1 00:00:10,660 --> 00:00:13,940 It's shortly before 8am in central Amsterdam 2 00:00:13,940 --> 00:00:16,780 on Saturday the 7th of December, 2002. 3 00:00:16,780 --> 00:00:20,140 It's cold, just two degrees, and it's a miserable day, 4 00:00:20,140 --> 00:00:21,620 there's hardly anyone about. 5 00:00:25,260 --> 00:00:26,820 In the Museum Quarter, 6 00:00:26,820 --> 00:00:31,980 a van pulls up and two men unload a ladder and pack some tools into a bag. 7 00:00:32,100 --> 00:00:33,620 They leave the vehicle, 8 00:00:33,620 --> 00:00:38,100 looking for all the world like two regular workmen on a cold winter's day. 9 00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:44,980 They came here, to this spot. 10 00:00:44,980 --> 00:00:48,420 They climbed over this gate and set their ladder against that wall. 11 00:00:52,100 --> 00:00:54,740 They then put on ski masks and proceeded to climb 12 00:00:54,740 --> 00:00:57,940 one of Amsterdam's most recognisable cultural landmarks, 13 00:00:57,940 --> 00:00:59,380 the Van Gogh Museum. 14 00:01:06,740 --> 00:01:09,180 Heading to the other side of the building, 15 00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:14,420 and hidden from the gaze of anyone down here by a small wall, 16 00:01:15,180 --> 00:01:17,420 they use a pair of sledgehammers 17 00:01:17,420 --> 00:01:19,900 to smash a hole in one of the gallery's 18 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:22,140 reinforced security windows... 19 00:01:24,180 --> 00:01:26,820 ..setting off the first of a series of alarms. 20 00:01:30,300 --> 00:01:32,860 Inside, the men quickly scan the walls 21 00:01:32,860 --> 00:01:35,140 and snatch two paintings close to the hole 22 00:01:35,140 --> 00:01:37,100 through which they'd entered, 23 00:01:37,100 --> 00:01:40,220 a seascape and a picture of a church, 24 00:01:40,220 --> 00:01:43,460 both from Van Gogh's early period. 25 00:01:43,460 --> 00:01:46,500 That triggers two more alarms and, meanwhile, 26 00:01:46,500 --> 00:01:48,580 the CCTV has picked them up. 27 00:01:48,580 --> 00:01:51,380 A female security guard contacts the police, 28 00:01:51,380 --> 00:01:55,420 but until they arrive, she's helpless because museum regulations 29 00:01:55,420 --> 00:01:57,660 don't allow her to confront the thieves. 30 00:02:00,180 --> 00:02:04,860 Finally, the robbers bundle the paintings, still in their frames, 31 00:02:04,860 --> 00:02:07,260 into their tool bag and make their escape, 32 00:02:07,260 --> 00:02:08,300 coming down a rope 33 00:02:08,300 --> 00:02:10,700 that they'd attached at the start of the heist 34 00:02:10,700 --> 00:02:13,100 to a flagpole at the front of the building. 35 00:02:15,980 --> 00:02:17,820 One of them came down so hard 36 00:02:17,820 --> 00:02:20,540 that he smashed the seascape on the ground. 37 00:02:23,700 --> 00:02:26,340 Then, as the police finally arrive, 38 00:02:26,340 --> 00:02:29,020 looking for them at the back of the building, 39 00:02:29,020 --> 00:02:32,620 they resume their disguise as ordinary workmen and make their way, 40 00:02:32,620 --> 00:02:35,540 with the paintings, into the city. 41 00:02:35,540 --> 00:02:40,340 The whole operation lasted just three minutes and 40 seconds. 42 00:02:44,620 --> 00:02:47,340 So who on earth would steal not one but two paintings 43 00:02:47,340 --> 00:02:50,140 by the world's most famous artist? 44 00:02:50,140 --> 00:02:55,300 Who might they hope to sell them to, these untradeable goods? 45 00:02:55,580 --> 00:02:56,860 What could be their motive? 46 00:02:56,860 --> 00:02:58,660 What might they hope for? 47 00:02:58,660 --> 00:03:01,180 Well, that's what I'm here to find out. 48 00:03:10,740 --> 00:03:12,060 I'm Andrew Graham-Dixon. 49 00:03:13,220 --> 00:03:14,460 I'm an art historian. 50 00:03:16,500 --> 00:03:19,340 I don't often get mixed up in the world of organised crime. 51 00:03:26,300 --> 00:03:30,500 But now I'm uncovering the true story behind the most shocking art crime 52 00:03:30,500 --> 00:03:32,660 of the 21st century - 53 00:03:32,660 --> 00:03:36,300 the theft of some of Van Gogh's most personally charged 54 00:03:36,300 --> 00:03:38,020 and cherished paintings. 55 00:03:39,500 --> 00:03:41,420 It's an investigation that'll take me into 56 00:03:41,420 --> 00:03:44,940 the dizzyingly wealthy world of the international art market. 57 00:03:49,620 --> 00:03:53,940 And also to some of the poorest, most deprived areas of Europe. 58 00:03:55,380 --> 00:03:57,100 I'll meet some extraordinary people. 59 00:04:01,420 --> 00:04:03,900 And venture deep into the dark side, 60 00:04:03,900 --> 00:04:06,900 where the leaders of criminal organisations 61 00:04:06,900 --> 00:04:10,340 actively use stolen art for their own twisted purposes. 62 00:04:10,340 --> 00:04:12,820 It's a race against time, 63 00:04:12,820 --> 00:04:17,420 where cops and investigators try to save masterpieces before they're lost forever, 64 00:04:17,420 --> 00:04:20,740 as the criminal underworld meets the works 65 00:04:20,740 --> 00:04:24,740 of the most famous and popular artist on the planet. 66 00:04:38,420 --> 00:04:42,300 It seems that, these days, everybody wants a piece of Van Gogh. 67 00:04:45,300 --> 00:04:49,100 Two million people visit Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum every year. 68 00:04:51,180 --> 00:04:53,380 His work, in all its forms, 69 00:04:53,380 --> 00:04:56,020 is enduringly popular with the public at large. 70 00:05:03,500 --> 00:05:06,420 And it's a magnet for millionaire art collectors. 71 00:05:16,340 --> 00:05:19,020 So this is painted in 1889. 72 00:05:19,020 --> 00:05:22,300 It's a time when Van Gogh was at the asylum in Saint-Remy. 73 00:05:22,300 --> 00:05:26,140 This forms part of the Impressionist and modern art evening sale. 74 00:05:26,140 --> 00:05:27,940 We are offering 32 lots 75 00:05:27,940 --> 00:05:31,540 at a rough low estimate of around £140 million. 76 00:05:39,420 --> 00:05:42,780 This is certainly one of the top pieces in that sale. 77 00:05:42,780 --> 00:05:46,580 It's very rare to find a picture of this quality up on the market. 78 00:05:46,580 --> 00:05:49,220 Van Gogh oils are pretty rare anyway. 79 00:05:49,220 --> 00:05:53,340 I think this is a painting that has huge universal appeal, 80 00:05:53,340 --> 00:05:55,460 so we've got a very long list of clients 81 00:05:55,460 --> 00:05:57,780 who are looking at it from all over the world. 82 00:06:00,660 --> 00:06:03,260 So we move to this Van Gogh, The Reaper, 83 00:06:03,260 --> 00:06:05,300 painted in Saint-Remy in 1889. 84 00:06:05,300 --> 00:06:06,780 I start this at £9 million. 85 00:06:06,780 --> 00:06:09,580 £9 million. 10 million, and 11 million already. 86 00:06:09,580 --> 00:06:12,340 12 million. At 12 million. 87 00:06:12,340 --> 00:06:14,220 13 million is bid. 88 00:06:14,220 --> 00:06:17,020 14 I have. 15 million. 89 00:06:17,020 --> 00:06:19,740 £16 million. 17, a new place. 90 00:06:19,740 --> 00:06:21,980 Thank you, sir. Welcome into the bidding. 91 00:06:21,980 --> 00:06:23,820 18 million is bid. 92 00:06:23,820 --> 00:06:27,380 Many bids in many places, but the gentleman here has it at 19. 93 00:06:27,380 --> 00:06:29,740 At 19 million for the Van Gogh. 94 00:06:29,740 --> 00:06:30,700 20. 95 00:06:32,180 --> 00:06:35,140 20,500,000. 96 00:06:35,140 --> 00:06:37,620 21 million. 21.5. 97 00:06:37,620 --> 00:06:40,540 It's the American bidder just behind. 98 00:06:40,540 --> 00:06:44,460 For the Saint-Remy Van Gogh, at £21,500,000. 99 00:06:44,460 --> 00:06:45,940 Are we all out? 100 00:06:47,740 --> 00:06:49,780 Sold to you at 21.5. 101 00:06:49,780 --> 00:06:51,980 Well done. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. 102 00:07:00,980 --> 00:07:03,220 When paintings sell for sums like that, 103 00:07:03,220 --> 00:07:06,660 it's hardly a surprise that the art market should have become 104 00:07:06,660 --> 00:07:09,500 such a wasps' nest of artful dodgers, 105 00:07:09,500 --> 00:07:13,540 dealers with hopeful attributions, forgers, fakers. 106 00:07:13,540 --> 00:07:17,660 But the number-one dodge is theft, 107 00:07:17,660 --> 00:07:22,700 and of all artists whose work have been stolen, 108 00:07:22,700 --> 00:07:25,940 Vincent van Gogh ranks pretty much at the top. 109 00:07:28,780 --> 00:07:33,940 Since the Nazis in Germany first confiscated Van Gogh paintings in 1937, 110 00:07:35,540 --> 00:07:38,940 more than 40 of his masterpieces have been stolen 111 00:07:38,940 --> 00:07:41,380 in at least 15 separate heists, 112 00:07:41,380 --> 00:07:44,100 from galleries all over the world. 113 00:07:46,900 --> 00:07:50,140 Many of those works were eventually recovered, 114 00:07:50,140 --> 00:07:52,140 but some are still missing. 115 00:08:01,100 --> 00:08:03,340 In Amsterdam in 2002, 116 00:08:03,340 --> 00:08:06,100 the race was on to track down the missing paintings 117 00:08:06,100 --> 00:08:09,980 from the Van Gogh Museum before they disappeared forever. 118 00:08:15,540 --> 00:08:20,540 The Dutch police put one of their top detectives on the case - Bob Schagen. 119 00:08:20,700 --> 00:08:24,060 What was your instinct about the kind of people who'd done this? 120 00:08:24,060 --> 00:08:25,900 Professional burglars. 121 00:08:25,900 --> 00:08:28,500 In and out, three minutes, very professional. 122 00:08:28,500 --> 00:08:30,420 And gone by the wind. 123 00:08:32,020 --> 00:08:35,180 But the thieves had made a crucial mistake. 124 00:08:35,180 --> 00:08:37,740 Inside the smashed window was a hat. 125 00:08:39,500 --> 00:08:41,900 And downstairs, by the rope, we had a cap. 126 00:08:43,140 --> 00:08:45,620 Like a baseball cap? Yeah, like a baseball cap. 127 00:08:45,620 --> 00:08:48,020 Yeah, and then inside the hats were DNA. 128 00:08:52,100 --> 00:08:56,740 Analysis of the DNA led to a clear match from the Dutch database of 129 00:08:56,740 --> 00:08:59,620 previously convicted offenders. 130 00:08:59,620 --> 00:09:03,060 The chief suspect, Octave "Occy" Durham, 131 00:09:03,060 --> 00:09:06,060 was well-known as a professional thief. 132 00:09:06,060 --> 00:09:09,140 And he was known as a very good burglar, so... 133 00:09:10,380 --> 00:09:14,660 We know that he was specialised in burglaries, and big burglaries. 134 00:09:14,660 --> 00:09:18,660 And we followed him, and we wanted to see what his behaviours were, and... 135 00:09:20,460 --> 00:09:21,660 ..earned he a lot of money? 136 00:09:21,660 --> 00:09:23,500 Was he spending a lot of money, or whatever? 137 00:09:25,380 --> 00:09:27,140 After fleeing to Spain, 138 00:09:27,140 --> 00:09:31,100 Occy Durham was eventually arrested in December 2003, 139 00:09:31,100 --> 00:09:32,340 and brought back to Holland. 140 00:09:33,660 --> 00:09:35,540 So when you arrested him, 141 00:09:35,540 --> 00:09:39,020 was he co-operative, was he silent, was he...? 142 00:09:39,020 --> 00:09:42,700 No, but he didn't say anything about the Van Gogh. 143 00:09:42,700 --> 00:09:45,900 He was denying, and he didn't say anything. 144 00:09:45,900 --> 00:09:48,940 "Not me, not me." No, "Not me." 145 00:09:48,940 --> 00:09:52,060 You have arrested somebody, but where are the paintings? 146 00:09:58,900 --> 00:10:01,740 I'm not sure there's much that the Van Gogh Museum 147 00:10:01,740 --> 00:10:03,740 could have done about it. 148 00:10:03,740 --> 00:10:05,060 He smashed the window... 149 00:10:06,220 --> 00:10:08,260 ..and the fact is there was a three-minute window. 150 00:10:08,260 --> 00:10:10,820 That was the flaw in the system. 151 00:10:10,820 --> 00:10:13,980 If you could do what he could do, if you could climb like Occy, 152 00:10:13,980 --> 00:10:16,900 get in, get out, make your escape. 153 00:10:16,900 --> 00:10:21,460 His mistake was to leave his hat, because inside his hat was hair, 154 00:10:21,460 --> 00:10:23,700 and in his hair was his DNA, 155 00:10:23,700 --> 00:10:28,180 and pretty soon enough they knew who it was who'd done the deed. 156 00:10:28,180 --> 00:10:30,660 The problem was, they didn't know where the paintings were. 157 00:10:34,700 --> 00:10:37,180 One of the few ways to track down the pictures 158 00:10:37,180 --> 00:10:38,500 was to follow the money. 159 00:10:40,140 --> 00:10:43,420 To find out if the suspects were suddenly flush with cash 160 00:10:43,420 --> 00:10:47,020 and, if so, who had it come from? 161 00:10:47,020 --> 00:10:49,900 Dutch prosecutor Willem Nijkerk. 162 00:10:49,900 --> 00:10:53,180 We had wiretaps where they were talking about 163 00:10:53,180 --> 00:10:55,780 a lot of money that they were getting. 164 00:10:55,780 --> 00:10:58,740 They never wanted to say where they got the money from. 165 00:10:58,740 --> 00:11:01,300 So the fact that part of your evidence 166 00:11:01,300 --> 00:11:04,140 actually has them talking about money, 167 00:11:04,140 --> 00:11:08,900 that suggests that they must already have sold the paintings by 2004. 168 00:11:08,900 --> 00:11:10,020 Yes. 169 00:11:10,020 --> 00:11:13,260 We have indications that they sold the paintings quite fast. 170 00:11:13,260 --> 00:11:16,900 There is a wiretap dated in March 2003, 171 00:11:16,900 --> 00:11:21,580 when they are talking about an amount of 50,000 euros. 172 00:11:21,580 --> 00:11:25,660 And that was only half of what they were expecting. 173 00:11:25,660 --> 00:11:30,420 Also, the police found out that they were buying watches, cars, 174 00:11:30,420 --> 00:11:33,420 they made trips to New York, to Disneyland in Paris. 175 00:11:39,020 --> 00:11:42,300 Amsterdam is not only famous for its art, 176 00:11:42,300 --> 00:11:45,580 it's also been plagued by a violent criminal underworld. 177 00:11:48,380 --> 00:11:52,060 I've been told that, in early 2003, 178 00:11:52,060 --> 00:11:55,940 Occy Durham attempted to sell the stolen Van Gogh paintings 179 00:11:55,940 --> 00:11:59,980 to a notorious figure in that Dutch underworld, 180 00:11:59,980 --> 00:12:02,140 Cor van Hout, 181 00:12:02,140 --> 00:12:05,900 who, amongst other serious crimes, had previously been involved 182 00:12:05,900 --> 00:12:08,700 in the kidnapping of the heir to the Heineken fortune. 183 00:12:10,540 --> 00:12:13,500 Occy and Cor were said to have been negotiating the price 184 00:12:13,500 --> 00:12:15,380 for the stolen pictures, 185 00:12:15,380 --> 00:12:19,340 but then Cor was suddenly assassinated in a gangland hit. 186 00:12:20,500 --> 00:12:24,500 That left Occy and his accomplice with a major problem. 187 00:12:24,500 --> 00:12:25,540 They needed a new buyer. 188 00:12:27,420 --> 00:12:32,100 There is one tantalising piece of evidence from a police wiretap made 189 00:12:32,100 --> 00:12:36,180 before Occy D was arrested, in which he describes the moment 190 00:12:36,180 --> 00:12:38,020 when he sold the paintings. 191 00:12:38,020 --> 00:12:39,660 He received the money, 192 00:12:39,660 --> 00:12:44,660 apparently, in a notorious club in the centre of Old Amsterdam, 193 00:12:44,660 --> 00:12:49,180 and he received it from a mysterious man called Pinocchio. 194 00:12:51,540 --> 00:12:53,420 Then the trail went cold. 195 00:12:53,420 --> 00:12:56,820 They couldn't find anybody with an alias "Pinocchio". 196 00:13:03,060 --> 00:13:06,340 Occy Durham was put on trial in May 2004. 197 00:13:08,140 --> 00:13:10,860 The DNA and the wiretaps were enough to put him away. 198 00:13:12,820 --> 00:13:15,740 He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison 199 00:13:15,740 --> 00:13:21,020 and ordered to pay 350,000 euros in compensation to the Van Gogh Museum. 200 00:13:22,460 --> 00:13:26,100 But he still wasn't saying what had happened to the paintings. 201 00:13:26,100 --> 00:13:30,980 Some organisation, or somebody, was keeping him very quiet indeed. 202 00:13:32,380 --> 00:13:35,020 I was struck by something that the judge said at the end. 203 00:13:35,020 --> 00:13:39,860 He said something about what the crime was, a crime against... 204 00:13:39,860 --> 00:13:41,180 ..against culture, almost. 205 00:13:41,180 --> 00:13:43,620 Well, cultural heritage, Dutch cultural heritage. 206 00:13:43,620 --> 00:13:45,820 These are very important works of art, 207 00:13:45,820 --> 00:13:51,060 and it really struck me that they were stolen just for ordinary money 208 00:13:52,420 --> 00:13:56,140 and buying watches, going to New York, buying a car. 209 00:13:57,820 --> 00:14:02,500 These guys didn't know, whatsoever, what they were doing. 210 00:14:02,500 --> 00:14:07,700 In Holland, it's as if Dutch art really is part of the soul of the nation. 211 00:14:08,740 --> 00:14:10,660 I hope it is, 212 00:14:10,660 --> 00:14:12,020 at least for a lot of people. 213 00:14:12,020 --> 00:14:16,060 I don't think, for the two burglars that were convicted in this case, 214 00:14:16,060 --> 00:14:18,740 I don't think they are art lovers. 215 00:14:18,740 --> 00:14:21,980 But mostly the Dutch, they do love art, yes. 216 00:14:45,300 --> 00:14:48,060 So why do we care so much about Van Gogh? 217 00:14:48,060 --> 00:14:52,620 Why does his work continue to move so many people 218 00:14:52,620 --> 00:14:54,900 from so many different backgrounds, 219 00:14:54,900 --> 00:14:57,100 so many different parts of the world? 220 00:14:57,100 --> 00:15:00,060 Well, I think it's partly because... 221 00:15:01,980 --> 00:15:07,260 ..he traced the movements of his own troubled soul in art 222 00:15:07,460 --> 00:15:12,660 with such brilliance, such delicacy, such responsiveness, 223 00:15:13,060 --> 00:15:16,780 that you can't help but be affected by it. 224 00:15:16,780 --> 00:15:20,340 Here, Vincent is having a good day. 225 00:15:20,340 --> 00:15:25,500 This is one of those days when nature seems touched by God's blessing. 226 00:15:27,100 --> 00:15:32,220 He looks at the tree in blossom, it's aflame like a candelabra. 227 00:15:32,380 --> 00:15:36,140 All is well. There'll be other, far darker paintings, 228 00:15:36,140 --> 00:15:41,380 and I think that's also one of the things that moves us about him, 229 00:15:42,580 --> 00:15:46,300 the fact that we know his life ended in tragedy. 230 00:15:46,300 --> 00:15:47,620 We know his life... 231 00:15:48,860 --> 00:15:50,140 ..ended in darkness, 232 00:15:50,140 --> 00:15:54,620 and yet we can feel his struggle against the darkness throughout. 233 00:15:54,620 --> 00:15:58,460 So it's two things, it's genius and it's tragedy. 234 00:15:58,460 --> 00:16:03,500 And one forgets very easily that his career, from when he decided to be 235 00:16:03,660 --> 00:16:08,380 a painter to the moment he died, is astonishingly short, 236 00:16:08,380 --> 00:16:10,260 less than ten years. 237 00:16:10,260 --> 00:16:15,060 His maturity, his brilliant years, maybe just four. 238 00:16:16,700 --> 00:16:19,340 And I think it's that simplicity, 239 00:16:19,340 --> 00:16:21,340 tragedy and beauty of this life 240 00:16:21,340 --> 00:16:24,180 that has moved people ever since... 241 00:16:25,220 --> 00:16:27,140 ..he was discovered after his death. 242 00:16:35,020 --> 00:16:37,860 The missing paintings tell their own stories as well, 243 00:16:42,020 --> 00:16:46,140 and each has a special significance in Van Gogh's life and work. 244 00:16:50,140 --> 00:16:51,900 The thieves could never have known it, 245 00:16:51,900 --> 00:16:57,100 but when they stole this small, slightly dark seascape, 246 00:16:57,700 --> 00:17:02,420 they were actually stealing a really important little piece 247 00:17:02,420 --> 00:17:05,460 of Vincent van Gogh's career as an artist,... 248 00:17:06,620 --> 00:17:11,780 ..because he painted this picture in the second half of August 1882. 249 00:17:13,220 --> 00:17:18,420 Up until that point, he'd only worked in watercolour and in pencil, 250 00:17:18,900 --> 00:17:22,980 but his brother Theo had encouraged him to paint in oils, 251 00:17:22,980 --> 00:17:25,340 and, on this occasion, he followed the advice. 252 00:17:25,340 --> 00:17:27,820 He bought some tubes of oil paint, 253 00:17:27,820 --> 00:17:31,620 a new invention that allowed artists to come out into the landscape, 254 00:17:31,620 --> 00:17:35,700 and he came here, of all places, Scheveningen Beach, 255 00:17:35,700 --> 00:17:37,660 in the middle of a gale, 256 00:17:37,660 --> 00:17:40,540 and he started painting this scene. 257 00:17:40,540 --> 00:17:45,620 Imagine added to it a boat and a few figures struggling with the sea. 258 00:17:47,100 --> 00:17:48,740 Van Gogh struggled with his canvas. 259 00:17:48,740 --> 00:17:51,780 The wind blew so hard that, every time he applied paint, 260 00:17:51,780 --> 00:17:53,260 it became encrusted with sand. 261 00:17:53,260 --> 00:17:55,860 He had to scrape it off and start again. 262 00:17:55,860 --> 00:17:57,500 Finally he finished. 263 00:17:57,500 --> 00:18:02,740 The result in the end was this small but potent image. 264 00:18:03,540 --> 00:18:05,380 And as he said to his brother... 265 00:18:07,020 --> 00:18:10,700 "I can't believe I never discovered oil painting before. 266 00:18:10,700 --> 00:18:13,540 "There's a kind of infinity in oil painting." 267 00:18:13,540 --> 00:18:17,380 "I can't put it into words. I feel that painting is in my marrow. 268 00:18:17,380 --> 00:18:18,980 "It's in my very bones." 269 00:18:20,620 --> 00:18:22,100 From that moment on, 270 00:18:22,100 --> 00:18:25,660 Van Gogh knew that he was destined to be a painter. 271 00:18:39,540 --> 00:18:43,420 The other missing painting from the heist was also of great personal 272 00:18:43,420 --> 00:18:47,660 significance both to Van Gogh and to his family, 273 00:18:47,660 --> 00:18:52,540 and one man was particularly affected by news of the theft. 274 00:18:52,540 --> 00:18:55,180 Well, Vincent himself, he had no children. 275 00:18:55,180 --> 00:18:58,980 But his brother Theo, who was the most important person 276 00:18:58,980 --> 00:19:00,460 in Vincent's life, 277 00:19:00,460 --> 00:19:04,020 his brother Theo is my great-grandfather, 278 00:19:04,020 --> 00:19:06,740 and I'm very proud to represent, 279 00:19:06,740 --> 00:19:09,380 well, Vincent and Theo's heritage. 280 00:19:09,380 --> 00:19:14,100 I'm trying to imagine how on earth it must have felt for you 281 00:19:14,100 --> 00:19:16,700 when this terrible news comes, in 2002, 282 00:19:16,700 --> 00:19:19,620 that these criminals have entered the museum 283 00:19:19,620 --> 00:19:21,940 and taken these two paintings. 284 00:19:21,940 --> 00:19:23,980 We didn't understand why they... 285 00:19:25,020 --> 00:19:29,260 ..took these paintings, so it felt as a great loss. 286 00:19:29,260 --> 00:19:30,780 The Nuenen Church painting... 287 00:19:32,060 --> 00:19:37,100 ..that's even more personal, I would imagine, to a family member, 288 00:19:37,100 --> 00:19:41,660 because I believe Vincent actually created it for his mother. 289 00:19:41,660 --> 00:19:43,940 He created it for his mother, 290 00:19:43,940 --> 00:19:49,180 early 1884 and Vincent's father passed away 291 00:19:50,540 --> 00:19:54,580 and he was a minister in the Reformed Church. 292 00:19:54,580 --> 00:19:58,860 And the church itself is the church in which Vincent's father, 293 00:19:58,860 --> 00:20:01,140 the pastor, used to preach, is that right? 294 00:20:01,140 --> 00:20:02,580 Used to preach, yeah. 295 00:20:02,580 --> 00:20:05,300 So it's one of the most personal... 296 00:20:06,500 --> 00:20:07,820 ..paintings for... 297 00:20:08,900 --> 00:20:10,500 ..the Van Gogh family. 298 00:20:10,500 --> 00:20:11,900 I suppose, often, when... 299 00:20:12,940 --> 00:20:15,020 ..things of this kind are stolen, 300 00:20:15,020 --> 00:20:17,660 the hope is that they will come to light quite quickly. 301 00:20:17,660 --> 00:20:20,580 But sometimes, when it doesn't work out like that, there's the fear, 302 00:20:20,580 --> 00:20:22,900 you know, that maybe this is going to be a long process. 303 00:20:22,900 --> 00:20:25,540 Maybe we'll never find them. 304 00:20:25,540 --> 00:20:27,180 What were your feelings? 305 00:20:27,180 --> 00:20:29,620 I felt quite pessimistic 306 00:20:29,620 --> 00:20:33,260 and I thought of these paintings very often 307 00:20:33,260 --> 00:20:36,700 and I thought, "Most possibly, I'll never see them again." 308 00:20:41,380 --> 00:20:45,420 So just how do you go about getting stolen paintings back? 309 00:20:46,500 --> 00:20:50,060 In 2005, in Hoorn, in northern Holland, 310 00:20:50,060 --> 00:20:54,820 24 Dutch masterpieces were snatched in a single heist, 311 00:20:54,820 --> 00:20:56,620 ripped from their frames. 312 00:21:02,260 --> 00:21:04,540 They disappeared for a decade. 313 00:21:05,980 --> 00:21:10,060 But some of them were suddenly recovered in 2016. 314 00:21:10,060 --> 00:21:13,940 Their story gives a chilling and disturbing insight 315 00:21:13,940 --> 00:21:17,900 into the murky world of international art crime. 316 00:21:17,900 --> 00:21:19,620 There are no "art criminals" 317 00:21:19,620 --> 00:21:22,140 who earn their money only by stealing art, 318 00:21:22,140 --> 00:21:24,900 they are just plain criminals. 319 00:21:24,900 --> 00:21:28,020 But they don't care about what they are stealing. 320 00:21:28,020 --> 00:21:32,220 Because, if you see how these paintings were treated, 321 00:21:32,220 --> 00:21:33,820 they were treated so badly. 322 00:21:33,820 --> 00:21:36,980 We got them back in very, very, very bad condition. 323 00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:44,220 But they didn't care, the paintings are just some goods to trade. 324 00:21:45,420 --> 00:21:49,020 They are a currency in the criminal circuit. 325 00:21:49,020 --> 00:21:51,100 So, um... 326 00:21:51,100 --> 00:21:54,940 ..the thief, who stole our paintings, 327 00:21:54,940 --> 00:21:59,620 he probably got rid of them in two weeks or so. 328 00:21:59,620 --> 00:22:01,860 They changed hands a lot of times 329 00:22:01,860 --> 00:22:05,580 and, eventually, they turned up in Ukraine, of all places. 330 00:22:09,140 --> 00:22:11,180 The theft of the Westfries paintings 331 00:22:11,180 --> 00:22:15,060 was reported to international police art squads. 332 00:22:15,060 --> 00:22:18,060 Although, how they subsequently got all the way to the Ukraine 333 00:22:18,060 --> 00:22:19,100 remains unclear. 334 00:22:20,940 --> 00:22:23,580 The whole episode's an alarming indication 335 00:22:23,580 --> 00:22:25,780 of the global reach of organised crime. 336 00:22:27,460 --> 00:22:29,900 The stolen art was traded several times, 337 00:22:29,900 --> 00:22:32,540 finally ending up with Ukrainian warlords, 338 00:22:32,540 --> 00:22:36,100 intelligence officers and senior government officials. 339 00:22:38,420 --> 00:22:41,300 The man who was instrumental in finally recovering them 340 00:22:41,300 --> 00:22:45,940 is an independent art crime investigator, Arthur Brand. 341 00:22:45,940 --> 00:22:50,980 The art world and the criminal world are far more incorporated 342 00:22:51,180 --> 00:22:53,020 than most people think. 343 00:22:53,020 --> 00:22:55,820 So, let me into your world a little bit. 344 00:22:55,820 --> 00:22:57,140 Who do you have to deal with, 345 00:22:57,140 --> 00:22:58,820 where do you begin to look 346 00:22:58,820 --> 00:23:01,700 when something well-known, or even obscure, goes missing? 347 00:23:01,700 --> 00:23:05,220 This world is very small, the criminal underworld. 348 00:23:05,220 --> 00:23:08,580 And they talk like old ladies at a tea club. 349 00:23:08,580 --> 00:23:13,380 They gossip the whole day, so eventually you get a lead. 350 00:23:13,380 --> 00:23:16,740 Stolen art goes from hand to hand very quickly. 351 00:23:16,740 --> 00:23:17,700 It's used as a... 352 00:23:19,420 --> 00:23:21,460 ..as a banknote in the criminal underworld. 353 00:23:21,460 --> 00:23:24,060 So they use it for trading arms, drugs. 354 00:23:24,060 --> 00:23:26,180 What's the value in the underworld? 355 00:23:26,180 --> 00:23:28,380 The standard is 10%. 356 00:23:28,380 --> 00:23:31,220 It means, if you steal a painting worth 10 million, 357 00:23:31,220 --> 00:23:36,060 you can use it as a banknote in the underworld for a million. 358 00:23:36,060 --> 00:23:38,300 10% of the value on the open market. 359 00:23:41,380 --> 00:23:45,500 This use of paint on canvas as a black-market currency 360 00:23:45,500 --> 00:23:48,260 puts the art itself at great risk. 361 00:23:48,260 --> 00:23:51,060 You must understand, these criminals are not art experts. 362 00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:54,580 We are here in a room with perfect air-conditioning, 363 00:23:54,580 --> 00:23:57,420 perfect conditions for these paintings. 364 00:23:57,420 --> 00:23:59,260 These guys have no idea, 365 00:23:59,260 --> 00:24:02,620 they store it somewhere in a humid place 366 00:24:02,620 --> 00:24:05,700 and what you see is, after a couple of years, 367 00:24:05,700 --> 00:24:08,580 some of these paintings fall apart. 368 00:24:08,580 --> 00:24:11,820 So you cannot wait 20 years because it gets worse and worse. 369 00:24:18,580 --> 00:24:23,660 Pictures come alive in a different way each time you look at them afresh. 370 00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:26,500 But if I've learned one lesson on this journey 371 00:24:26,500 --> 00:24:29,820 it's that criminals don't see paintings like that. 372 00:24:29,820 --> 00:24:33,540 They see them as objects, objects of exchange, 373 00:24:33,540 --> 00:24:35,740 collateral in drug deals, 374 00:24:35,740 --> 00:24:40,980 tokens, perhaps, in deals to be made with the cops or the courts. 375 00:24:43,980 --> 00:24:49,220 But going back to Amsterdam, by 2005, Occy the thief, 376 00:24:51,460 --> 00:24:53,460 he's been convicted. 377 00:24:53,460 --> 00:24:55,700 But he's not saying anything. 378 00:24:57,940 --> 00:24:59,780 Where could the paintings be? 379 00:24:59,780 --> 00:25:03,820 Holland? Somewhere unexpected like the Ukraine? 380 00:25:03,820 --> 00:25:05,980 The fact is, nobody knew. 381 00:25:05,980 --> 00:25:09,620 How were the pictures going to be recovered? 382 00:25:12,780 --> 00:25:14,980 We never stopped looking for the paintings 383 00:25:14,980 --> 00:25:17,820 and, during the years, our intelligence service 384 00:25:17,820 --> 00:25:22,940 sometimes they got some information about where the paintings might be. 385 00:25:23,580 --> 00:25:26,580 Did you ever, in a dark moment, think 386 00:25:26,580 --> 00:25:28,980 maybe the paintings have been destroyed? 387 00:25:28,980 --> 00:25:30,860 Of course. On the other hand... 388 00:25:32,140 --> 00:25:33,940 ..we always kept hope, 389 00:25:33,940 --> 00:25:37,180 so that's why we always looked into every information we got 390 00:25:37,180 --> 00:25:39,500 about the whereabouts of these paintings. 391 00:25:44,020 --> 00:25:46,100 In the absence of new information, 392 00:25:46,100 --> 00:25:48,700 the investigation here in Amsterdam stalled. 393 00:25:48,700 --> 00:25:53,900 But then, suddenly, there was a new lead 1,000 miles away. 394 00:26:07,140 --> 00:26:11,020 An earlier Van Gogh heist in Rome would eventually reveal, 395 00:26:11,020 --> 00:26:12,700 for the first time, 396 00:26:12,700 --> 00:26:17,260 concrete information about the Van Gogh paintings stolen in Amsterdam. 397 00:26:35,380 --> 00:26:38,700 And it was the recovery of this stolen Van Gogh 398 00:26:38,700 --> 00:26:40,900 that would provide the lead. 399 00:26:45,620 --> 00:26:50,100 This is Van Gogh's The Gardener, of 1889. 400 00:26:50,100 --> 00:26:54,380 A far cry from the paintings stolen from Amsterdam. 401 00:26:54,380 --> 00:26:57,860 This is a picture that dates towards the end of his life, 402 00:26:57,860 --> 00:27:00,020 the colours are much brighter. 403 00:27:00,020 --> 00:27:01,660 But there's a darkness here, too. 404 00:27:03,100 --> 00:27:08,340 1889 was the year in which Van Gogh was confined to a lunatic asylum. 405 00:27:08,620 --> 00:27:11,420 Not long before creating this work of art, 406 00:27:11,420 --> 00:27:15,180 he was found in his studio in the asylum, 407 00:27:15,180 --> 00:27:20,300 having drunk kerosene from his lamp, having eaten his own paint, 408 00:27:20,460 --> 00:27:25,100 apparently in the first attempt at suicide. 409 00:27:26,260 --> 00:27:29,900 So why would he paint a gardener at this terrible time? 410 00:27:29,900 --> 00:27:32,500 I think he had in mind a story from the Bible, 411 00:27:32,500 --> 00:27:34,460 Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene 412 00:27:34,460 --> 00:27:36,620 as a gardener after his resurrection. 413 00:27:36,620 --> 00:27:38,860 I also think it's important to remember 414 00:27:38,860 --> 00:27:41,020 Van Gogh had been a deeply Christian man, 415 00:27:41,020 --> 00:27:43,420 had been a preacher in his youth, 416 00:27:43,420 --> 00:27:46,780 tended to think in biblical terms. 417 00:27:46,780 --> 00:27:50,900 Is he looking for some hope of finding Christ again, 418 00:27:50,900 --> 00:27:53,660 finding some kind of salvation for himself? 419 00:27:53,660 --> 00:27:55,340 We can never say for sure, 420 00:27:55,340 --> 00:27:59,900 but we can say that this is a deeply poignant image. 421 00:27:59,900 --> 00:28:02,020 A deeply vulnerable painting 422 00:28:02,020 --> 00:28:06,260 and, here in Rome, at the end of the 20th century, 423 00:28:06,260 --> 00:28:09,900 it would, once again, prove to be vulnerable, 424 00:28:09,900 --> 00:28:11,700 but in a rather different way. 425 00:28:19,780 --> 00:28:23,940 Masked gunmen have stolen three priceless works of art from a museum in Rome. 426 00:28:23,940 --> 00:28:26,060 Thieves tied up three security guards 427 00:28:26,060 --> 00:28:28,980 before getting away with two paintings by Van Gogh 428 00:28:28,980 --> 00:28:30,420 and one by Cezanne. 429 00:28:35,300 --> 00:28:37,980 Italy's elite Carabinieri art squad, 430 00:28:37,980 --> 00:28:40,580 one of the top art crime units in Europe, 431 00:28:40,580 --> 00:28:45,460 put one of their most senior and experienced detectives on the case, 432 00:28:45,460 --> 00:28:47,500 Colonel Ferdinando Musella. 433 00:29:32,460 --> 00:29:35,020 Colonel Musella's experience in recovering The Gardener 434 00:29:35,020 --> 00:29:38,100 would prove crucial when he next got a lead 435 00:29:38,100 --> 00:29:40,900 on the two Van Goghs stolen in Holland. 436 00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:44,780 I'd heard that, in 2007, he received some very promising information. 437 00:29:44,780 --> 00:29:47,260 So I asked him if he could talk about it. 438 00:30:29,460 --> 00:30:32,940 It's a shame he didn't want to talk about the 2007 operation, 439 00:30:32,940 --> 00:30:35,580 because I've heard a lot about that, a lot of rumours. 440 00:30:35,580 --> 00:30:40,420 Great stories of policemen dressed up as Neapolitan pimps, 441 00:30:40,420 --> 00:30:42,460 with blondes on their arm, 442 00:30:42,460 --> 00:30:46,300 posing as interested purchasers of the pictures. 443 00:30:48,140 --> 00:30:50,660 But I guess the one thing we do know about that operation 444 00:30:50,660 --> 00:30:52,660 is that it didn't work, 445 00:30:52,660 --> 00:30:56,420 because after 2007, the paintings still remained unrecovered. 446 00:30:59,540 --> 00:31:02,380 What was clear from Musella's investigations 447 00:31:02,380 --> 00:31:05,020 was that whoever owned the Van Gogh Museum's missing paintings 448 00:31:05,020 --> 00:31:07,380 was almost certainly Italian. 449 00:31:07,380 --> 00:31:10,940 Which would explain his Italian nickname - Pinocchio. 450 00:31:12,340 --> 00:31:15,340 Meanwhile, more Van Gogh paintings were going missing from galleries 451 00:31:15,340 --> 00:31:17,060 around the world. 452 00:31:17,060 --> 00:31:19,820 In 2008, in Switzerland, 453 00:31:19,820 --> 00:31:22,260 this Van Gogh painting was stolen. 454 00:31:22,260 --> 00:31:24,940 Two years after that, in 2010, 455 00:31:24,940 --> 00:31:28,100 thieves took an earlier work from a museum in Egypt. 456 00:31:30,820 --> 00:31:34,860 In Amsterdam, six years went by with no reliable leads 457 00:31:34,860 --> 00:31:36,660 to the missing Van Gogh pictures. 458 00:31:36,660 --> 00:31:40,100 But, in 2016, everything changed. 459 00:31:40,100 --> 00:31:43,620 Thanks to a quiet, but persistent investigation 460 00:31:43,620 --> 00:31:47,460 in one of Italy's most violent, most beautiful cities. 461 00:32:18,340 --> 00:32:22,420 Normally, I come to Naples, well, of course, for the coffee, 462 00:32:22,420 --> 00:32:23,620 for the opera, 463 00:32:23,620 --> 00:32:27,340 for the great masterpieces in the museums and churches 464 00:32:27,340 --> 00:32:31,780 and just for the ramshackle beauty of the old city. 465 00:32:53,220 --> 00:32:56,460 But there's another darker side of Naples. 466 00:32:56,460 --> 00:32:58,740 Under normal circumstances, 467 00:32:58,740 --> 00:33:00,620 I steer clear of it. 468 00:33:00,620 --> 00:33:03,220 But these aren't normal circumstances. 469 00:33:07,020 --> 00:33:09,380 ITALIAN RAP MUSIC PLAYS 470 00:33:45,660 --> 00:33:48,540 Organised crime has plagued Naples for years. 471 00:33:48,540 --> 00:33:51,220 One of the region's senior prosecutors 472 00:33:51,220 --> 00:33:54,700 leading the fight against it is Stefania Castaldi. 473 00:34:25,860 --> 00:34:29,460 Who or what are the Camorra? 474 00:34:29,460 --> 00:34:33,220 Well, they are one of the oldest and largest 475 00:34:33,220 --> 00:34:36,540 criminal organisations in Italy, 476 00:34:36,540 --> 00:34:41,500 made up of a number of often ferociously competing factions. 477 00:34:41,740 --> 00:34:45,460 Unlike the Mafia, which is based in Sicily, 478 00:34:45,460 --> 00:34:48,660 the Camorra has its roots in Naples, 479 00:34:48,660 --> 00:34:52,580 although its tentacles have reached across the world. 480 00:34:52,580 --> 00:34:56,980 NEWSREEL: The soldiers poured into Naples... 481 00:34:56,980 --> 00:34:59,660 Largely stamped out under Mussolini, 482 00:34:59,660 --> 00:35:02,900 the Camorra captured power again during the Second World War, 483 00:35:02,900 --> 00:35:05,940 when the US military made secret deals 484 00:35:05,940 --> 00:35:09,540 with crime bosses to overthrow the Italian dictator. 485 00:35:11,020 --> 00:35:15,260 Today, the Camorra's main activities include drug-trafficking, 486 00:35:15,260 --> 00:35:20,100 the illegal dumping of toxic waste, money laundering, extortion, 487 00:35:20,100 --> 00:35:22,580 prostitution, murder, 488 00:35:22,580 --> 00:35:25,980 and the occasional dealings in stolen art. 489 00:35:25,980 --> 00:35:30,500 And just a matter of months after the Van Goghs were pinched, 490 00:35:30,500 --> 00:35:33,140 a brutal war broke out in Naples 491 00:35:33,140 --> 00:35:36,380 between different factions of the Camorra 492 00:35:36,380 --> 00:35:38,620 for control of the drug trade. 493 00:35:55,700 --> 00:36:00,540 Much of that turf war was fought out here in Scampia, 494 00:36:00,540 --> 00:36:03,540 a '60s urban development in the north of Naples. 495 00:36:28,780 --> 00:36:31,900 A local journalist has been covering the area 496 00:36:31,900 --> 00:36:34,300 and the Camorra wars for years. 497 00:36:35,740 --> 00:36:40,180 So why did the Camorra have such a stronghold in Scampia? 498 00:36:40,180 --> 00:36:44,220 What's special about Scampia to make this a hotbed for drugs? 499 00:36:44,220 --> 00:36:49,500 Every mafia is stronger in areas with many poor families. 500 00:36:50,100 --> 00:36:53,980 Unemployed people must try to get money. 501 00:36:53,980 --> 00:36:58,860 And Camorra uses desperation of people to make power. 502 00:36:58,860 --> 00:37:02,500 So it feeds, like every mafia, it feeds on poverty 503 00:37:02,500 --> 00:37:04,180 and feeds on despair. 504 00:37:04,180 --> 00:37:05,580 This is the mafia story. 505 00:37:05,580 --> 00:37:09,940 So instead of becoming a baker, or a pharmacist, 506 00:37:09,940 --> 00:37:13,260 you become a drug dealer, because it's the only way to go up. 507 00:37:27,260 --> 00:37:29,060 It was just like a war. 508 00:37:29,060 --> 00:37:31,580 All for this control of drug business? 509 00:37:31,580 --> 00:37:34,820 Yes. Do we know how much money is at stake here, 510 00:37:34,820 --> 00:37:38,380 for the group of the Camorra that wins control of Scampia, 511 00:37:38,380 --> 00:37:40,820 how much can they hope to make in one year? 512 00:37:40,820 --> 00:37:43,740 We said that drugs money, when they buy 513 00:37:43,740 --> 00:37:47,620 a big... Consignment? They take all the money 514 00:37:47,620 --> 00:37:52,700 in a big, um, sacco... In a bag. ..and lo pesano. 515 00:37:52,700 --> 00:37:55,900 And they weigh it! They don't count the money, they weigh the money? 516 00:37:55,900 --> 00:37:57,340 Yes. 517 00:38:02,100 --> 00:38:06,620 Scampia, it's a tough place, you can feel it's a tough place. 518 00:38:06,620 --> 00:38:09,900 The truth is that decisions made here in the 1960s 519 00:38:09,900 --> 00:38:14,980 that led to the creation of these honeycomb-like buildings, 520 00:38:15,540 --> 00:38:20,780 created perfect conditions for those wasps, the Camorra, to flourish. 521 00:38:22,220 --> 00:38:26,380 That led to a horrendous drugs war in which many, 522 00:38:26,380 --> 00:38:28,420 many people lost their lives. 523 00:38:28,420 --> 00:38:33,620 At the end of which, someone ended up with an awful lot of blood money. 524 00:38:36,820 --> 00:38:38,180 But who was that person? 525 00:38:41,020 --> 00:38:44,900 In the prosecutor's office, Stefania Castaldi's investigation 526 00:38:44,900 --> 00:38:48,940 was getting close to senior Camorra crime bosses. 527 00:38:48,940 --> 00:38:52,980 And then she made a significant discovery, which, 528 00:38:52,980 --> 00:38:54,420 for the very first time, 529 00:38:54,420 --> 00:38:56,140 would provide a direct link 530 00:38:56,140 --> 00:38:58,780 to the Van Gogh paintings stolen in Amsterdam. 531 00:39:55,020 --> 00:39:57,860 But who is Raffaele Imperiale, 532 00:39:57,860 --> 00:40:02,060 and just how is he connected to the missing paintings? 533 00:40:04,820 --> 00:40:07,700 This is the picturesque town of Castellammare, 534 00:40:07,700 --> 00:40:10,220 overlooking the Bay of Naples. 535 00:40:10,220 --> 00:40:13,660 A far cry, you might think, from Scampia, 536 00:40:13,660 --> 00:40:16,300 but the influence of the Camorra reaches even here. 537 00:40:20,580 --> 00:40:24,260 It's not everyday that I find myself in the back of a police car. 538 00:40:24,260 --> 00:40:27,660 But today I'm being shown around Imperiale's home turf 539 00:40:27,660 --> 00:40:31,140 by Colonel Giovanni Salerno, an expert on the case. 540 00:41:33,980 --> 00:41:38,300 From his Amsterdam coffee shop, legally selling cannabis, 541 00:41:38,300 --> 00:41:41,100 Imperiale would expand his business, 542 00:41:41,100 --> 00:41:45,100 eventually organising large-scale shipments of drugs for the Camorra. 543 00:42:12,620 --> 00:42:14,140 By his own account, 544 00:42:14,140 --> 00:42:18,500 Imperiale was earning between 15 and 20 million euros a year 545 00:42:18,500 --> 00:42:20,180 from drug-trafficking. 546 00:42:21,860 --> 00:42:24,700 But there was still no sign of the missing Van Goghs, 547 00:42:24,700 --> 00:42:29,140 stolen and first sold to Pinocchio in Amsterdam over ten years earlier. 548 00:42:32,820 --> 00:42:35,660 The breakthrough came in September 2016, 549 00:42:35,660 --> 00:42:39,700 and it came from a pretty unusual source - the suspect himself. 550 00:43:12,820 --> 00:43:16,260 Mario Cerrone was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment. 551 00:43:18,700 --> 00:43:22,180 But although Imperiale was put on trial in Naples, 552 00:43:22,180 --> 00:43:24,820 he wasn't going to jail any time soon. 553 00:43:24,820 --> 00:43:28,260 He had the foresight to relocate to Dubai, 554 00:43:28,260 --> 00:43:31,260 which has no extradition treaty with Italy. 555 00:43:31,260 --> 00:43:33,700 He was well out of reach of the authorities. 556 00:43:35,300 --> 00:43:39,220 Raffaele Imperiale spilled all the beans to the Italian prosecutors 557 00:43:39,220 --> 00:43:42,860 in an extraordinary written confession. 558 00:43:42,860 --> 00:43:44,700 Here it is. 559 00:43:44,700 --> 00:43:49,340 Dated the 29th of August 2016. 560 00:43:51,420 --> 00:43:55,460 "Io, sottoscritto Raffaele Imperiale..." 561 00:43:55,460 --> 00:43:59,140 "I, the undersigned Raffaele Imperiale, 562 00:43:59,140 --> 00:44:04,180 born in Castellammare di Stabia, declare the following." 563 00:44:04,180 --> 00:44:09,420 Now he goes into great detail about how he got into the drug business 564 00:44:09,460 --> 00:44:12,460 in Amsterdam in the 1990s, 565 00:44:12,460 --> 00:44:15,500 and he goes into surprising detail 566 00:44:15,500 --> 00:44:18,940 about just how much money he was making. 567 00:44:18,940 --> 00:44:22,700 "Migliaia di chili di cocaina..." 568 00:44:22,700 --> 00:44:27,140 He says, "Thousands of kilos of cocaine were being sold." 569 00:44:28,980 --> 00:44:30,780 And what did he do with that money? 570 00:44:30,780 --> 00:44:32,860 Well, as far as we're concerned, 571 00:44:32,860 --> 00:44:36,700 the interesting part comes at the very end 572 00:44:36,700 --> 00:44:39,340 of this lengthy document. 573 00:44:39,340 --> 00:44:41,580 In annexe one, 574 00:44:41,580 --> 00:44:46,460 part of Imperiale's listing of his personal possessions, 575 00:44:46,460 --> 00:44:50,100 which he's prepared to surrender to the state. 576 00:44:50,100 --> 00:44:53,060 "Due quadri di Vincent van Gogh." 577 00:44:53,060 --> 00:44:55,500 "Two paintings by Vincent van Gogh." 578 00:44:55,500 --> 00:44:58,460 "Di valore inestimabile" 579 00:44:58,460 --> 00:45:03,380 "Of priceless worth, which I purchased in 2002, 580 00:45:03,620 --> 00:45:08,780 "using the resources of the organisation, for five million euros." 581 00:45:12,260 --> 00:45:17,540 Now we know the real identity of Pinocchio - Raffaele Imperiale. 582 00:45:19,580 --> 00:45:24,060 This is the only known photograph of him, rather blurry, 583 00:45:24,060 --> 00:45:26,820 taken surreptitiously on the Isle of Man, 584 00:45:26,820 --> 00:45:28,860 where I imagine he was... 585 00:45:30,380 --> 00:45:34,620 ..laundering some drug money, putting some funds offshore. 586 00:45:34,620 --> 00:45:38,380 But why would he have said that he paid five million euros 587 00:45:38,380 --> 00:45:40,100 for the paintings 588 00:45:40,100 --> 00:45:44,500 when the Dutch were sure that only 100,000 euros had changed hands? 589 00:45:44,500 --> 00:45:46,740 It's certainly very Pinocchio. 590 00:45:46,740 --> 00:45:47,740 HE WHISTLES 591 00:45:49,100 --> 00:45:51,260 Why exaggerate? 592 00:45:51,260 --> 00:45:54,260 Why would he have wanted the paintings in the first place? 593 00:45:54,260 --> 00:45:56,500 And why did he confess? 594 00:46:01,620 --> 00:46:05,300 The answers lie in the Italian legal system itself, 595 00:46:05,300 --> 00:46:08,340 in a clause designed to encourage witnesses to speak out 596 00:46:08,340 --> 00:46:10,300 against organised crime. 597 00:46:11,460 --> 00:46:15,740 Imperiale always knew that valuable stolen goods, like the Van Goghs, 598 00:46:15,740 --> 00:46:18,460 could be traded against time in prison. 599 00:47:16,180 --> 00:47:19,260 Well, it's quite something to meet someone 600 00:47:19,260 --> 00:47:22,260 who was at the epicentre of the Camorra drug wars 601 00:47:22,260 --> 00:47:23,500 in the early 2000s. 602 00:47:23,500 --> 00:47:25,900 Goodness knows how many people she's put away, 603 00:47:25,900 --> 00:47:27,940 goodness knows what she's seen. 604 00:47:27,940 --> 00:47:33,100 But I think what she really nailed was the question of motive. 605 00:47:33,380 --> 00:47:36,620 You know, the question that's been bugging me throughout 606 00:47:36,620 --> 00:47:38,940 this investigation, if you like, 607 00:47:38,940 --> 00:47:42,780 why do these bad guys, why do they want paintings 608 00:47:42,780 --> 00:47:45,020 by the great artists, like Van Gogh? 609 00:47:45,020 --> 00:47:47,660 They know perfectly well that they can never sell them. 610 00:47:47,660 --> 00:47:49,300 Well, as Stefania explained, 611 00:47:49,300 --> 00:47:52,740 it's written into the Italian legal code that if you... 612 00:47:52,740 --> 00:47:55,100 ..if you give up some of your ill-gotten gains, 613 00:47:55,100 --> 00:47:56,180 if you return them... 614 00:47:57,180 --> 00:47:59,700 ..you get a much lower sentence. 615 00:47:59,700 --> 00:48:02,060 And if you have got something as valuable, 616 00:48:02,060 --> 00:48:03,700 not just to Italy but to the world, 617 00:48:03,700 --> 00:48:07,980 as a pair of paintings by Van Gogh, they are, if you like, 618 00:48:07,980 --> 00:48:10,140 the crook's ultimate bargaining chips 619 00:48:10,140 --> 00:48:12,340 when it comes to the final reckoning 620 00:48:12,340 --> 00:48:14,380 - how many years is he going to get behind bars? 621 00:48:20,500 --> 00:48:21,780 But after all this, 622 00:48:21,780 --> 00:48:24,740 still the question - where were the paintings? 623 00:48:37,860 --> 00:48:40,900 Although Imperiale's father has never taken part in 624 00:48:40,900 --> 00:48:43,980 his son's criminal activities, or been investigated, 625 00:48:43,980 --> 00:48:46,140 the search switched to his property. 626 00:49:14,220 --> 00:49:15,820 After nearly 14 years, 627 00:49:15,820 --> 00:49:19,500 the international investigation into the theft of 628 00:49:19,500 --> 00:49:24,100 two priceless Van Gogh paintings ended in an Italian kitchen. 629 00:49:25,340 --> 00:49:27,980 The search was finally over. 630 00:50:04,180 --> 00:50:07,700 The missing Van Gogh paintings were finally resurrected 631 00:50:07,700 --> 00:50:12,020 before the eyes of the world at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. 632 00:50:48,820 --> 00:50:52,380 These just symbolise the story of a miracle, really, 633 00:50:52,380 --> 00:50:55,180 because it's real coup that these works have been found again. 634 00:50:55,180 --> 00:50:57,580 And it's also a matter of, of course, 635 00:50:57,580 --> 00:51:00,620 local and national pride here in Italy. 636 00:51:00,620 --> 00:51:04,460 It's a coup against, also, the organised crime. 637 00:51:04,460 --> 00:51:08,060 So, in that sense, it is a celebration on many levels. 638 00:51:09,540 --> 00:51:13,300 There's now this added dimension of the crime and good versus evil, 639 00:51:13,300 --> 00:51:15,020 and now the good has won. 640 00:51:16,060 --> 00:51:20,340 It has always been an open wound, in a way, for all these years. 641 00:51:20,340 --> 00:51:22,780 And even though those works may not be, 642 00:51:22,780 --> 00:51:26,020 on the face of it, really famous works by Vincent van Gogh, 643 00:51:26,020 --> 00:51:28,540 they're really important, first, historically 644 00:51:28,540 --> 00:51:30,460 and also in terms of the family history 645 00:51:30,460 --> 00:51:32,300 and the personal history of the artist. 646 00:51:32,300 --> 00:51:33,660 So, in that sense, you know, 647 00:51:33,660 --> 00:51:36,180 they really left a gap when they disappeared 648 00:51:36,180 --> 00:51:38,740 and we're very happy that we can fill that gap again. 649 00:51:52,740 --> 00:51:54,060 Six months later, 650 00:51:54,060 --> 00:51:59,020 the paintings finally came back home to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. 651 00:52:06,940 --> 00:52:09,620 Before going back on permanent display, 652 00:52:09,620 --> 00:52:11,900 they need some tender loving care. 653 00:52:27,580 --> 00:52:30,980 Well, the first thing that was clearly visible 654 00:52:30,980 --> 00:52:34,740 when they came back was that, in the left corner, 655 00:52:34,740 --> 00:52:36,420 a piece is missing. 656 00:52:36,420 --> 00:52:39,940 I can see. The original support and the paint layers. 657 00:52:39,940 --> 00:52:45,020 It's a piece approximately two by seven centimetres. 658 00:52:45,100 --> 00:52:46,860 Quite a fragile thing, then. 659 00:52:46,860 --> 00:52:48,060 Yeah. But, all in all, 660 00:52:48,060 --> 00:52:50,820 I would say, given its status... 661 00:52:50,820 --> 00:52:52,340 Mm-hmm. 662 00:52:52,340 --> 00:52:56,180 ..as possibly the very earliest oil painting by Vincent van Gogh, 663 00:52:56,180 --> 00:52:58,380 it's actually in really good nick. 664 00:52:58,380 --> 00:53:00,220 Yeah, it is, quite, yeah. 665 00:53:00,220 --> 00:53:01,980 Very happy 666 00:53:01,980 --> 00:53:05,300 that no more severe damage has been done to the painting. 667 00:53:05,300 --> 00:53:08,780 Yeah. Now, in his letters, 668 00:53:08,780 --> 00:53:11,740 he says it's so difficult because the wind is blowing, 669 00:53:11,740 --> 00:53:13,260 there's this terrible storm. 670 00:53:13,260 --> 00:53:15,300 Yeah. And he actually refers to the fact 671 00:53:15,300 --> 00:53:17,260 that the painting gets covered in sand. 672 00:53:17,260 --> 00:53:19,060 Have you found any evidence of that, 673 00:53:19,060 --> 00:53:22,580 looking at the picture under the microscope or in X-ray? 674 00:53:22,580 --> 00:53:23,780 Yeah, yeah, we have. 675 00:53:25,060 --> 00:53:27,820 It's difficult to see with the naked eye, 676 00:53:27,820 --> 00:53:31,140 but with the microscope they are clearly visible. 677 00:53:31,140 --> 00:53:35,180 Especially in the sea part, you can see them everywhere, actually. 678 00:53:35,180 --> 00:53:37,100 What a thing. 679 00:53:38,460 --> 00:53:41,660 It is extraordinary that this painting, 680 00:53:41,660 --> 00:53:42,980 which was stolen... 681 00:53:44,540 --> 00:53:47,620 ..should have gone on this huge circular journey 682 00:53:47,620 --> 00:53:51,060 and have come all the way back, now, here. 683 00:53:51,060 --> 00:53:52,900 And I think at the time when it was stolen, 684 00:53:52,900 --> 00:53:55,220 some people tried to be cheerful by saying, 685 00:53:55,220 --> 00:53:59,180 "Oh, well, at least it's not one of Van Gogh's great paintings." 686 00:53:59,180 --> 00:54:00,380 Mm-hmm. 687 00:54:00,380 --> 00:54:03,420 But when I look at it now with you, it seems to me that, 688 00:54:03,420 --> 00:54:04,860 well, that was wrong. 689 00:54:04,860 --> 00:54:07,100 It might not be one of his masterpieces, 690 00:54:07,100 --> 00:54:10,460 but it's a very, very important painting. 691 00:54:10,460 --> 00:54:14,140 It's a very important piece of his wonderful, 692 00:54:14,140 --> 00:54:15,940 tragic, beautiful life. 693 00:54:15,940 --> 00:54:18,620 Yes. Because it's really the first time that we see him taking 694 00:54:18,620 --> 00:54:20,700 this material, oil paint, 695 00:54:20,700 --> 00:54:23,300 that he would do such magical things with 696 00:54:23,300 --> 00:54:25,220 and becoming excited by using it. 697 00:54:25,220 --> 00:54:28,060 Yeah. So it's a fantastically important picture. 698 00:54:28,060 --> 00:54:30,300 Yes. It's a wonderful thing that it's come back. 699 00:54:30,300 --> 00:54:31,900 Yeah, it is. 700 00:54:31,900 --> 00:54:34,900 It's the beginning of something, it's wonderfully exciting. 701 00:54:50,740 --> 00:54:53,180 So, Willem, here it is. 702 00:54:53,180 --> 00:54:55,180 Here it is. How amazing! 703 00:54:55,180 --> 00:54:57,060 Wow. Incredible. 704 00:54:57,060 --> 00:55:00,300 And you can imagine how extremely happy we were 705 00:55:00,300 --> 00:55:04,340 and really, really touched that this painting... 706 00:55:06,020 --> 00:55:10,860 ..came back home, back in its own home, the Van Gogh Museum. 707 00:55:10,860 --> 00:55:14,700 Wonderful. I feel very lucky, actually, to be here with you, 708 00:55:14,700 --> 00:55:16,380 looking at the painting. 709 00:55:17,500 --> 00:55:19,820 Initially, he made this 710 00:55:19,820 --> 00:55:23,180 and dedicated this painting to his mother. 711 00:55:23,180 --> 00:55:26,340 His father passed away one year later 712 00:55:26,340 --> 00:55:30,580 and he wanted to make a tribute to his father, 713 00:55:30,580 --> 00:55:34,220 and he added all those figures, darkly painted, 714 00:55:34,220 --> 00:55:37,300 as if they are attending a funeral, 715 00:55:37,300 --> 00:55:41,300 and symbolically the funeral of his father, of course. 716 00:55:41,300 --> 00:55:42,500 Goodness. Yeah. 717 00:55:43,780 --> 00:55:46,940 Beautiful painting. Really, really. It is a beautiful painting. 718 00:55:59,540 --> 00:56:03,100 At its heart, this has been a story, for me, 719 00:56:03,100 --> 00:56:07,740 about the sacred and the profane. 720 00:56:07,740 --> 00:56:10,780 Think of Vincent van Gogh, 721 00:56:10,780 --> 00:56:14,620 with his sacred sense of mission to be a painter, 722 00:56:16,300 --> 00:56:21,340 striving, struggling to create these visions of a blessed world. 723 00:56:23,340 --> 00:56:24,380 And then... 724 00:56:26,620 --> 00:56:29,300 ..think of the murky underworld, 725 00:56:29,300 --> 00:56:32,660 inhabited by characters like Raffaele Imperiale, 726 00:56:32,660 --> 00:56:37,780 a man prepared to use his drug money to buy, on the black market... 727 00:56:40,420 --> 00:56:43,100 ..paintings by Van Gogh. 728 00:56:45,940 --> 00:56:49,380 I don't think we should be surprised by the links 729 00:56:49,380 --> 00:56:54,660 between the criminal world and the world of great art, 730 00:56:55,060 --> 00:56:57,020 because criminals aren't stupid. 731 00:56:58,140 --> 00:57:02,020 They know, they understand, the great value 732 00:57:02,020 --> 00:57:05,020 that we set on works of art by the great painters. 733 00:57:06,100 --> 00:57:07,660 They understand that... 734 00:57:08,980 --> 00:57:11,260 ..if they own one or two of those things, 735 00:57:11,260 --> 00:57:14,340 when the time comes for their last judgment... 736 00:57:15,580 --> 00:57:17,620 ..they can use them, they can give them back... 737 00:57:19,020 --> 00:57:20,860 ..in order to get a few years off. 738 00:57:22,460 --> 00:57:25,260 The very nature of the transaction, 739 00:57:25,260 --> 00:57:29,940 in which the masterpiece is the criminal's bargaining chip, 740 00:57:29,940 --> 00:57:34,540 means that, in almost every case, we will get the paintings back. 741 00:57:36,820 --> 00:57:39,540 But it isn't a straightforward process 742 00:57:39,540 --> 00:57:42,380 and you do always need a little stroke of luck. 743 00:57:43,580 --> 00:57:44,780 So if you hadn't been 744 00:57:45,860 --> 00:57:47,900 looking that deeply into the organisation... 745 00:57:47,900 --> 00:57:49,460 Yes. ..you would never have got him... 746 00:57:49,460 --> 00:57:52,180 Yes. ..and you would never have known about these Van Goghs. 747 00:57:52,180 --> 00:57:53,140 Yes.