Contains flashing images and depiction of criminal activity.

Series 2

Art of the Heist

Meet the crooks who stole artistic treasures, sending shock waves through the art scene.

It’s January 2006, and for almost three years Vienna police have been trying to recover one of the most important sculptures in Renaissance Art – the Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini.

 The Thieving Don Juan

Contains flashing images, scenes of violence and depiction of criminal activity.

Argentina was in the grip of a ruthless dictatorship when the biggest art theft in the country’s history took place, including paintings by some of Europe's most famous artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Disappeared

Contains flashing images, depiction of criminal activity and scenes some viewers may find distressing.

In 1988, the 1,500-year-old archaeological site of La Mina, on the northern coast of Peru, was looted until it virtually disappeared. Among the stolen pieces was a startling gold headdress which left a trail of greed, deception and murder.

On the Trail of Moche Gold

Contains flashing images and depiction of injury and criminal activity.

On August the 1st 2006, the director of the Hermitage in St Petersburg made a dramatic announcement - over 200 items, worth around $5 million, were missing from its store of Russian precious metals and jewellery.

 The Russian Conspiracy

December 1913 in Italy - a man arrives in Florence after a sixteen hour journey. He's here for a secret meeting with two of Italy’s greatest art experts and he has something extraordinary to sell – the world's most famous painting – the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci.

The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa

It started as one of the most perfect art heists - two Rubens sketches stolen in broad daylight from a gallery in Spain, leaving no clues. With the art world on high alert, trying to sell the stolen paintings was to prove the thief's biggest challenge.

Miami Sting

It was one of the most elaborate scams in the history of art crime - a devious plan to smuggle precious Egyptian antiquities that fooled customs officers for years.

The Pharaoh's Head

Contains flashing images and footage that some viewers may find distressing.

It was perhaps the biggest art heist of all time - countless millions of dollars of the finest European art simply seized by the Nazis. Among the booty was an extraordinary portrait of a woman by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.

The Lady in Gold

On December 22nd 2000 three of the world’s greatest art treasures were stolen from the National Museum in Stockholm. Together the Rembrandt and two Renoir paintings were valued at 50 million dollars. 

Episode 1, The Big Sting

They turned crime into an art form. Meet the crooks who plundered artistic treasures, sending shock waves through the art scene and setting off frantic dragnets across the globe.

Series 1

It was the biggest art heist in American history – half a billion dollar’s worth of paintings snatched from the walls of a Boston gallery. The haul included a rare Vermeer, and paintings by Rembrandt and Degas. 

Episode 2, The World's Biggest Heist

For nearly a decade two Englishmen passed off fakes as genuine. Between them they produced hundreds of modern masterpieces and plundered major art archives to fake their provenance. Their activities literally changed art history. 

Episode 3, The Forger and the Con Man

The Scream vanished when thieves walked into the Munch Museum in Oslo and ripped it from the walls along with a second Munch masterpiece, The Madonna. This is the story of the police search for these missing paintings.

Episode 4, The Search for the Scream

Nearly thirty years ago seven paintings, including a priceless Cezanne, were stolen from a private collection in America. As the years passed, Michael Bakwin, who owned the paintings, thought he would never get see his precious Cezanne again.

Episode 5, Chasing Cezanne

In the 1970’s, the black market in religious artefacts had exploded into a multi-million dollar industry. The war-torn island of Cyprus was being picked clean. This is the story of how a ring of smugglers ripped a sacred mosaic from a church's walls.

Art of the Heist

Episode 1, The Big Sting

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