Stolen Art, Artifacts and Diamonds | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

The theft of cambodia's cultural Treasures thousands of sacred stone bronze and gold artifacts from religious sites across the country might just be the greatest art heist in history it began nearly a century ago when Cambodia was colonized by France but in the 1970s 80s and '90s amidst genocide Civil War and political turmoil the Looting became a global business much of it run by a British man named Douglas latchford he Kept some of it for himself but much of what his gang of Thieves stole latchford then sold to wealthy private collectors and some of the most

important museums around the world as we first reported in December cambodia's government has spent the last 10 years trying to track it all down and bring their history and Heritage home uncor watt with its towering spires is the glory of Cambodia nearly a thousand years old it's one of the Biggest and most extraordinary religious temples in the world sprawling across 400 Acres originally built to honor the Hindu god Vishnu it then became a Buddhist temple and remains a place of worship today you can wander here for weeks lost in a Labyrinth of ancient stone corridors

and sacred Chambers but the scars of plunder Run Deep looters have hacked off the heads of many statues they've stolen bodies as well empty pedestals Mark where gods and Deities once stood on some only the feet remain it's worse in the rest of cambodia's 4,000 temples nearly all have been looted this one is 100 miles Northeast of Anor wat on a remote mountain called s dock this was hit very heavily by the Looting gang they found gold they found statues they found many many things that's Brad Gordon an American lawyer who's been working for the

Cambodian government for 10 years tracking down Its stolen Treasures he brought us to sandok with his team of investigators archaeologists and art Scholars this is so cool in the Temple's crumbling Courtyard little remains mostly empty pedestals scattered among the Stow trees it's remarkable to me just how much stuff is just scattered on the ground yes it's like a pedestal graveyard we've all seen in museums these statues with no feet on them and I don't think people realize the feet were hacked off because In order to steal them that's the easiest way to to get them

off the pedestal and we know when the looters came to sites like this the first thing they took was the heads that was the easiest to grab and then later on maybe they come back and get the Torso but they were not very careful so they left behind pieces for cambodians these statues are not just works of art they are sacred deities that hold the souls of their Ancestors to whom they ask for guidance and pray this is incredible these were all looted yes all looted all of these heads off head was cut off yes

Fang Sak cambodia's minister of culture is in charge of the government's efforts to track down their St and gods we met her in a closely guarded Warehouse not far from Anor watt where more than 6,000 pieces from temples across the country are stored for safekeeping each one sculpted by an artisan from an ancient CH Empire that lasted for more than five centuries and Spann Cambodia La Thailand and Vietnam so the statues have a soul the statues are are they living of course yes and we believe that we can talk with them they will here they

will see what do you want what do you see what do you do in your life in your house outside in the society also they're watching they're watching everywhere Fang Sak's entire family was killed in the genocide that began in 1975 when the Chim Rouge a radical communist group took over forcing millions of cambodians into labor camps some 2 million people nearly a quarter of the population were slaughtered or starved to death the CH Rouge lost power in 1979 but fighting and instability continued for decades leaving cambodia's temples unprotected and vulnerable easy targets for unscrupulous

Antiquities dealers like Douglas latchford who was Douglas latchford I would say that he Was in many ways The Mastermind behind the greatest art heist in history the greatest art heist in history yes in terms of scope and multitude of crime sites and the enormous amount of statues that were taken out latchford lived in Thailand an enigmatic British businessman he began collecting in the 1960s he had it seems two great loves Cambodian Antiquities and Thai bodybuilders sponsored bangkok's biggest Bodybuilding competition the latchford classic how would you describe him he was extremely deceptive I think in many

ways was ruthless but he hid that behind this incredible facade of charm latchford portrayed himself as a scholar and protector of cambodia's culture a reputation he burnished by donating sculptures the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and other prestigious institutions he also published three Books filled with the finest examples of Cambodian Antiquities many of them it turns out latchford had stolen he was using the books as sales catalogs you know he was handing them out he was using them to sell pieces and and he understood a certain psychology of collectors out there that if

they see something in a beautiful book they think it's legitimate you're doing the transcript right now right those books have been an invaluable guide for Brad Gordon and his team helping them compile a database of thousands of missing artifacts many of which they didn't know existed until latchford published photos of them Gordon's team got their big break when they met this man in 2012 he was a former Chim Rouge Child Soldier and leader of a gang of looters his name was D duck that first meeting I I didn't really know who we had met you

know I knew I knew that he was important um I knew that many people were telling me he Was the best and I knew that he was feared why were people afraid of him you know over the years he had killed many people it turned out day duck had worked for decades supplying Douglas latchford with thousands of tre treasures and he was amazed to see them again in latchfords books he kept opening the book and going back to the front cover and and going through and tapping and saying I know this one I know this

one I know this one and when he says he knew This one means he he helped loot those ones um that's what we learn later yeah gold day duck became a key confidential source for Gordon's team they gave him a code name lion to protect his identity and followed him to dozens of temples where he confessed what he'd found and how he'd stolen it he would say to us I'm going to transfer everything in my head to you I'm going to tell you everything every secret you felt like his memory was very good it was

accurate It was unbelievable he remembered the size of everything measured against his body he would use his arm to show us how long a statue was why do you think he wanted to cooperate you know he felt tremendously guilty about many things he had done in his life about the killing about the Looting and we offered him a road of redemption a way to do something really good at the end of his [Music] Life they recorded hundreds of hours of lion's testimony he explained how gangs of looters would spend weeks at remote temples using shovels

chisels metal detectors even Dynamite to find and dig out Treasures dozens of men would hoist heavy stone statues onto Ox carts before transporting them across the border into Thailand and into the hands of Douglas lashford lion never met lashford but he'd sent him photographs of artifacts he could choose from we hear about them Saying Oh we had to go to this Tempo and take a photo and then sending it back you know my senses he was shopping he had a list that looters knew his priorities like these which came from a temple complex called C

the statue CH from there had a distinctive style that latchford loved it was however a dangerous business most lutters only made enough to buy food for their families and fighting between ribal gangs was common People were killed over these these Antiquities do you look at these as blood statues uh for sure they're blood Antiquities whenever I see a statue I think about you know who died to to get this out of the ground or get it out of a temple and to to move it here so so much of this looting was done in the

shadow of the war shadow of the genocide it was this 500 lb Sandstone Warrior from COC that appeared in a soube auction catalog in 2011 that put Douglas latchford on the radar of US law enforcement its feet were missing and the price tag an estimated $2 to3 million when it appeared in the market there were a number of archaeologists a number of people who immediately recognized the the source of the statue as being a specific temple in Cambodia it came from COC that's right until he retired last September JP labat was a special agent on

the cultural property art and Antiquities unit with Homeland Security a team from the US attorney's office at the southern district of New York traveled to Cambodia um to inspect the site where the statue had been removed and so the base um was still there with it with the feet still in the ground and so um they were able to match that base and feet to the Statue and that was enough evidence to get the statue pulled off the market that's right after years of legal wrangling SES finally agreed to send this stolen Warrior back to

Cambodia a ceremony was held welcoming it home and investigators were able to trace its original sale back to Douglas latchford who was asked about it repatriation in a German documentary in 2014 is it a good day for Cambodia or is it a bad day for the Art Market if these things are coming Beck it's a good day for Cambodia it's a bad day for the Art Market law enforcement in New York was closing in on latchford but he claimed Prosecutors had him all wrong their imagination has gone wild they've seen too many Indiana Jones films

as far as I know there is no such thing as a smuggling Network and I certainly don't belong to any smuggling Network the attempted sale of this statue in 2011 was that a turning point in the unraveling of Douglas latchford I would say yes that case put more of a a focus and a spotlight on him and then efforts were were then doubled To like really peel back the onion and look into latchfords activities the testimony of former looters found by Brad Gordon and his team was critical for the US attorney's case against latchford how

rare is it to actually have access to the looters to people who actually stole these things 10 20 30 years ago I know of no other case where where that's happened and U it's quite remarkable to have looters actively assisting a team of Investigators to recover artifacts that they had a firsthand in helping remove from the country Douglas latchford was finally indicted by us authorities in 2019 for smuggling conspiracy wire fraud and other charges but he died before he could be put on trial Brad Gordon eventually convinced latch's family to return his personal collection of

stolen Treasures among the first pieces to come home in 2021 was this statue from C lion weakened by cancer came to inspect it in cambodia's National Museum to terrify it was the same one he dug out of the ground and then he turned to me and he said it's the real Statue you know it was a remarkable thing to watch and just his his relationship it it was living to him do you think he was happy it was back throughout so happy he knew that he had done something good lion died a few months later

but The secrets he revealed continued to bring statues back back to cambodia's National Museum masterpieces that left the country long before these school children were born does the return of these statues these Gods helps some to heal yes to get back the soul of the nation the soul of the nation it's not only for me but all for my family who was died during the war and for for all Cambodian people there are still many more stolen Cambodian statues and artifacts in museums and private collections around the world when we return cambodia's fight to get

those looted relics back it's taken a team of Cambodian investigators led by Brad Gordon an American lawyer more than 10 years to document the theft of thousands of ancient statues and Relics by a British ctor named Douglas latchford as we reported last December they' managed to get some of what he stole back but many Of cambodia's greatest treasures are still out there hidden away in the Mansions of millionaires and billionaires and hiding in plain sight on display in some of the most prestigious museums around the world the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has

one of the most important collections of Cambodian Antiquities in the world but many of the finest pieces on display here in the Southeast Asian art Wing are stolen like this one and This one this as well all passed through the hands of Douglas latchford latchford sold this one to the met in the early 1990s this one he donated do you think people visiting the Met know that these were looted I think most people walk through the Met they have no idea those are blood Antiquities they have no idea what what the history is behind those

pieces they don't know uh the temples they came from they don't know the people who are killed to get them here The dirt has been brushed off there's a little note that says where it came from should people believe what's on that little note no absolutely not last year we went with Brad Gordon to see where in Cambodia the met and other museums collections really did come from this is incredible this seven-story pyramid is more than a thousand years old and Rises out of the Jungle in COK in Northeast Cambodia it's one of dozens of

temples and what was Once the capital of an ancient Chim Empire lutters have been all over this site for for decades correct Douglas lred loved the statuary in love with the beauty in love with the artistic the statues from here have a distinctive style that he particularly loved correct and perhaps the most famous statues in that distinctive style that latchford stole from COC were nine Stone Warriors once arranged together in a battle scene today seven had been returned to the National museum in panom pen including this 500 lb Sandstone sculpture it's the one SES tried

to sell in 2011 they're back on their original pedestals their ankles reunited with their feet hacked off by looters this was at s's this is at Christie's n Simon n Simon Museum habt is the secetary of State in cambodia's Ministry of culture he's working with Brad Gordon to bring back the two Co statues whose empty pedestals sit in the museum so do you Know what are supposed to be on we know you know what are supposed to be here and you know what suppos be here among nine sculpture we have seven already only two missing

one of those missing sculptures was discovered in the glossy pages of architectural digest in 2008 this mythical Army commander and a stunning number of other stolen Works were all together in the Palm Beach Mansion of the late billionaire George lindaman and his wife Freda the ancient Treasures of Cambodia were sitting in the living room of an incredibly wealthy family in America in Florida on display while people were having cocktails and the one thing that I'm always struck by is how many people witnessed it and have been silent and continue to be silent today the lindaman

spent an estimated $20 million building the collection with the help of Douglas latchford Freda lindaman didn't respond to our request for an interview but in COC we showed her home to two former looters what do you think of this house it's a beautiful house he said it looks like it belongs to a King the former lutters pointed out another statue in the lindaman's living room they said they helped steal this reclining figure of the Hindu god Vishnu they said it was dug out of the ground from this exact spot in late 1995 you're 100% sure

this was taken from here by you and others in 1995 Yeah I'm sure they also identified a number of other statues they say they stole that appear in books published by Douglas lashford they say they found this copper statue using a metal detector this is BU yeah they dug it out of the ground here in 1990 JP labat former special agent with Homeland Security found photos of the Statue covered in dirt on Douglas latchfords computer latchford sold it to the met in 1992 And here it is still on display you were able to get access

to some of ler emails yes um and in there um there are detailed um stories about the manner in which he obtained pieces the fact that he was having them reassembled um and repaired that dirt and and crustations were being um cleaned off of them they were freshly dug out of the ground fresh the these were fresh pieces that he would describe in his emails that needed a level of restoration Before he could even attempt to sell them Douglas latchford was indicted in 2019 but died before he could be put on trial Federal prosecutors in

New York however continue tracing his looted artifacts they believe at least 18 of them have landed up at the Met I am very involved in our work on provenance Andrea Bayer is deputy director for collections and administration at the Met the Met has said that they will return objects based upon rigorous Evidentiary review what rigorous evidentiary review was done before acquiring these pieces not enough it seems like the Met had a don't ask don't tell policy they wanted to build up their collection and nobody was really asking questions where it came from for people many

people in the art World there was a sense of protecting great objects that stood a chance of being destroyed we no longer feel about it that way Under Pressure 10 Years ago the Met did return two statues called kneeling attendance which had been donated to them by Douglas latchford in 2013 when you returned the kneeling attendance did you investigate the other items that Douglas latchford had brought to this Museum I don't know the answer to that question I can only pick up the story several years later when Doug Douglas latchford was indicted in 2019 when

we immediately and proactively went to the US attorney's Office and offered our full Co cor operation well I can pick up the story actually in 2013 because a spokesman for the Met said that no special effort was going to be made to check the provenances of any other Douglas latchford donated work why wouldn't the Met want to look into everything else that Douglas latchford had brought to this Museum I can't speculate about why that didn't happen but no one investigated all the Other items that Douglas lford gave not to my knowledge the Met is not

the only only major museum with looted Cambodian artifacts but its collection is one of the largest in the world last year the museum announced it would create a research team to examine the provenance or acquisition history of all its collections it's taken 10 years since Douglas lashford was shown to have given stolen property to the Met for the Met to set up this provenance team why is it taken 10 years it was a slow process I'll grant you that it was a slow process but um I think that the fact that we are um fully

engaged now fully Cooperative now is is our only answer to this really it's a moment of Reckoning and we're ready to do what it takes now uh to write whatever the wrong is but we four years ago when Douglas lashford was indicted by prosecutors did you set up a team to Check the provenance of every lashford work we started absolutely we started to dig right then and there um it's not easy I mean the fact that we don't have much information has to do with the fact that it's very hard information for federal there's enough

information for federal prosecutors to charge Douglas lashford with stealing and looting and trafficking and smuggled items how much more evidence do you need you haven't returned any of the any Douglas latchford related items since he's been indicted that was four years we are on the verge of of of returning a number of them all of them that I can't say that interview took place in September two days before we went to air prosecutors announced the Met would return 13 Antiquities that came through Douglas latchford but the Met is not returning this statue which was specifically

cited in the indictment of Latchford or this one which latchford sold to the met in 1992 cambodia's culture Minister called the Met's announcement a first step and says she looks forward to the return of many more of our Treasures shouldn't museums have thought twice about buying things that were coming out of Cambodia in during the genocide and Civil War and Decades of strife and and this question that you rais is really the Crux of of what we're wrestling with you acquired pieces from A known Smuggler who um used a team of looters that the government

has interviewed and taken statements from um they have emails which refute the information in your own provenance at the Museum you have items in the museum which were named in the indictment of latchford that are still there and so these pieces should go back there's no question it's the right thing to do this past September the lindaman Family whose collection was showcased in architectural digest struck a deal with Federal authorities voluntarily agreeing to return 33 stolen Treasures in a statement to the New York Times the lindaman said having purchased these items from dealers that we

assumed were reputable we were saddened to learn how they made their way to the market in the United States why did the lindamans agree to return their collection to Cambodia the piece for jity um I think They finally came around to the the fact that lashford was dirty their collection was was all looted pieces it was obvious and so they they decided to surrender them we got a Peak at what was the lindaman collection shortly after the deal was done it was sitting in a warehouse in Upstate New York a nation's living gods and ancestors

waiting for a ride home this is like a whole wing of a museum a wing of a museum that only the lindamans and their friends had access To if the lyans hadn't published these in architectural digest back in 2008 I think there a good chance we maybe never would have found it we always say the gods want to come home we feel like the gods have spoke broken today they want to come up as one of the biggest crates was being opened waiting eagerly was Moy Kung tang and Tida long two members of Brad Gordon's

investigative team this would be their first look at the Mythical Army Commander taken from COC they were likely the first cambodians to set eyes on it since Douglas latchford stole it more than 50 years ago he's here there's a look in his eyes and on his face it's much bigger than I expected it to be its presence is extraordinary I did not expect to feel this way even the commander seemed to be smiling then it was time to see the rarest piece in the lindaman's Collection the Cambodian team knelt in reverence as the Hindu god

Vishnu was uncrated despite all the fuss he appeared unperturbed reclining in a cosmic Slumber when this statue arrived in Cambodia it will be welcomed as one of the most important ever [Music] returned two Cambodian artifacts donated by the lindaman family to the Met are still on display this month the Cambodian government submitted a list of 49 Antiquities held by the Met they claim or stolen and want back in October a un report found new evidence that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine with deliberate killings and widespread use of torture but they have yet to

examine the intentional destruction of cultural property which also is a war crime Ukraine accuses Russian forces of targeting churches libraries and looting The country's most important museums and while plunder is as old as War itself Ukrainian investigators say this is different they see a campaign of cultural genocide to destroy Ukraine's identity as a nation as we reported in November a network of cultural Warriors in Ukraine is building the case against Russia it's a Heritage War one told us and we joined them on the front lines not much was left of the Tiny Village of viaz

zivka a few hours Northwest of keev after Russian forces overwhelmed the region in 2022 but we weren't prepared for this my God so ehor what happened here liberation of Ukraine by Russian occupation forces you see what this Liberation means why would they target a church in this small village this was the main place and it was targeted just to destroy what keeps the whole village the whole Community together ehor poselo is director of the Contemporary Maan Museum in keev he'd brought us to see the carcass of the Church of the Nativity on Ukraine's Heritage list

hoso told us the Russians had deliberately shelled it when they retreated there was no fighting nearby built in 1862 the church had survived two world wars communism and a reol solution but not this so what message do you think the Russians were trying to send by destroying this church we are strong you should be a fair of us and we will do What we want to do we don't need you on this land we don't need your Traditions beliefs your culture you're not you do not exist erase you erase you exactly as we sifted through

the wreckage poo told us the church had been famous for its unique centuries old folk art and these are all paintings yes and you can see that they still have look at there some to he told us this was one of 700 churches that have been hit so far some were collateral damage many were Not to document the destruction poo co-founded the Heritage emergency response initiative a sort of cultural SWAT team that travels to damage sites interviewing eyewitnesses and saving what they can it's not nightmare for me because every morning I get up and I

think that it's it's not reality what we have and at the same time the feelings that we will never forgive never forgive we'll never forgive I mean the cultural Legacy cultural heritage this is what Make us rich and what we have to protect and pass to Future Generations that's why I can see it's of the front lines in this war because destroying our past Russians tries to destroy our future it's not only churches hundreds of museums libraries and monuments have been bombed burned or shelled in 2022 the Russians raised this small Folk Museum near keev

to the ground nearby buildings were untouched farther east Russian Artillery Destroyed this Museum local carried out the only surviving statue of its patron saint like a wounded patient Paso and others told us they believe it's a strategy that comes straight from the Kremlin for years Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly dismissed Ukraine's right to exist at all we are all Russians he said many Museum workers have been arrested even kidnapped by Russian soldiers you don't usually think of Museum workers as being in danger uh they are among the first people Russians come for why well

first of all they are interested in the collections where did they hide the collections uh what is the value of the collections and the second reason is uh Museum workers are leaders uh in their Community Mila cha is head of international exhibits at the national War Museum in keev she helped set up a Museum crisis hotline for workers in the war zone trying to save their collections they were soon swamped with calls for help sending money for Russian bribes devising Escape Routes hiding paintings and sometimes just to talk you cut off all your emotions trying

to do everything you can to help putting it all through yourself it is really difficult and at some point you realize yeah that you have a PT already although you haven't been to the Forefront Melena cha told us many workers actually moved into their mums to help guard the collections even as the bombs fell in the North during the siege of chern she told us about one Museum worker who moved in with her 8-year-old daughter there was no electricity no water no heat when it got really bad Weeks Later volunteers trying to deliver a generator

to the museum were killed she stayed she stayed she stayed until The Liberation yes and now she is in the Army what do you think of that I believe at some point she might have uh acknowledged that uh what we are doing is not good enough and at some point we will all have to become soldiers we might all have to become soldiers Ukraine has accused Russia of looting more than 30 museums calling it the biggest art theft since the Nazis in World War II in Haron Russian soldiers cut paintings from Frames dragged out Priceless

Antiques and cleaned out more than 10,000 works of art even so cha told us many Museum workers wouldn't leave how can I leave these things uh to be looted or destroyed if I know it's the history that will last for Generations can you explain that passion to me I might not be able to say that without emotions uh but um um I think that um well speaking of Myself uh I understand that uh the value of these items it's much higher than the price of my life higher than the price of your life yes yes

because um the scope of effect these artifacts can have on future Generations it's uncomparable to the scope of affect me myself a single person can do for the culture cha told us a top Russian Target was Ukraine's Priceless cian Gold collection at the mopal museum museum workers hastily hid The treasures in cardboard boxes in the Museum's dank unfinished basement when the invaded they wasted no time before heading to the museum threatening to shoot the locks off the door to break in this CCTV footage never broadcast before shows the Russians harassing employees searching the museum stashing

what they took in white cloth sacks that morning they left without finding the gold undeterred a group of soldiers turned up at the door of Museum director Leela iova and kidnapped her they put a bag over your head and kidnapped you I was very scared she told us there were eight of them they were wearing balaclavas and carried machine guns one soldier did all the Talking they turned my house upside down then they put a bag on my head and put me in a car iova is in hiding so we agreed not to show her

face she told us the Russians interrogated her about the mus Museum but she refused to cooperate they let Her go but when her name later surfaced on a Russian Execution list she fled the country my life was at risk she told us and staying would jeopardize my colleagues my family I was afraid my husband and son would be searched again in the end the Russians found the gold 198 ancient gold artifacts worth Untold Millions the Russians plunder has all the earmarks of a war crime according to Vitali ties a criminal lawyer of 30 Years what

tells you that this was deliberate uh he leads a new unit of the Ukrainian military investigating Russia's targeting of Heritage sites intentionally looting or destroying cultural property during a war is a crime but tich told us the Russians have flipped the law on its head cultural property protection the Russians keep saying they're evacuating these artifacts to safeguard them during the fighting he Told us and they will return them when the war is over that is a lie and we are ready to prove it but titit told us he's under no Illusions there have only been

two convictions for cultural war crimes since the law was passed in 1954 so Ukraine wants to prosecute Russia for war crimes How likely do you think they will actually be prosecuted I'm worried he told us the international treaties to prevent war Crimes have not proven effective nor he said has the international criminal court but that's all we've got okay let's go in in the village of Luca shifka outside chern Museum director ehor poso showed us what was left after the Russians set up a base camp inside this church a protected architectural Monument this is really

something in the battle to force the Russians out a massive fire demolished the church's historic Frescos here also you can see you can see the pl from the wall behind it still have the cross here yeah so the the church itself had so many layers of history and culture but everything is lost now in the Nave look at this this was all that was left poso told us this war is about more than land this is the war against our historical memory against our being Ukrainian you said before against your soul against exactly against our

soul Against everything which makes us ukrainians and if is from Russia and this war has the signs of been a genocide war against genocide Nation you consider this genocide yes because is it's an attempt to totally destroy Ukraine and Ukrainian Nation but it will never work push of told us the more the Russians attack the more resilient ukrainians become we saw proof of that at the holy Derm Mission cathedral in ke A 3D laser scanner was meticulously capturing every architectural detail so that if disaster strikes the church can be rebuilt it's work that's going on

across the country saving the cultural soul of Ukraine for future Generations [Music] two years ago German authorities conducting a routine tax investigation stumbled on the largest Trove of missing art since the end of World War II the Massive collection barely a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of artworks still missing was discovered in a Munich apartment owned by Cornelius guret the reclusive 81-year-old son of one of Hitler's favorite art dealers most of it was Art plundered from museums and from Jewish collections for Germans it was an unwelcome reminder of a bitter history to the Airs

of the victims it's perhaps a last chance to recover a small vestage of family history the discovery also Triggered a legal battle about who really owns that art did you have any idea that he had so many paintings in that apartment I tell you what nobody had any idea about this really how can you live with 1,400 paintings in a in a flat in 90 Square met flat I thought maybe is 100 or 150 but once we were all everybody was surprised you know egard guret is Cornelius G's cousin a rather flamboyant photographer now living

in Barcelona his friends were his Paintings right and for the last 60 years he was living with his paintings this was his his idea of life no of the, 1400 1,46 you got it right down to the last one I mean it's different if you have 1,400 Picasso or you have 1,46 Picasso was just the beginning Cornelius sket secret horde of art included Modern Masters like matis shagal France Mark and uto dicks git's small world fell apart in 2010 almost by Accident traveling back from Switzerland to Germany a customs inspection brought him under suspicion and

triggered a tax investigation that would be his undoing they had caught him uh on a train with €9,000 in cash in his pocket um which made him suspicious then they tried to look him up in their files and they couldn't find them the man didn't seem to exist he was not registered he didn't pay taxes he didn't receive any benefits so the man was just not there bil CTE is A lawyer who who specializes in tracking down stolen art I can imagine the the conclusions they drew uh when they saw this old man surrounded by

by hundreds and hundreds of works of art there's something very fishy going on and maybe he's a secret art dealer maybe he's involved in some smuggling activities there must be enormous amounts of money at stake it was on February 28 2012 that Agents from the German Customs police rated a fifth floor apartment in This nondescript building in Munich it's fair to say they were blown away by what they found, 1400 works of art some of them worth millions they also found 80-year-old Cornelius guret a virtual hermit who said The only friends he had in this

world were his art art thought to be worth over a billion dollar art piled on shells much of it art the Nazis declared to be degenerate it was Art taken from the walls of museums and from Jewish owned Galleries and collectors All of it acquired by hilderbrand guret cornelius's father he was a leading art dealer chosen by Hitler to sell the art to customers abroad for hard currency much of it featured in a 1937 degenerate art show in which Hitler wanted to show Germans what he regarded as the decadence and depravity of Modern avangard Art

art historian Vanessa voked a specialist in art of that era was called in by police during the raid I saw there Cornelius gulet um he is an a man who was Ill he was um afraid and he he didn't speak Cordelia sat stunned as agents went through his apartment did he say anything to you or to the agents from the government no he he was really shocked of this situation I think in this apartment there were no people for for many many years I think there were perhaps a an art dealer um but but no

one else did he seem to be sane yeah he Was his cousin says after cornelius's father died he never allowed anyone into the apartment or his crumbling house in salsburg Austria where he kept a collection of 238 works of art of immense value like this painting by Monae he gave him the whole collection of of these paintings as inheritance right for so to to survive so every time Corel went run out of money he he sold one of these paintings almost overlooked among the cash was a small drawing of a Piano player by the German

romanticist Spitz it's one of the it is a drawing Martha Henrickson has spent the better part of her life trying to track down the Nazis had confiscated it from her grandfather Henry henriksson along with his entire art collection before the girl collection was discovered had you pretty much given up hope I was absolutely stunned I wasn't expecting anything like that during the raid agents found GT's father's records From 1940 which revealed details of a sale of four Works once owned by her grandfather the sale was really theft by other means Henrik had never received the

money in 1942 he was gassed at aitz legally it was a sale morally and ethically is another question but was a sale with with a seller having no choice exactly another painting girl at had was two Riders on the beach by Max Lee liberman now valued at more than a million dollar they stopped us David Torren now 88 and blind left Germany on a Kinder transport days before the War Began he last saw the painting at his uncle's home in breesa just before his father was arrested by the Nazis both parents were murdered at aitz

there came two guys from the gapo we have instructions to take take you to G sto headquarters that day I remember every little detail I were sitting in the an room at the Winter Garden and looked at the picture and that was the last time I Saw that picture T had been searching for any trace of his family's art collection but all he found was a 1939 Nazi inventory that mentions the liberman painting The Letter says that the action to confiscate art owned by Jews has been very successful but there are still some rich Jews

left and this first example he mentions my uncle and the letter ends with I warned the Jew David fredman not To dispose of any of the odd objects until we come back after the war the all art Recovery Unit The Monuments Men found and returned millions of artworks they also found hilderbrand guret hiding out in this Bavarian Castle owned by a local Nazi party leader inside were hundreds of treasures hilderbrand and his young son Cornelius had hidden many more were apparently stashed in hiding places all over Germany The Monuments Men took some of his paintings

but they Let him keep most of his collection did they not that's an unresolved mystery I think up to this day he was able to produce one story after another about how he had acquired these before the war and for reasons that I have a hard time understanding is he got away with it among the artworks in that castle was David torrin's uncle's painting Hilder Brad Glick told The Monuments Men it was a gift from his parents before the war and that painting Like most of the others was returned to him did he feel any

guilt working for the Nazis I'm sorry but he had to survive so what would you do I mean this is this is just a thing what what what would you do but was he as innocent as he claimed most of these artworks were stolen I think confiscated from Jewish families or or stolen now hanis Haron and Tito Park two lawyers who represented Cly guret say the sins of the father should Not be visited on the son pip and geret was not completely innocent that's that's for sure now they are cases we will deal them in

a fair manner because you know under German law morality has nothing to say no I'm I'm sorry to tell you that the German law it's a law which which has not been made for the horrible outcome of the Third Reich and all that happened so now what we are talking about now is about morality and how to deal with moral Responsibility German law puts a 30-year statute of limitations on stolen property so the works by law Remain the property of Cornelius giret as for the art itself authorities won't explain why they kept the discovery a

secret for nearly two years how strong is the government's criminal case against him they really don't have a strong case they pretend to have a case because they have of course to justify the SE seizure of the whole collection right now the Collection is in the hands of a task force which is examining each work for evidence of looting ingred berren Merkel heads up the task force uve Hartman is the chief researcher he says even as Germany was collapsing in 1945 the Nazis were dutifully recording the art theft why did they keep these records of

the evidence of their own crimes you must throw public documents away that's what they learned that's that's what they did that's uh the German grunt kite it's his Duty yeah they weren't allowed to until the last day the task force is initially examining 590 works as potentially looted from Jews starting with this matis with which was looted from Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1941 beyond the the minutia of legality there's a larger question that's the moral question 80 years after Hitler took over 75 years after the synagogues burned in Germany yes we know that's

the moral obligation and we take it Seriously very seriously on the other side there are the laws so you're not making judgments no we are not a court we can't we must but you could still recommend Mr G told me when I talked to him said what's what's been taken away what's had been robbed what his words has to be given back Cornelius guret who's recovering from a hard operation says the collection is rightfully his and that his father did nothing wrong but he says He is willing to negotiate what a lot of people might

wonder but what there's nothing to negotiate here these paintings either belong to German museums and should go back to the German museums or to Jews who owned Collections and were forced to sell them Mr gett is absolutely willing to find Fair Solutions but what we need of course is clear evidence because we have some letters addressed to Mr git saying look my Grandma had a a specific painting 70 Years ago uh in her living room no evidence nothing as for Martha henrikson she's filed a claim with the task force but has little confidence she'll ever

see her grandfather's drawing quite honestly I don't believe in my lifetime because I think this is going to be a long long battle Cornelius guret is close to an agreement with the German authorities he's agreed to give up paintings proven to be stolen and will retain the rest The largest most successful gang of Diamond Thieves in the world is credited with over 370 heists worth 500 millionar and it's getting bigger and more daring every year the gang is composed of networks of teams who work together in Europe mostly but they've done jobs in 35 countries

as far a field as Tokyo and Dubai F they are ex yugoslavs many fought in the Serbian Special Forces during the Bosnian Wars they are called The Pink Panthers and that's not a joke They got their name from those famous Peter sers movies of the 70s and 80s but as you can well imagine there are scores of Jewelers and cops in many countries who do not find them funny at all their exploits have become the stuff of Legend but what they did in Dubai a few years ago shocked even the police officers who'd been after

them for years security camera footage captured the scene at the upscale waffy mall they Drove right into the mall in two Audi crashed the cars into the doors of the graph jewelry store then men in Commando gear jumped out ran into the shop seemed perfectly relaxed as they broke into glass cases and baged diamonds worth three and a half million dollars then they got back in their cars and just drove away how did you react when you heard about the Dubai Heist I mean it was pretty Brazen wasn't it I had to see the video

of it to believe that they Actually drove two cars um through the mall and then do all of that in 40 less than 45 seconds yeah it was it was hard to believe but it happened that's the world's Chief cop who found it hard to believe Ron Noble is Secretary General of interpole the global police Poli organization based in Leon France I'd say that they're the most notorious organized crime group that I've been involved investigating in my life so they're really good the problem is is That they become legendary because they are so good in

their planning and their execution of robberies legendary in part because of their name I'm sorry darling remember the scene from that hilarious Peter sers comedy where the thief hides the diamond in a jar of Cold Cream well these professional thieves did exactly the same thing after they hit a high-end jewelry store in London in 2003 making off with $40 million in Diamonds that's how they became known as the Pink Panthers incidentally it was the largest Jewel heist in British history then Tokyo men wearing wigs entered luxury shops immobilized clerks with pepper spray and made off

with diamonds a tiara and the contest of vome necklace worth $30 million Copenhagen 2007 a jewelry store inside a hotel in front of stunned guests three men raced through the lobby and into the store they smashed glass Cases and made off with more than a million dollars worth of stones in the last 20 years they've been responsible for half a billion dollars in robberies in all that time there's been one fatality what makes the Panthers so successful Noble says is how they do weeks of surveillance and preparation before an attack these undercover shots show a

team taking the measure of a Target before a hit the mo of the Pink Panthers is very clear they tend to use a woman to case the jewelry stores first an attractive woman attractive woman woman wearing expensive clothing woman wearing expensive jewelry a well-healed man enters next blocks the door open with his foot and clears the path for the smash and grab men four people alt together precise timing and well planned getaways are their trademark from the time they enter the door until they break all the glass in the cases take The jewelry and are

out in less than 30 seconds and then they have a getaway plan within a matter of hours they're in another country that's their classic MMO if you will if the mafia grew out of Sicily the pink pant were a product of Montenegro and Serbia the now independent republics in what was once Yugoslavia they were allies in the brutal Bosnian Wars against the Muslims when un sanctions halted the flow of products into the country groups of Soldiers became professional Smugglers did many of them have paramilitary training the core were Fighters during the war paramilitary training very

organized very disciplined and and ruthless and those are the ones who started it back um in '94 95 96 so they learned their trade in the war yes they grown up with aggression they know if you want to have success in your life you have to use force and for them it's common Andrea Schultz is a risk Prevention consultant in Germany who's been investigating the gang for 10 years so the distinctive thing about Pink Panthers from robbers in other countries is that since they're so experienced in war they are not afraid they're not afraid absolutely

to date Interpol has identified 800 core Pink Panthers using photos fingerprints and DNA they are notorious for using fake passports which makes them very hard to catch Noble says Unlike the mafia they have no chain of command they've got networks and depending upon the robbery there's someone who organizes a particular robbery but there is no Kingpin there's no uh Al Capone or John Gotti I'm at the top of the organized crime groups like classic or traditional organized crime they have specialists in everything from alarms to Safe cracking to stealing cars and those experts are not

hard to find do they have connections in every Country in Europe in quite every country you have the balcan community so they have the possibility to have connection in Switzerland we know that and it's the same in France in Germany in Sweden in Denmark Swiss detective Yan glassy says Geneva is one of their favorite cities because it's so rich it's where billionaires come to shop and play so they went into this store there went inside this store and if they get if they only get 15 watches they've made Like a million bucks in 50 seconds

yeah exactly this team wearing wigs and sunglasses robbed a luxury store on the rudon the street in Geneva they grabbed $4 million worth of diamonds and made their getaway in motorcycles down the street which was too narrow for police cars so it's almost a sport between you and them isn't it it is it is always a little bit like that that mean they have they are always a step before us because they are changing the mod is operandi And yes it's a little bit cat and mouse game they're professionals they are really really professional there's

no way for you to get there in time no no no no for the for for the cups it's very difficult normally we can say between three three and four five minutes and by that time they're in France at that time on on the way to France a James Bond Blockbuster could be made out of what they did in San Trope the roads get clogged in Summer so after posing his tourist and scoring more than $3 million worth of jewelry the Panthers made their getaway by sea and when you hear that they got out of

San Trope in speedboats are you thinking that's pretty good are we all the cops were sinking that that's pretty good but now we have a lot of job to do we drove to the seaside town of oline Montenegro to meet a semi-retired pink panther who's been associated with that Job he calls himself Phillip he agreed to talk to us at a rented apartment in a secret location we had to turn off our electronic devices before he appeared and we agreed not to show his face face how many how many jobs have you done nine nine

what was your best robbery my best robbery uh okay in France in France while my best robbery it was uh very very Speedy very Speedy yeah very Speedy like Speedy Gonzalez it was good money and nobody hurts you get a couple of million EUR in France and then how did you get them someplace where you could get money I have a connection everywhere if I say everywhere I mean everywhere we go to Belgium we have France when they go to Belgium they always drop in on antp where gems worth billions are traded every day we

know That a lot of diamonds come to antp stolen diamonds stolen jewelry why did they come to antp because the diamond tra is here in antp Patrick p is Chief Inspector of the antp diamond Squad if you compare their volume and their value is the the best product in the world of course that's why diamonds are so much used in other criminal acts making matters worse for cops only the most expensive diamonds have laser inscription with identifying Numbers and even then large diamonds can be recut making it impossible to tell whether or not they've been

stolen so from what you're saying being a diamond Thief isn't a bad career you make a lot of money and the odds are with you the odds are with you that you're not going to get I wouldn't advise anybody to to start that career but but yes I can imagine from their view that yeah it's a living it's a way of a living and and the the possibility of getting C up Probably not that high and recently we learned the Pink Panthers have started branching out we know them as jewelry thieves are they um expanding

their operations they're expanding their operations in the art um and very very fine art in 2008 a group of armed and masked Panthers hit this Museum in Zurich making off with a Monae a van go a dega and a seisan it was the largest art robbery in European History the last of the paintings was recovered in April 2012 in a dramatic raid captured on videotape the Serbian SWAT team stormed this house to arrest the men accused of snatching the impressionist works the cops took a vanon for examination and found something hidden in the ceiling when

they pulled it out they discovered it was seon's boy in the red vest as estimated value $113 million but nailing a couple of panthers Doesn't help the police nearly as much as they would like it to now when one of these guys gets caught will he squeal will he give you evidence about the other people his Partners no there is um there is an omera between them the omera really works the omera really you know really works and um when we are speaking about the best teams a lot of them are are really friend that

mean they grew UPS together still since 2007 hundreds of Arrests have been made but those Panthers just keep on reproducing we understand that there are approximately 180 new members in the last couple of years yes so the next generation is being recruited um but and trained presumably recruited and trained their daring has inspired Legions of copycats disguising themselves as women in burkers these thieves robbed a jewelry store in a mall in Bahrain and this gang took to their motorcycles to Rob a jewelry store in London the copycats are really just organized crime groups that have

identified an easy way to make money based on the celebrity status I would say in large part of the Pink Panthers and the police admit that Unfortunately they themselves didn't help matters when they started calling the gang Pink Panthers the problem with this group is that the name Pink Panthers engenders inside us the first memory is the [Music] movie we smile at the name of Pink Panthers and here's why this's your D B Oh I thought you said your D did not bite it that is not my talk and indeed the first thing you think

of when you hear Pink Panther is comedy that's why we try to highlight whenever we can the way in which they perpetrate these robberies these are not nice guys and They're not nice guys who are stealing from the rich together the poor these are just coldblooded and ruthless and notorious thieves