finance
0:26:01 > 0:26:05some of these horrific crimes which have scarred the island?
0:26:05 > 0:26:10I know Caravaggio was no stranger to criminality, but still here,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14there's no doubt that his blazing, incandescent genius
0:26:14 > 0:26:18has been extinguished utterly by the gloom of the Sicilian underworld.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34So if the Mafia was behind the Caravaggio theft,
0:26:34 > 0:26:38it makes me wonder just who was really behind the Gardner heist.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Are those paintings now circulating among Boston's criminal underworld?
0:26:46 > 0:26:49I'm on my way to meet one man who might know.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52He's spent decades stealing art.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56And he claims he has inside knowledge of the Gardner theft.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03Myles Connor is a legendary figure in the world of art theft.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06A member of Mensa, and a former rock and roll singer
0:27:06 > 0:27:09who once played alongside the Beach Boys and Chuck Berry.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13And who became one of the most prolific art thieves in New England.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17He has agreed to meet me at his attorney's office
0:27:17 > 0:27:21in the Boston suburbs, and in the lobby, there are promising signs
0:27:21 > 0:27:23I may have come to the right place.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Hi, hello.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Myles. Alastair! Great to meet you.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33You know this guy here?
0:27:33 > 0:27:36- I don't, but you must be Marty. - Marty Leppo.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38- Very good to meet you too. - Nice meeting you.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40It's kind of weird for me. Because I'm an art critic.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43And you know, you're the most notorious art thief in America.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46You're like the super-villain of my world.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51One of Myles's most famous crimes was the theft of Rembrandt's
0:27:51 > 0:27:53Girl Wearing a Gold Trimmed Coat
0:27:53 > 0:27:56from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in 1975.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02The story of how he did it is hair-raising.
0:28:02 > 0:28:08I had grabbed the painting off the wall and then made my exit
0:28:08 > 0:28:11out, down the stairs, out to the back.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15There was a phalanx of guards that pursued me.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20But there was one guard, a retired Boston police officer,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Polish, he grabbed the painting,
0:28:23 > 0:28:25and he would not let go of the painting.
0:28:25 > 0:28:31My friend hit the guy on the head with the barrel of the machinegun.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35As the saying goes,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38he could have done a lot worse. Then we took off.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Myles didn't sell this painting on the open market.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46He had another way of making money,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49brokering its return for a cash reward.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52- You mean you got a cash reward? - Mm-hm.- What was it?
0:28:52 > 0:28:57I think it was...ten... This is kind of a sensitive issue.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01- But I think it was 10,000. - Hang on...- Back in the '70s.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05- Crime isn't supposed to pay, Myles. - Oh, yes.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08And you look like a man who believes that it can.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11Well, obviously it can.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Myles's career is proof that there is value in a stolen painting,
0:29:16 > 0:29:21even if it is too famous to sell on the legitimate market.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26And as his career progressed, he began to focus on another target -
0:29:26 > 0:29:28The Gardner Museum.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31I had targeted the Gardner,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34for a while, cased it up.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37Beside the Gardner, there's trees
0:29:37 > 0:29:41and many a night I stayed up in the trees,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44getting an outline and looking in the windows at night,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47to see what kind of rounds the guards made at night.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50I was going to take down the museum,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54with two of my friends,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57and then I got grabbed by the Feds.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03Myles ended up in jail for a crime unrelated to the Gardner
0:30:03 > 0:30:06but this didn't stop the museum being robbed...
0:30:08 > 0:30:12..he claims, by two of his associates.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15It was done by my friends,
0:30:15 > 0:30:21and they did it because I had planned it along with them.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25- Are those friends still alive? - No, one died from a heart attack.
0:30:25 > 0:30:30The other fellow was found decapitated in the trunk of his car.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34'I'm getting a real sense now of the true nature of art crime.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39'It's dangerous and squalid, murky, not at all like the movies.'
0:30:40 > 0:30:43I wouldn't call it a glamorous crime,
0:30:43 > 0:30:50but it's a little above the more mundane crimes.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55And do you think of yourself as some sort of connoisseur?
0:30:55 > 0:30:59I had a large collection of Japanese art. And, er...
0:31:00 > 0:31:06- Legitimately.- So in that respect, I am a connoisseur.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08I don't think it's quite what you're selling it as.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12It's... For me, it's that moment of your accomplice
0:31:12 > 0:31:15shoving the machinegun butt into a legitimate guard's face,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18as you are running away with a Rembrandt
0:31:18 > 0:31:20depriving that from the walls of the museum.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22- That's just indefensible. - It was...
0:31:22 > 0:31:26- sheer stupidity on his part. - On the guard's part?
0:31:26 > 0:31:29- Yes.- This is madness! This is madness.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32No, it's not madness, it's reality.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Do you feel penitent?
0:31:34 > 0:31:36No, I don't feel penitent
0:31:36 > 0:31:38because in most of the cases,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43what I took was returned.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46The sad thing here is that the paintings were stolen, possibly
0:31:46 > 0:31:49according to your plan, Myles, and they have essentially been lost.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54It's just not right, I mean, I feel kind of confused, actually.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01Myles has helped me to understand the world an art thief inhabits.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04It's a brutal, transactional business,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07in which the fate of stolen paintings can never be guaranteed.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15There's one thing that's clear - he is adamant it was his plan
0:32:15 > 0:32:18to heist the Gardner that was followed.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20And that his accomplices did it,
0:32:20 > 0:32:23and in a sense if he hadn't been in jail that time,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26then he would have been the man carrying out that theft
0:32:26 > 0:32:30and the funny thing is, perhaps they would have been recovered by now.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40Is that the real lesson from Myles?
0:32:40 > 0:32:44If there is a reward on offer, paintings can be returned.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Some criminals are up for making a deal.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49And for one tantalising moment,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52it seemed like that might just happen in Boston.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58It's now been 23 years since those paintings were stolen
0:32:58 > 0:33:00from the Gardner Museum, and during all that time,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03there's only one man outside the criminal fraternity
0:33:03 > 0:33:06who claims to have actually set eyes on them.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08His name is Tom Mashberg and back then
0:33:08 > 0:33:12he was an investigative reporter for the Boston Herald
0:33:12 > 0:33:14and he's the man I'm on my way to meet now.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20Tom's involvement in the case came five years after the heist,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23when the Gardner, desperate for any leads at all,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27upped their reward for information to 5 million.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31Tom knew that sort of money might flush out the thieves.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34And not long afterwards, his phone rang.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38One night when I was working late at The Herald -
0:33:38 > 0:33:42it was a Saturday evening and I was working on my notes on this case -
0:33:42 > 0:33:46I got a call and, basically, I was told that if I appeared
0:33:46 > 0:33:49outside the newspaper's front door around midnight,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52I could get a ride to see something interesting.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Frankly, I felt a little bit like it was a little silly, almost,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04as if I couldn't really take it that seriously.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07It was sort of like a midnight drive.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10People always ask if I was blindfolded, which I wasn't,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14but that sort of gives you a sense of how odd it seemed.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18We wound up at a location... I mean, it's somewhat similar to this,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20it's sort of an industrial area.
0:34:20 > 0:34:26We're basically led up to the front entrance of this very dark warehouse.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30With a flashlight, we went up three flights of stairs.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33I remember counting the flights of stairs.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36And we walked down towards a specific locker.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39The only thing in there was this trolley in which there were
0:34:39 > 0:34:44various boxes and packages and three or four large tubes, cardboard tubes.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48- So your heart's beating a little faster?- Yeah, I'm thinking
0:34:48 > 0:34:51- this is a little more interesting. - A career-defining moment!- Right!
0:34:53 > 0:34:58The person I'm with goes in and opens the top off one of the tubes,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01and sort of, you know, lets out the item,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04he has to sort of pull back so that it slides out
0:35:04 > 0:35:09and he holds it up and he kinda unfurls it, like this.
0:35:09 > 0:35:15So he just sort of holds it open, and it kind of rolls open before my eyes
0:35:15 > 0:35:19and there is the painting - The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24While he's holding, he's got the flashlight in his hand
0:35:24 > 0:35:28and he's beaming the flashlight around so I can look at it.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31That was sort of the ta-dah moment.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39Here's the painting, there we go, this is the stolen Rembrandt.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Did you say anything?
0:35:41 > 0:35:46Well, I-I... I wanted to touch it or I wanted to take...
0:35:46 > 0:35:49But I was sort of getting a lot of body language,
0:35:49 > 0:35:51like, don't get too close.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55You go into this dark warehouse and someone, just for a minute,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58shows you a painting with a couple of splashes of light,
0:35:58 > 0:36:00if they're really wanted you to know it was the painting,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03turn on the light, here's the painting, inspect it front and back,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07you can look for some key hallmarks and then you can report that back.
0:36:07 > 0:36:08No question.
0:36:08 > 0:36:14Everything always had to be done in a more shadowy, more secretive way
0:36:14 > 0:36:16than would really seem logical.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19On the 27th of August, 1997,
0:36:19 > 0:36:24Tom's late night encounter in the warehouse became front page news.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32But the Gardner Museum was sceptical
0:36:32 > 0:36:37and Tom's contact never invited him to see the paintings again.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41The opportunity to get them back, if that's what it was, had passed.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45The reward remained uncollected.
0:36:47 > 0:36:48I can only say that,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52given the context of everything I was going through at the time,
0:36:52 > 0:36:55of all of the people I was talking to,
0:36:55 > 0:37:00of how the FBI itself was pursuing the same characters I was pursuing,
0:37:00 > 0:37:05suggests to me that that was the closest opportunity the museum had
0:37:05 > 0:37:08to actually recover the objects.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13Tom's story is so good, you really want to believe that it's true,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16but, ultimately, it's unprovable.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18Over the years, there have been so many different theories
0:37:18 > 0:37:22about who might have stolen or might have received these paintings.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25Leafing through them all, thinking about them,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27it's like reading this kind of rogues gallery.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30Investigators have chased down leads in Connecticut,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33in New York, in Japan, in Ireland.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36They've had all these different prime suspects.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40People like James Whitey Bulger, the criminal kingpin of south Boston,
0:37:40 > 0:37:41even the IRA, who, surprisingly,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44have been no strangers to art theft in their time.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48But every single one of these leads has ultimately gone cold,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52or proved to be a complete dead end.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00Who knows whether the Gardner thieves are dead or alive,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03or whether Tom Mashberg was shown the real Rembrandt?
0:38:04 > 0:38:06One thing we can say about this robbery,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08and all the others I've looked into,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11is that the whereabouts of the loot remains a mystery.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18But here in Amsterdam, there is an example of another kind of heist
0:38:18 > 0:38:21in which the thieves were quickly apprehended.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Where the loot may well resurface.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29And where it may transpire that crime can pay,
0:38:29 > 0:38:32to the tune of millions of dollars.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46Thieves have stolen two paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49A spokeswoman for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
0:38:49 > 0:38:53said they were snatched early this morning after the thieves got in through the roof.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58It's funny coming to the museum
0:38:58 > 0:39:00because, of course, it feels remarkably solid -
0:39:00 > 0:39:04it's a big building and it feels impregnable.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06It brings home quite how daring you would have to be
0:39:06 > 0:39:09to come in here and actually nick one of these paintings off the walls
0:39:09 > 0:39:14and it's that chutzpah, that dare-devilry, that partially accounts
0:39:14 > 0:39:17for why thefts like the one that took place here in 2002
0:39:17 > 0:39:20have this remarkable hold over the public imagination.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28In December 2003, a year after the break in,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31police investigators arrested two men
0:39:31 > 0:39:34who were well known in Amsterdam's petty crime scene.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38Henk Bieslyn and his accomplice Octave Durham,
0:39:38 > 0:39:43who was nicknamed The Monkey because of his ability to evade capture.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47But despite their arrest, there was no sign of the stolen Van Goghs.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53These were the paintings they stole -
0:39:53 > 0:39:55The View Of The Sea At Sheveningen
0:39:55 > 0:39:57and Congregation Leaving The Reformed Church At Nuenen.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01This is a period known as his dark years
0:40:01 > 0:40:05because his paintings were still dominated by these autumn colours -
0:40:05 > 0:40:07russets, browns, potato-like creams, ochres.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12This seascape was fashioned from these really thick gobs of paint,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14some of which still contain
0:40:14 > 0:40:17these little flecks and grains of sand from the beach that's depicted.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21And this picture commemorates the main church at Nuenen
0:40:21 > 0:40:22where his father served as a pastor
0:40:22 > 0:40:26and it means that it has quite a personal significance.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30Van Gogh is one of the most valuable artists in the world
0:40:30 > 0:40:34and, together, they're valued at around 30 million, or £20 million.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45These paintings are certainly expensive, to me and you at least.
0:40:45 > 0:40:46But in this museum,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49they are not the most valuable paintings on the walls.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Of course, it's slightly strange that if you were the thief
0:40:53 > 0:40:55and you made it in here,
0:40:55 > 0:40:59you wouldn't go for this, the most famous painting in the building?
0:41:01 > 0:41:03So why did the thieves,
0:41:03 > 0:41:09en route to stealing two relatively unknown Van Goghs, not grab this,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12or this, or maybe even this?
0:41:15 > 0:41:17As an art critic,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20I don't often interview people who want to remain anonymous
0:41:20 > 0:41:24but because of his past as an undercover detective,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27the museum's head of security insisted upon it.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Why did they take the two paintings that they did?
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Because they seem like surprising choices.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38The thing was they were the first two paintings in the catalogue
0:41:38 > 0:41:41from that time as the 100 masterpieces and they were
0:41:41 > 0:41:43- the first two in there. - What, so it's almost the case
0:41:43 > 0:41:45that the thieves got the book...
0:41:45 > 0:41:48- First two.- "I'll just take those"?
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Well, we don't know that for sure, but that's the only link we see.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56In 2004, the men behind the theft were found guilty
0:41:56 > 0:42:00and each sentenced to less than five years in jail.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Throughout the trial and even today as free men,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06they have refused to divulge any information
0:42:06 > 0:42:08about the whereabouts of the paintings.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12No, the case is totally dead. The thieves are sentenced and free again
0:42:12 > 0:42:14and nobody knows where the paintings are. We still...
0:42:14 > 0:42:15The case is dead?
0:42:15 > 0:42:20The case, yes. For the police, it's a solved case.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23With the exception that the goods are not found back yet. That's it.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30That's it for the police, but maybe not for the thieves.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35Because there is a bizarre, little-known loophole in Dutch law.
0:42:35 > 0:42:36A loophole that could see them
0:42:36 > 0:42:40become the rightful owners of the paintings they stole.
0:42:40 > 0:42:46There's no ransom involved. No dodgy deals with criminal associates.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49All they have to do is nothing.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51There is another hypothesis here, isn't there?
0:42:51 > 0:42:55Because there's a strange quirk, a loophole in Dutch law
0:42:55 > 0:42:59which says that if you own a stolen object,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03if you own it for 30 years, then legally, you then do own it for real.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06So there is a theory, as I understand it,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09that these two petty thieves who stole the paintings
0:43:09 > 0:43:11and haven't said a word,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14did it, aware of that loophole in the law,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17served their time which was, you know, four years,
0:43:17 > 0:43:18but, in the big scheme of things,
0:43:18 > 0:43:21if they can keep those paintings in their possession hidden,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25they suddenly are owners of paintings worth a huge amount of money?
0:43:26 > 0:43:28Yeah, that could be a possibility
0:43:28 > 0:43:30and a thought of those two perpetrators.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33It seems to me, as a layman, utterly bizarre
0:43:33 > 0:43:35that there is this position in law at all.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40I agree, er, to own stolen goods, that should not be possible.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46So by playing a 30-year game, have Mr Monkey and his accomplice
0:43:46 > 0:43:50actually carried out the perfect art crime?
0:43:50 > 0:43:53As it is, there's no reward on offer from the museum,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56there's no insurance company eager to get these paintings back,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59so they're just lost in this sordid criminal underworld. Who knows
0:43:59 > 0:44:03how they're going to be recovered in the end? Perhaps, after all, Mr Monkey and his friend,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06they're suddenly going to produce the paintings when,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08strange as it may sound, it's so perverse,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10they might legally actually own them.
0:44:18 > 0:44:19The desirability of a painting
0:44:19 > 0:44:23has not always been defined by its financial worth.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37Historically, the largest art thefts have been carried out
0:44:37 > 0:44:39not by individuals, but by armies.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44And when they steal, it's not about the money.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47It's about ownership and status,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49and claiming the art of a vanquished nation.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Here in Belgium, there is a work of art
0:44:56 > 0:45:00that some consider to be the most important painting ever.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04Perhaps that's why it is also the most stolen painting in history.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11Today it sits, heavily protected behind bulletproof glass,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13in St Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28I'm bowled over by the scale of this thing.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33I didn't quite realise how big the Ghent Altarpiece was going to be.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39That initial impact, nothing can quite prepare you for that,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41even if you've seen it in reproduction.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Even with two panels away being restored,
0:45:46 > 0:45:51it's still an overwhelming display of exquisite technique and detail.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55It was begun in the 1420s, probably,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58by a little unknown artist called Hubert Van Eyck,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01completed after Hubert's death in 1426
0:46:01 > 0:46:05by his much more famous brother, Jan Van Eyck, and it's considered
0:46:05 > 0:46:08not just one of the splendours of the northern renaissance,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12it's considered one of the real splendours of the entire tradition of western painting,
0:46:12 > 0:46:17in part, because it sits at this joint, if you like, it's on the cusp
0:46:17 > 0:46:23between medieval painting and then the new Renaissance style.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25And that's why ever since it was painted,
0:46:25 > 0:46:30it's been one of the most famous and also, as a result,
0:46:30 > 0:46:33one of the most coveted paintings in the world.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39In the 600 years since it was painted,
0:46:39 > 0:46:45the Ghent Altarpiece has been stolen, in whole or in part, seven times.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Napoleon nicked it, and Hitler got his hands on it, too.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54Each wanted to own a unique piece of European history.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59But for eight decades,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03part of this magnificent work of art has been missing.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08One of its panels is a reproduction.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13And the panel in question, is this one down here.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15It's known as the Righteous Judges.
0:47:15 > 0:47:1780 years ago, it was stolen
0:47:17 > 0:47:23in a plot to hold the church authorities in Ghent to ransom.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26It was a plot which went terribly wrong.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31The story of its theft and the investigation into its recovery,
0:47:31 > 0:47:37is so far fetched, it feels like a piece of fiction, a thriller.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46On the evening of the 10th of April 1934,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50passers-by witnessed something suspicious at St Bavo's Cathedral.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57Art historian Noah Charney has pieced together what happened that night.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Someone saw a light on.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05Shortly after that, someone else spotted two men dressed all in black
0:48:05 > 0:48:07carrying something that looked like a panel
0:48:07 > 0:48:10wrapped in black cloth into a waiting car
0:48:10 > 0:48:11and it drove off into the night.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22Despite eyewitness accounts,
0:48:22 > 0:48:24the police appeared to have no real leads
0:48:24 > 0:48:28until the Bishop of Ghent received a ransom note a couple of days later.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33The ransom demand was one million Belgian francs -
0:48:33 > 0:48:36more than £600,000 today.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40But with the official line that no ransom be paid,
0:48:40 > 0:48:42the case ground to a halt
0:48:42 > 0:48:46until a few months later when there was a bizarre turn of events.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50After suffering a massive heart attack,
0:48:50 > 0:48:57a stockbroker called Arsene Goedertier insisted on speaking alone to his lawyer.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00With his last breath, Arsene Goedertier whispered,
0:49:00 > 0:49:04"I'm the last man on Earth to know the location of the Judges panel."
0:49:04 > 0:49:07His last words were, "Armoire. Key."
0:49:07 > 0:49:11He died before he could reveal anything further.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15Arsene Goedertier's wardrobe was searched by his lawyer,
0:49:15 > 0:49:18who found a key which unlocked a drawer.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21And he found carbon copies of all of the ransom notes,
0:49:21 > 0:49:26plus a final unsent ransom note that had a line in it to the effect
0:49:26 > 0:49:30that no-one, not even I, can recover the Judges panel
0:49:30 > 0:49:31without attracting public attention.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33So what does that tell us?
0:49:33 > 0:49:37Well, it tells us that, circa 1934,
0:49:37 > 0:49:40the panel was hidden somewhere in plain sight,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42or in the midst of a public space.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50But the investigation was interrupted by war when the Germans invaded Belgium in 1940.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53They plundered Europe's art.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58Hitler coveted the Ghent Altarpiece, despite its missing panel.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00The Nazis stole Van Eyck's masterpiece,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04storing it alongside thousands of looted treasures.
0:50:04 > 0:50:10'The 101st Airborne Division uncovers Hermann Goering's personal art collection... '
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Following the Nazi defeat, the altarpiece was returned to Ghent
0:50:16 > 0:50:18where the investigation could continue.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24The case remains unsolved to this day
0:50:24 > 0:50:27and all new leads are considered.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33One recent tip-off led investigators to this church -
0:50:33 > 0:50:36St Gertrude's, just outside Ghent.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41The long-dead suspect, Arsene Goedertier, used to play the organ here.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47It was down to Detective Jan De Kesel to investigate.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Jan, this is all a little bit surreal.
0:50:56 > 0:50:57Why have you brought me here?
0:50:57 > 0:51:03Well, we are here at the back of the altar.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06You see here a space and opening
0:51:06 > 0:51:13and it's the same size of the missing panel, er, the Judges.
0:51:13 > 0:51:19What, so there's a theory that the Righteous Judges once was hidden here in this cavity?
0:51:19 > 0:51:22It's possible because Arsene Goedertier,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26he lived here, 200 metres from here.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29In this church, he was the organist,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32he knew the existence of this room.
0:51:32 > 0:51:37If the panel was here once, it clearly isn't any more.
0:51:37 > 0:51:43I can't help feeling the Belgian police have not made much progress in the last eight decades.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47Do you feel in your gut that you're going to get it back?
0:51:47 > 0:51:55Well, deep in my heart, I hope one day we find it back.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57Well, hope is a very different thing.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59I mean, do you have the conviction that you will get it back?
0:51:59 > 0:52:01You don't sound like you're very close to it.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03Well, in those ten years,
0:52:03 > 0:52:09we had so many leads and so many disappointments,
0:52:09 > 0:52:10but I hope, one day...
0:52:12 > 0:52:15We have to... We only have to have one lead,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18one big lead, the right one.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26Talking to Jan, it appears that
0:52:26 > 0:52:29the investigation has very little to go on indeed.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31As things stand,
0:52:31 > 0:52:35it seems unlikely that this panel will ever be seen again.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42And yet art missing for decades can turn up,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46as a case in Munich proved recently.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54'In one of the largest hauls of its kind, 1,500 paintings,
0:52:54 > 0:52:57'including works by Picasso and Matisse,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00'have been discovered in a small apartment in Munich.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06'Investigators think the art could be worth nearly £850 million... '
0:53:10 > 0:53:14It will be years before the Munich case is fully untangled
0:53:14 > 0:53:17and the fate of those paintings is settled.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22Nonetheless, the news raised the hopes of art lovers everywhere.
0:53:25 > 0:53:29And today, in Boston, there is also hope.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33Earlier this year, the FBI announced to the world
0:53:33 > 0:53:37that they had made a significant breakthrough in the Gardner case.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42Geoff Kelly is the agent in charge of the investigation.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46We came forward and announced that the case is solved.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50We know who did it. We know where some of those paintings were.
0:53:50 > 0:53:56We knew that it was going to cause the inevitable question from the press, which is, "Who did it?"
0:53:56 > 0:53:58Well, sorry, the inevitable question from me would be,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01if you've solved the case, where the hell are the paintings?
0:54:01 > 0:54:05Exactly. Right. And that's one of the other reasons we came forward -
0:54:05 > 0:54:08some of those paintings were seen as recently as late-'90s/early-2000s,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12and then they disappeared again.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15So we've kind of been able to track it for a period of time,
0:54:15 > 0:54:16but then the trail's gone cold.
0:54:19 > 0:54:20The FBI now believe
0:54:20 > 0:54:25they know who broke into the Gardner that night in 1990.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28But there are no immediate plans to arrest their suspects.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32- What's happened to them? - I can't say that.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34I mean, they're not in jail, right?
0:54:34 > 0:54:37I can't say about where they are at this time.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41The Statute of Limitations on that actual theft expired in 1995
0:54:41 > 0:54:43so, if somebody were to come forward tomorrow
0:54:43 > 0:54:45and say they were involved in the Gardner heist,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49- there's nothing we could do to prosecute them.- So they got off?
0:54:49 > 0:54:50They did. Absolutely.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55There's a famous art thief in the area, a man you are very familiar with, called Myles Connor.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59It's fairly accepted, basically public knowledge here in Boston,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02apparently, that the FBI's working theory is
0:55:02 > 0:55:05that it was Myles Connor's plan that was implemented in the heist.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Well, it's quite possible. He might have planned it himself
0:55:08 > 0:55:11and when he got locked up, he let somebody else do it.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13I mean, there's no question...
0:55:13 > 0:55:17That's one of the difficult things about this crime -
0:55:17 > 0:55:21more people were involved in this heist
0:55:21 > 0:55:23than the two that went into the museum.
0:55:23 > 0:55:30Whether, as art thief Myles Connor claims, the perpetrators are now dead, the FBI won't say.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34In fact, their position seems to me to be very odd.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37They know who did it, but won't say who.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39In the 11 years that I've been working this case,
0:55:39 > 0:55:42we've never been closer on the trail than we are right now.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47But to say things like, "We're closer than we've ever been and the case is solved,"
0:55:47 > 0:55:50sounds like a madness if you don't know where the paintings are now
0:55:50 > 0:55:54- and you don't know where they've been for 12 years.- Absolutely, it's the ultimate whodunnit.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56Well, not least because it's the ultimate whodunnit,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59but, according to you, you know who did it, but it's still not solved?
0:55:59 > 0:56:02Well, whodunnit sounds better than where-is-it?!
0:56:05 > 0:56:10The Gardner theft remains the biggest single art crime in history.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12For many in Boston,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16the seemingly endless search for the paintings has become all-consuming.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22The case...I can't even describe the level of obsession.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24I have them up in my apartment,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26they're things that I have become obsessed with.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29- You've got replicas of all the works there?- Yeah. And they're things
0:56:29 > 0:56:32that I have to see back at the Gardner.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Isabella Stewart Gardner specified that her collection
0:56:37 > 0:56:39should remain unaltered.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42That's why, today, empty frames mark the spots
0:56:42 > 0:56:44where the Rembrandts and the Vermeer once hung.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51I see these empty frames every day, I go to look at them every day.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55It honestly is everything to me - I want these things back so badly.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59It bothers me that these great masterpieces -
0:56:59 > 0:57:02the representations of the best that mankind can achieve -
0:57:02 > 0:57:06are things that my own daughters can't enjoy
0:57:06 > 0:57:13because of some selfish, ridiculous, stupid act that somebody did 23 years ago.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19Since they were stolen in 1990,
0:57:19 > 0:57:23the value of the Gardner paintings continues to rise.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26They're now worth two or even three times what they were
0:57:26 > 0:57:27when they vanished.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33The thieves may have thought they'd hit the jackpot, but did they?
0:57:33 > 0:57:37They will never be able to sell their loot on the legitimate market,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41and the world has been robbed of paintings worth more than just money.
0:57:43 > 0:57:49For me, that's what makes art crime so frustrating. It's futile.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52And it's miles away from the image of art theft
0:57:52 > 0:57:54we seem to find so seductive.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59It turns out that art thieves aren't suave billionaires,
0:57:59 > 0:58:02they are not sophisticated connoisseurs.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05I think it's time we ditched the Hollywood myths,
0:58:05 > 0:58:07toughened up and got real.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11The truth about stolen paintings is anything but glamorous.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15Art crime is a brutal business, with repercussions for us all
0:58:15 > 0:58:18and that is why it matters.