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The Billion Dollar Art Hunt

Journalist John Wilson follows a tip-off that the world's biggest art theft from a Boston museum, valued at one billion dollars, could resurface - not in America but in Dublin.

In June 2019, arts journalist John Wilson received an extraordinary tip-off – one billion dollars’ worth of stolen art may be about to be recovered. Included are a unique Rembrandt - his only seascape - and a Vermeer considered the most valuable stolen painting in the world. The art was taken from the walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in the early hours of 18 March 1990. It remains the world’s biggest unsolved art heist. For John, to follow the recovery of the paintings, as it happens, would be the biggest art story of the century.

What makes the tip-off more surprising is where it is believed the art might be found - behind a wall in a house in west Dublin. That’s 3,000 miles from where the FBI have always believed they would find it. For the last 30 years, their investigations have focused on Boston on the premise that the thieves were Italian-American and that the art has never left America.

John’s source is Charley Hill, a former detective in the Metropolitan Police Art Squad with a record of recovering famous paintings estimated at $100 million, including Munch’s The Scream and a Vermeer stolen from an Irish stately home. He works privately now but is convinced that his intelligence about the Boston art theft is solid. A notorious Dublin gangster cultivated by Charley for years says he knows where the art can be found and wants to claim the $10 million reward.

Documenting the journey promises to be a fast moving, high profile story. But Charley has a warning for John too: β€˜The problem is, and it’s a serious problem, is no-one gets maimed or murdered.’ That worry is never far away as John goes into a very different art world, one where good art is in the hands of bad men.

59 minutes

Last on

Thu 22 Oct 2020 00:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Four

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:02

    DJ Shadow

    Stem / Long Stem

  • 00:04

    Plaid

    Do Matter

  • 00:10

    Robert Young, Bobby Gillespie, Martin Duffy, Paul Mulreany, Gary Mounfield, Andrew Innes, Primal Scream

    Get Duffy

  • 00:14

    Aphex Twin

    Schottkey 7th Path

  • 00:17

    Nightmares on Wax

    You Wish

  • 00:26

    Bonobo

    Silver

  • 00:37

    Aphex Twin

    i

  • 00:43

    Portico Quartet

    Ruins

Credits

Presenter John Wilson
Editor Chris Buckland
Executive Producer Ross Wilson
Director Michael Waldman
Director Matthew Hill

Broadcasts

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