Posted: 01:42, September 12, 2022 | Updated: 01:45, 12 September 2022
Stolen: Catching The Art Thieves Assessment: South America by Simon Reeve Assessment: There was a poignant reminder last night that thieves really aren’t that smart. When two petty crooks pilfered priceless paintings from a Frankfurt gallery in 1994, they left very helpful fingerprints on a door. They then loaded their loot into the back of a white van and managed to look so suspicious that a passing couple noted the registration number. The pair were quickly caught, but as Stolen: Catching The Art Thieves (BBC2) explained in a riveting account, the pictures — including two Turners on loan from the Tate — were nowhere to be found. Travel presenter Simon Reeve is a fascinating fellow, who gets excited in a very understated British way (Image Simon Reeve with Ronnie Brunswijk) The petty thieves were clearly acting for a mysterious Herr Big. As one dramatic caption noted: “Detectives confront a criminal mastermind.” Three days later, a “Mr. Rothstein” called Tate and claimed he now had the Turners. Was he the mastermind of the operation? On balance, probably not. He demanded £30,000 be handed over to Westbourne Park station in London, where police had no trouble locating the suspect: the only person on the platform with a black bin bag over his head. Mr R was just a chancellor with nothing to do with the theft. So where were the paintings? The operation that brought them back many years later had it all. There was a scruffy Scotland Yard man “in his own way” who went undercover to infiltrate European gangs but didn’t seem to find out much. There was a German lawyer acting as a go-between who met some shady characters in a snowy, remote forest late at night. It was even suggested that the Serbian mafia might be involved. The criminal mastermind was never discovered, but both Turners were eventually returned at a cost of £3 million. One was delivered to a German hotel room and then taken through the streets by a Tate employee to the local prosecutor’s office, where it was put in a locker along with some pornographic videos. You couldn’t make it up. Reeve traverses South America and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is Was it even more shady dealings? Did intelligence play a role? As one wonderfully grim insurance adjuster hinted: “There are things I can’t talk about . . . because I have signed the Official Secrets Act. . . if you understand.’ Travel presenter Simon Reeve is an engaging companion, who is enthusiastic in a very understated British way. ‘Oh my God!’ he told Simon Reeve’s South America (BBC2) as he admired the view from some dramatic cliffs in Venezuela. ‘Oh my God!’ he said, again, reaching a slum in Guyana. ‘Ouch! That’s a heavy necklace,” he said, admiring the chunky gold jewelry of the likeable Ronnie Brunswijk, a former Surinamese rebel leader turned gold miner. Reeve was very critical of the mess Ronnie’s mines were making in the rainforest, which was pretty brave as Ronnie was carrying a machine gun. Reeve traverses South America and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. At a Brazilian border post, he met families fleeing the economic and political chaos that is Venezuela. “We lacked everything,” said one of the refugees. ‘That’s how we migrated.’ He later interviewed a couple who ran a business in Guyana that supplied gold miners. “Are you going to be rich?” he asked cheekily. “Yes, if we were politicians,” came the reply. ‘Are you a skeptic then?’ “No—I’m sure if I were a politician, I’d be rich.”
