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

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.

Art of the Heist

Series 1

Series 2

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

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. 

The Big Sting

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

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. 

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.

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.

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

The Lady in Gold

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