First Aired: September 6th, 2006
Status: Ended
Genre: Documentary
Summary: Art of the Heist uses detailed and dramatic reconstructions to give a crook's-eye view of the planning and execution of some of the world's most daring thefts. Each episode emphasizes a headline-making art heist, examining how some of the world's greatest art treasures, including masterpieces by Munch, Cezanne, Vermeer, Renoir and Rembrandt, were snatched from the world's most prestigious and well-protected museums.
Accounting for over $6 billion in annual losses, art theft is one of the world's largest and most intriguing criminal enterprises. Art of the Heist investigates the most high profile art thefts in recent history and fits together the pieces of the crime jigsaw to explain how the masterpieces were stolen and eventually recovered. Containing intimate interviews with the museum curators, guards, thieves and detectives involved, Art of the Heist takes us on intriguing and dramatic journeys that even Hollywood couldn't match.
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# of Episodes: 14
# of Episodes I watched: 0
# of Episodes I haven't watched: 14
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Season 2
Episode 1: The Lady in Gold
Air Date: October 10th, 2008
Summary: Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bioch-Bauer was one of the most famous paintings of the twentieth century. But in March 1938 it was seized by the Nazis. This episode traces the history of this extraordinary and iconic painting from its commission, through the legal battles, to its final sale to the billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder for a staggering $135 million.
Episode 2: The Pharaoh’s Head
Air Date: November 7th, 2008
Summary: In 1994 the head of Scotland Yard’s Art squad was called to the British Museum to investigate a case of suspected stolen Egyptian artefacts. His trail led him to a small village in Devon, where he uncovered a treasure chest of looted art made up of over three thousand pieces.
Episode 3: Miami Sting
Air Date: March 16th, 2010
Summary: In a quiet gallery in a small town in northern Spain two Rubens paintings are lifted by a mysterious robber. Art of the Heist tells the dramatic story of an elaborate sting operation in Miami in which one of the worlds’s leading experts in Rubens puts his life on the line to recover precious paintings.
Episode 4: The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa
Air Date: November 21st, 2008
Summary: On a summers day in 1911 a man walked into the Louvre, took the Mona Lisa off the wall and walked out. He had stolen the world’s most famous painting as thousands of people queued to see the empty space the painting had left. This episode follows the trail of the eccentric thief who undetected , left France trying to return the Da Vinci painting to Florence where he thought it belonged.
Episode 5: The Russian Conspiracy
Air Date: November 28th, 2008
Summary: More than two hundred items, including jewellery and precious enamels, were discovered missing during a routine inventory check at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Suspiciously, the head of the department from which the pieces were stolen was soon found dead at her desk. Was it murder? Was she involved in the theft and had their only lead just died?
Episode 6: On the Trail of the Moche Gold
Air Date: September 2nd, 2010
Summary: In 1988 a glittering golden headdress was looted from an ancient tomb in the desert of northern Peru. The octopus headdress with eight Medusa like tentacles belonged to one of the Moche lords, a sophisticated culture that pre-dated the Incas. Art of the Heist follows the trail of the headdress from Peru to Spain to Germany and eventually to London in a story of murder and intrigue.
Episode 7: The Disappeared
Air Date: August 30th, 2010
Summary: In 1980, 16 Paintings and drawings & seven ancient pieces of art were stolen from the National Art Gallery in Buenos Aires. This complex heist involved questionable charitable organisations, a Texan blonde and artworks that may have been used to fund the Falklands War. We are taken on a journey from London to Taiwan to Buenos Aires in search of a mouth watering collection including Cezanne,Degas,Renoir and Matisse.
Episode 8: The Thieving Don Juan
Air Date: December 19th, 2008
Summary: At four in the morning, one of the most important gold sculptures from the Renaissance is discovered stolen from the Museum of Art History in Vienna. Its insurance value is a cool $65 million. After three years the Police finally discovered who stole the sculpture, Not a Balkan warlord as initially thought but a strikingly handsome fifty year old security alarm expert from Vienna with an eye for the ladies-as well as renaissance art.
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