Numb3rs s03e03 Episode Script
Provenance
Hey Jimmy, check Gallery One, will ya? Hey, Jimmy? You there? No sign of an outside entry.
Guy must of come in during business and laid in wait.
He had key-card access to the entire building, could of hid out anywhere.
- Any witnesses? - No, he was wearing a mask, guards didn't get a look.
Well, this thing looks pretty high tech to me.
- What'd they get? - Pissarro painting.
Estimated worth- Yeah? What is it? Paris au Printemps, Apres-Midi.
You speak French? There was a girl, once upon a time.
- Who's that? - Museum curator, Arthur Ruiz.
He was in bed, when he got the call.
Excuse me, guys, I got it, thanks.
How are you doing? Don Eppes, FBI.
Hello.
So, uh, what can you tell me about the security here? Well, we're a small museum, but the system's state of the art.
Any changes in routine, security guard roster changes? You're thinking one of my people had something to do with this? Well, we're gonna need to see a list.
Any security footage you might have.
Of course, of course, that, uh, that Pissarro was the most valuable piece we had.
And frankly, the timing couldn't be worse.
And why's that? The painting was scheduled to begin a major tour next month.
Well, you got insurance, right? Actually, the Pissarro was on loan from a private owner in Glendale.
He's out of town on vacation.
He must be a generous guy, loan you something so valuable.
Actually, one of the advantages of loaning a painting to a museum is the savings on an insurance policy.
Assumption being a secure museum is as safe as a bank vault.
I'll get you that personnel list.
- So much for safe assumptions.
- So much.
You're not leaving that? So, so I'll I'll clean it up when I get back.
This isn't Animal House, Charlie.
Right, this is my house.
Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that.
It's not for sale.
I'm not interested in buying the house back.
Just like to see you put more into maintaining it.
It's a cup of coffee, it's a bowl of cereal.
Oh, yeah.
What about the leak in the attic, huh? The garage door needs fixing, cable is out.
- Cable's out? - Yeah.
Since when is the cable out? Since our resident math genius forgot to pay the bill.
Look, I don't want to be a nag, I just want you to live up to - your responsibilities.
- All right, all right, I'll tell you what: Make a list for me.
Okay.
I already did.
Running down the museum employees, but no one's popped.
And we have eyes on the video.
So this guy beat a card-entry system, - lasers and motion sensors.
- He's a pro.
- Hey, guys.
- Which is why we have to move fast if we have any hope of catching him or finding this painting.
Jack Tollner, from New York, Theft Unit out of D.
C.
- David Sinclair, Megan Reeves.
- Morning.
- You got here pretty quick.
- Yeah, well, 22 million buys you a red eye.
- Here you go.
- Art Theft Unit, huh? I always pictured you guys for horn rims and bow ties.
Well, Lasik surgery took care of the horn rims, and I've never been partial to bow ties, but if you like them, I'll go out and get myself one.
Oh, what are we looking at here? Well, based on the paperwork the museum sent over, I'm guessing a piece like this may be difficult to move.
- Because of its value? - Because of its provenance.
- Provenance? - The paper trail of ownership, the documentation of a piece of art's origins- and this Pissarro has quite a tainted one.
What do you mean, by tainted? This isn't the first time this painting's been stolen.
First time was by the Nazis.
Nazis stole the painting? The provenance shows a pattern of Nazi looted art that I've seen before.
- Looted how? - When the Nazis came into power, they passed laws forcing Jews to register property, it provided them virtual "shopping lists.
" They looted homes by day, shipped the families off to the camps the same night.
Right and no witnesses.
Except for the few who survived.
All right, well, what we do know is that whoever stole the Pissarro had skills.
Well, the Bureau has a database of career art thieves, I'd start there.
All right, I'll get on it.
This is the perfect way to show that electric and magnetic forces - are two sides of the same coin.
- Right.
Hey, guys, what, uh, what are we doing here? Oh, this screw is attached to this battery by a magnet and the current running through the wire is causing that screw to spin.
Let me guess, show-and-tell day? Yeah, Charlie and I are preparing a joint lecture on circular motion.
Yeah, the movement is governed by Fleming's Left Hand Rule.
Our lecture's also looking at the Coriolis force.
It's the same principle that causes hurricanes to spin counterclockwise in our hemisphere.
So, what's happened? What's up? A Pissarro was stolen last night.
The father of Impressionist painting.
Continue with the Pissarro, I'm sorry? At, uh, The Roland Museum, they were in and out less than six minutes, so we got a database of art thieves, names, M.
O's.
I'm figuring you can get through it faster than us.
Maybe we could use a Quadratic Discriminant Analysis.
Right, we can Look for a combination of attributes in this existing set of data that match to a new set of data.
- Good, good.
- In this case, identifying variables of a particular theft.
Type of art, museum, security, specifics of the crime.
Because there has to be something to this museum or something about this particular piece of art that proved attractive to your thief, right? - Right.
- In a field of flowers we know that only certain types of flowers attract certain types of insects.
An insect will alight on certain flowers.
Just like a thief will only be attracted to certain targets, based on specific characteristics.
We know the characteristics of this most recent theft.
And we can compare that data to past thefts using a Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, I mean, we should be able to quickly and, you know, efficiently boil down your suspect pool.
All right, I came to the right place.
I might have a suspect here.
Eight years ago, Mrs.
Erika Hellman, was notified by the Art Loss Register that the current owner of the Pissarro was trying to sell it.
- Art Loss Register? - Database of lost or looted artworks, I've often seen it come into play in Holocaust claims.
Owner's dealer checked the Pissarro against Registry, found Mrs.
Hellman's claim that it had been looted by the Nazis.
She sued the owner, his name's Peyton Shoemaker, and she lost.
Apparently, there was insufficient documentation.
Not surprising.
The Nazis were very good at covering their tracks.
How old is this woman? Um, according to the DMV, she's 78.
There are people she could have paid to do this.
Did you know about the Pissarro's provenance, Mr.
Ruiz? Well, of course.
As the museum's curator, I have to know.
Doesn't sound like you were too troubled by the indications that it was once looted by the Nazis.
No, it was a concern.
But we did our due diligence.
The owner's paperwork was in order.
We were satisfied with the assurances he provided us.
Especially with the importance of an acquisition like this one.
There are many paintings with problematic provenances, Agent Reeves.
That doesn't mean they're all Nazi looted art.
Yes, but none of those other paintings would have increased your admission revenue by 50 percent.
Look, I don't deny the Pissarro's been a boon to a small museum like ours.
Perhaps the Guggenheim can afford to be more selective, but we can't.
So, one family's misfortune will be another man's treasure.
The painting hung in our home in Berlin.
When I was little, my father used to pretend we were the people in the painting.
He always promised that when I got old enough he would take us all there to Paris.
Obviously, did not happen.
I'm sorry for your loss, and I hope you understand why I would have to ask you about it.
Well, I hate to disappoint you, but you, you have the wrong man.
Naturally, I would love to have it back again.
You see, the Nazis, they took everything.
Not just the painting.
I don't have one photograph of my family.
But when I look at the Pissarro I- I feel as if I was seeing them all again.
You have any idea who might have taken it? No, but we know who stole it 70 years ago.
Sorry, Nana, traffic on the freeway.
I got here as soon as I could.
- Yeah.
- Hi.
This is my grandson, Joel.
This is Agent - Eppes, Don Eppes.
- FBI.
From what I understand, a federal court denied your grandmother's claim? They used the law against her, same as they used it against my great-grandfather in 1938.
We just didn't have the money to continue the fight.
What my grandson is saying is that we did not lose the painting on the merits of the case.
We lost it because my memory is failing.
My grandmother is the only living witness who ever saw the Pissarro hanging in her father's home.
The rest of the family were murdered by the Nazis.
The court would not accept the failing memory of an old woman.
I had seven sisters and brothers.
You have family? Yeah, I have a father and a brother.
But my mother passed away a few years ago.
You know what loss is then.
Well, I-I, um Look, I'm going to need to take a look at your phone and your bank records.
Now, of course, this would be with your consent.
Maybe you'd like to take a painting.
Joel, please.
I did not steal the Pissarro.
Though I admit, it has run through my mind many times.
Surely you can understand this.
Family is our anchor to life.
We lose it, we're adrift.
You have no idea what it's like to be the only survivor of your family and to have no idea why.
I find this whole Nazi association just so sadly ironic.
How do you mean? Okay, just observe this perspective.
Now, most artists at the time, they painted street scenes from the street level.
Yeah, but this was painted from a rooftop.
Why? Artistic choice? Survival.
Pissarro was Jewish.
He was living in Paris at the time of the Dreyfus Affair.
Anti-Semitic mobs were roaming the streets.
He feared for his life.
How do you know so much about Pissarro, Larry? Oh, my father was a painter.
Really? You never told us that.
It's not a memory that I gladly inhabit.
File this one under the heading of, what, parental disappointment? He wanted you to be a painter? He wanted me to see the world the way he saw it.
Which is the folly of fatherhood.
Tell me about it.
Why? Are you and your dad having problems? You know, he's been getting on my case about how I maintain my house.
Now you see why I sold my house, okay? Renounce all worldly cares for the more sublime pursuits.
I think we got something from the FBI's Art Theft Database.
Three similar robberies.
Analyzing past thefts for common variables with our current crime, I've succeeded in identifying three suspects; Michael Ness, Ben Larkin, and this is Ronald Wheeler.
Ness is in a prison in Turkey.
Now, there's a good time.
And I think Larkin's dead.
Yeah, murdered three years ago in Kiev.
All right, so we focus on Wheeler.
Wheeler's Canadian.
Database has a current address for Wheeler in Toronto.
You know your art thieves, huh? I'm impressed with how quickly you combed through our database.
Homeland Security has no record of Wheeler entering the country.
Well, no surprise there, right? He'll be traveling on a false passport.
Let's get his picture out to everyone, right? The hotels, airports, train stations, you know? And I'd start with the upscale ones.
And within the last week.
You got a $22 million painting, you're not going to stay in some dump.
He said his name was Gautier.
His real name is Wheeler.
Good morning, Mr.
Gautier.
Mr.
Gautier is not entertaining visitors.
We're going to need you to stay back.
Ronald Wheeler, FBI.
We want to talk with you.
Clear.
You smell gunpowder? We just went way past stealing high-end art.
Somebody's willing to kill for this painting.
Mrs.
Hellman's story's not that unusual.
Similar thing happened to a woman who got several Klimt paintings back from an Austrian national museum.
They fought her for years.
I mean, she said it's the only thing that's left from her family.
I guess the federal court didn't see it that way, though.
Not for the Hellmans anyway.
Or the owner, this Mr.
Shoemaker, just has more bucks to throw at a high-priced legal team.
Is he back from his vacation? Why? Do you think he stole his own painting? Look, I mean, he tries to sell it he gets a lawsuit.
Right.
Maybe an insurance company won't ask the same questions? When did you get home? Uh, about an hour ago.
- Didn't you hear me working outside? - No, I didn't.
The re-circ pump on the koi pond's on the fritz.
Yeah? Fish are okay? Yeah, thanks to me playing bucket brigade.
Don't you remember I told you that that pump needed servicing? The list? Yeah, right.
I'm sorry.
- I've been busy.
I'm busy.
- Yeah, well, I've been busy, too, Charlie.
You know, at your age, I had a house, a wife, and two kids to take care of.
Any murders to solve? No, seriously.
Any life-altering mathematical advances to conceive of? Oh, I see; The same old story, the same excuse for everything.
I don't need You know what? I don't need a lecture on how to run my own home, much less my life.
The Pissarro was inherited.
My father's the one who made the original purchase.
Any idea from who? A reputable dealer in Paris.
Right after the war.
My father was in the Army on leave in Paris.
He stopped by a shop, saw the painting, fell in love.
And did he question its origin? After the war, it was difficult to know where anything came from.
So many had died or fled.
Well, how hard did you think he, uh, actually tried? My father bought the painting from a legitimate dealer.
I have the paperwork.
He paid a fair price.
What, $12,000? $12,000 was a great amount of money in those days.
Well, still, it's nowhere near the to get eight years ago.
I'm just curious- does it even bother you at all knowing where it came from? Well, the fact is, I don't know where it comes from.
No one does.
But they have suspicions, don't they? And I understand with the taint on the painting, it'll be almost impossible to get the price your asking.
I'm not sure I understand where this is going.
The Pissarro is insured.
For $22 million.
If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting Yeah? I feel bad for Mrs.
Hellman, I really do, but the court heard all the evidence.
That woman did not stand a chance.
Which is precisely why I offered her a settlement.
if she agreed to drop her claim against the painting.
- And she refused? - Her grandson.
He threw my attorney's offer in my face.
You know, I had my father's honor to consider.
I had to match it against the compromised memory of an elderly woman.
If it were your father, who would you believe? Hey.
Ooh, it looks pretty serious.
Huh? No.
Oh, no.
Come in.
- Yeah? - No, actually, no.
I'm just, uh I'm balancing my checkbook.
The bank called.
I guess I overdrew paying some bills.
- Oh, don't say it.
- What? I'm a math genius, and I can't even balance my own checkbook.
- Right.
I got an earful from Dad.
- I didn't say anything.
I should have known, you know, this arrangement of dad living with me would just end up driving us both completely insane.
Nah.
I sort of get it now.
I mean, why you bought the house.
It's, like it gives you an anchor, you know? I mean, where you grew up, your family.
What's up? Why do you think we were never religious? - Mom wanted a Christmas tree.
- Yeah, exactly.
I mean, it's funny, right? This case got you thinking about that? Yeah, a little bit.
Actually, I need some help with this, Charlie.
Oh, great, and Dad wonders why I can't get any work done.
Well, it's just I'm trying to figure out where, you know, whoever stole the Pissarro would go next.
With Wheeler dead - I imagine the options are pretty limited.
- Totally.
But I do suspect that there are only a few places that this painting might end up, and that can be charted with a diffusion map using a network diffusion proba Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Just slow down.
It's like a vehicle traveling along a network of roads.
You know, cars can go anywhere, right? But a commercial truck is limited to how many routes it can travel, and if that truck is carrying hazardous material, well, then, the network becomes even more restricted.
If it's carrying nuclear waste, the network becomes even more limited, and there are only a few destinations- repositories- where nuclear waste can go.
It's the same with the Pissarro.
There are only a few places that it can travel.
Shoemaker might be right on target with the grandson.
I have phone logs going back to the time that Shoemaker made the settlement offer.
And? Mrs.
Hellman's grandson made several calls to a private investigator specializing in the recovery of stolen artwork, Peter Tucci.
Why do I know that name? He has, uh, pending charges in Istanbul related to the crime that Michael Ness is doing time for in Turkey.
Ness is one of the art thieves that Charlie pulled off the database.
Yeah, check this out.
Uh, the museum records its, uh, security footage digitally.
I pulled an MPEG file from about three months ago.
Nice.
Mrs.
Hellman's grandson? - Is he casing the place? - He contacted Tucci three years ago.
About hiring Ness to rip off the Pissarro.
But when Ness got caught, he couldn't do the job.
Wow.
Joel Hellman really couldn't take no for an answer.
I don't know a guy named Ronald Wheeler or how he ended up dead.
Have a seat.
I haven't done anything.
Tell me about your relationship with Peter Tucci.
That was over three years ago.
Right around the time the courts decided against you.
I lost my cool.
It was a stupid thing to do.
Look, I understand how you feel.
I mean with your grandmother and all and then not being able to help her.
They embarrassed her.
They brought in doctors and tested her memory and made her live through things that That's you at the museum taken three months ago.
I go a lot.
I don't know, somehow it made me feel better to be close to it.
Not as good as having it would make you feel though, right? No.
I told you, I haven't done anything.
So what do you think? Well, I think he thought about it, but I don't think he did it.
He didn't make any real efforts to cover his tracks either.
Well, now we're back to the owner, Shoemaker, and the insurance scam.
It's a nice theory, but so far I can't find a paper trail between Shoemaker and our thief, Wheeler.
I mean, there's no payments to a middle man, there's nothing.
That painting's got to be somewhere.
Yeah, the numbers are staggering.
The Nazis looted hundreds of thousands of artworks.
Nearly a fifth of all European art at the time.
Yeah, there's still a lot out there, you know? Museums, dealers, collectors Yeah, it's just appalling- blood trade.
I am starting to see a pattern here.
You know, the heaviest flow of art running along these networks.
- China being a prime destination.
- Hmm.
So we should start concentrating on networks supplying to China.
- Wouldn't be Dad, would it? - It's a standoff.
Hey, here's another chestnut from my rather exhaustive study of the great artists.
Did you know that Monet's father wanted him to be a grocer? Oh, yeah? Well.
Good thing he didn't listen.
Well, fathers imposing their wills on their sons I tell ya, that is the stuff of legend.
This is hardly so grand.
I mean, the last message he left me equated my refusal to take out the garbage with my supposed commitment-phobia and my failure to settle down.
There might be some truth in that.
- What? - Uh, I'm just saying Where were we? China? Oh, yeah, it was China.
Hey, that smells good.
Where's Charlie? I don't know, working late I guess.
Yeah? Or hiding from you.
He's been complaining? You been giving him a hard time? Hey, he owns the place, you know.
Remember when I was looking for a place of my own? And I thought that staying on here was gonna keep me from moving on.
What does this have to do with Charlie? Well, he just comes and he goes.
He has no idea how to maintain a home.
Dad, the guy's got a lot on his plate.
Hey look, I don't want to be a pest.
I just want to make sure that when the time comes, he knows how to take care of his own house- his own family if he ever have one.
Well, you got to talk to him.
I mean, you can't just ride him like he's a little kid.
Are you referring to my failures with you? Me? I'm a lost cause, pal.
What's up? You had a tough day? You know I had to interview that Holocaust survivor yesterday, her grandson today.
Oh, about that painting, huh? I felt weird 'cause nobody believes the woman; It's like her life never existed because there's nobody left who remembers it.
Yeah.
You remember my mother's cousin, Anna? Yeah, I mean That was the same way with her.
She got out before the war, but she spent her whole life- the whole rest of her life searching for her people.
Can you imagine that? I mean, living that life going through all that? Afraid this woman finds a piece and it gets taken away again.
Let me get you a plate.
Hey, did your mom's cousin ever find anyone? No, not a single soul.
Still taking your meals outside the home, I see.
Still brown bagging it.
Is this some of your work? It's my submission for entry into art school.
One of the many life steps I never took.
You're pretty good.
Don't mistake technical ability for originality.
Almost every one of these is a copy of a masterwork.
My father insisted that before I attempt anything original, I had to understand those who came before me.
Hey, what is all this red marginalia here? When network analysis came up empty, I found these leads to China.
Still no sign of the Pissarro, so I must've miscalculated.
You know, some of the greatest errors in cosmology come not from poor math, but from poor assumptions.
What poor assumptions am I making? Well, current wisdom holds that the picture's Nazi associations have compromised its potential for sale on the black market.
Compromised yeah, but eliminated no.
Yet you can find no market to which you can trace a sale.
China seemed the best bet.
Don came up empty.
Perhaps this Pissarro is not for sale anywhere because for some reason it's simply not saleable.
Even with the taint, it's still worth millions.
Why wouldn't it be "saleable"? No idea.
I'm leaving.
All right.
I think I've figured out why you haven't been able to find the Pissarro.
Using a computer program that analyzes fine art paintings from enhanced photographs.
Now uses two criteria: - Craquelure - Craquelure? It's a fancy word for the cracks that form on the surface of a painting.
And those cracks form patterns which will give us an idea of where and when a work was painted because the pattern depends on the artist's materials: the paint, the brush even the canvas.
A painter in 15th century Florence used different materials than a painter in 17th century London.
Or a painter in 19th century Paris.
See, different materials and the vagaries of time create specific craquelure patterns which we can analyze using mathematical models.
You said there were two criteria.
Right, well The analysis also looks at visual style- the artist's actual brushstrokes.
- Like a fingerprint? - More like a signature.
See with currency, I used a wavelet analysis.
But with paintings, I can use a more sophisticated curvelet analysis, allowing us to look at the art in three dimensions.
Using curvelet analysis, we can measure the contours and depth of an artist's brushstrokes, giving us a mathematical expression of the artist's unique signature which we then use to evaluate other works attributed to the artist to see if the same hand did, in fact, paint them all.
Enhancing the museum catalogue photo of the Pissarro, I ran both analyses and compared it to other Pissarros from museums around the world.
The results are undeniable.
This isn't a Pissarro.
It's a fake.
The Pissarro a forgery? It's not possible.
Our math consultant did an extensive analysis, Mr.
Ruiz.
From a photograph.
With a computer's enhancement.
I'm sorry, but whatever consultant you used is mistaken.
I'm afraid that's not really possible.
Well, it has to be.
This painting underwent an extensive authentication process when it arrived here a year and a half ago.
Then what about a switch? What if someone changed the painting since the authentication? How? Hmm? When? I don't work at a museum, but have you cleaned the painting in the past year and a half? Under the strict supervision of the museum conservator.
Who also, by the way, performed the authentication.
And that would have been done on the premises, correct? Yes.
In our restoration department.
The Pissarro was taken down June 3rd for a cleaning.
- Who did the work? - Me.
And you also performed the authentication on the Pissarro when it first arrived here? That's right.
And you're certain that the painting you cleaned on June 3rd is the same one you authenticated eighteen months ago.
Patrick has been with me 20 years.
I trust his judgment completely.
So, there's no chance you missed something? This painting was the most important piece we've ever displayed here.
Mr.
Holden? I'm certain that the painting was the same one that I examined a year and a half ago.
You have your answer.
Is it you that also does the museum catalogues, Mr.
Holden.
For every exhibition.
And when was the photograph of the Pissarro taken? I don't know.
What do you mean you don't know? This particular photograph was furnished by the owner.
Peyton Shoemaker gave you the photograph? Once in a while an owner loaning a painting does accompany the piece with his own photographic documentation.
So Shoemaker provided the photo when he first loaned the piece to the museum.
The same photograph your brother used to determine it was a forgery.
Okay, so we're saying, what, the stolen one was a fake.
But did Shoemaker know it? He may even be the one who had it made.
Forgery of his own painting? Owners often have forgeries made to protect their art against theft.
But maybe Shoemaker was afraid he'd lose his painting another way.
The Hellmans.
Those type of claims never really go away.
Collectors tend to shy away from paintings with questionable histories for that very reason.
In other words, if the Hellmans ever find more evidence to support their claim They could go right back to court.
He creates a fake to hedge his bet.
Then he loaned it to the museum to get the break in the insurance premium.
Shoemaker might even be trying to pull off a double scam; Have the fake one stolen for insurance, right.
And then sell the real one later on the sly.
Why steal back the fake Pissarro now? I mean, it's been hanging on the museum wall for a year and a half.
Hey, wait, what that guy, that curator guy say - it was going on tour.
- Next month.
Which would have meant another authentication.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice Now the question is - where is the real Pissarro? - Right.
- You can add, but you can't hide.
- What's broken? I've come with a peace offering.
French dip.
Well, thank you, but you didn't have to do that.
But there are a lot of things I don't have to do, Charlie, but I just do them because I want to.
Just feel like you worry about me too much, Dad.
Charlie, look, you're a grown man, but you're still my son and I'm still your father.
Okay, i-i-it's not about the house or chores.
It's, uh, it's about accepting responsibility.
Dad, I'm a I'm a full-tenured professor at one of the most prestigious universities in this country.
How do you think I got here, by slacking off? You can do the math, Charlie, we all know that, but, uh, sometime, you're going to want more for your life.
And i I know you can't see that right now, but sometime, God willing, you're going to have to make a choice between one of your algorithms and one of your kids upstairs with the flu.
I have a kid with the flu now? Charlie, I look at Larry, you know, a-and I respect him, but look at him; He's all alone.
I mean, he sleeps on couches, puts his work ahead of relationships.
You got to start somewhere.
The kind of life I'm talking about, it just doesn't happen by magic.
Is that what this has been all about? You're worried that I'm going to turn into Larry? I worry about that, too, sometimes.
Yeah because I look around and I don't see the best role models.
For example, Einstein.
Einstein never had a home life.
Einstein dumped his wife and married his cousin.
I hope that's not your way of making me feel better.
Dad, I'm wrestling with all this, all of it.
My math, my work with Don, Amita.
I'm sorry, I just don't have it all figured out yet.
You have no right.
Actually, we have a warrant.
This is ludicrous.
You're telling me that my painting is a forgery based on an analysis of a photograph? A photograph that you submitted to the museum, and I spoke to your insurance company; They're going to withhold your payment.
Yeah, well, I'll take them to court.
I wouldn't count on the courts backing your play a second time, Mr.
Shoemaker.
The Hellmans are behind this, aren't they? They paid some sleazy math expert to look at a photograph and say that my Pissarro is a fake.
Well, if they think they're going to get something out of this, they're wrong.
That's a really interesting theory, but the math expert works for us.
Why? Why would I steal my own painting? And if it was a fake, why would the Hellmans have fought for four years to get it back? - Nothing so far.
- Of course, there's nothing! I didn't steal the painting and I never shot a gun off in my life.
My father was an honorable man who served his country.
He was not a criminal and neither am I.
So, where would someone like Shoemaker hide that original? If he is our guy, he's done a real good job of eliminating the one witness who could pin the forgery on him.
By killing Wheeler.
Wait a minute, if he commissioned a fake, there's got to be a forger.
Maybe our second witness.
Find him, we find the killer.
It won't be easy catching this guy.
I've met any number of forgers capable of work this good.
Well, maybe he's been caught before.
Maybe he even has a file.
That's a lot of names to run down.
Well, what if we don't run down the names? What if we run down the paintings? We have a photograph of the forged Pissarro, right? Yeah, and the Bureau has a photographic database of other forgeries seized over the years.
So, we give the photograph to Charlie, he can do an analysis against all the other forgeries.
If he can tell us Pissarro didn't paint the fake, maybe he can tell us who did.
So per your request, I compared my analysis of the forged Pissarro to the FBI database of other recovered forgeries.
The algorithm identified one painting in the database that most closely resembles the handiwork of our suspect to an accuracy rate of, like, 89.
9%.
- All right, so you found him? - Oh, I definitely found him.
- So who's our forger? - His name is Gustav Stolberg.
- Well, where is he? - He's in a Jewish cemetery in Budapest.
He died in 1948.
So, our forger died 60 years ago? So the fake's at least that old then.
Interpol just faxed over the file on Gustav Stolberg.
In 1946, he was convicted of fraud.
He died in prison two years later.
Hungarian police seized what they believed to be five forged paintings in his shop.
Take a look at the list.
Fourth title down.
The Pissarro.
Hungarian police assumed all five canvases were a fake.
Right, but one wasn't.
So, we think that the real Pissarro's been sitting in a Hungarian police vault for 60 years? Wouldn't surprise me.
The Communists never threw anything away.
They packed the Pissarro into a crate along with the other forgeries.
So Mrs.
Hellman's father must have paid Stolberg to paint the forgery and then gave him the original for safekeeping.
At least there's some justice; the Nazis looted a fake.
It also means that Shoemaker's probably telling the truth.
that he didn't know the Pissarro was a forgery.
And maybe no one did.
Look, the fact that that painting was stolen a month before it was supposed to go on tour can't be a coincidence.
Wait a minute.
Holden, the museum conservator.
Yeah.
If what you're saying is true, that the real Pissarro has been found, then I must have made a mistake.
A mistake? But you've been doing this for 20 years.
The fact is, you lied to us, didn't you? You knew that Pissarro was a fake the whole time.
Now we're not just talking about a painting.
A man is dead.
And you're looking at conspiracy to commit murder.
Whatever you were paid, Mr.
Holden, it's not enough.
Paid? You think my integrity would be for sale? He said it would ruin us.
We'd already announced the acquisition.
It's one thing to display a painting that's suspected of being Nazi looted art but to exhibit a forgery? Who said it would ruin you? Excuse me.
Holden gave you up, Ruiz.
I spent my life devoted to the reputation of this museum.
Killing a man's not going to do much for the reputation.
Wheeler was a charlatan.
He found out the painting was a forgery, he tried to blackmail you.
Do you know how difficult it is for a museum like ours to actually acquire a Pissarro? Yeah, but you didn't actually acquire a Pissarro, did you? By the time Patrick alerted me to the forgery, it was already too late The Pissarro had put us on the map.
Only the tour next month would have exposed you.
I thought if the painting had just disappeared- what would be the harm? Shoemaker had his insurance and the museum would have had its future.
Yeah, it's not much of a future now, is it? Is this really necessary? Yes, this is really necessary.
Come with me.
The Hungarian police just delivered it to us.
It's yours, Nana.
Always has been.
I think your father clearly saw the writing on the wall with the Nazis.
So he went to Stolberg and commissioned a forgery.
After all these years To think, even I was beginning to question whether what I remembered was even true Well, I hope this can give you a little bit of comfort.
Yeah.
You know, I can't imagine- six years old- the world around you safe.
Then one day everything disappears- parents, family, everything you know One painting can only give you back so much.
Well, maybe for Mrs.
Hellman, given the wisdom of her years, that'll be enough.
Hallo! Oh, hey.
What, you guys started without me, huh? I'd think Einstein would say we started with you.
Just a different time and space, am I right? I like that.
I've been taking a closer look at Einstein lately.
- What's to eat? - Red meat on the barbecue.
Provided we still have a barbecue.
Did you got my note, we're out of propane.
I thought you'd take care of it.
I'm kidding.
We got a new tank, we're good to go.
- All right - No, no, no, stay, stay.
I got it.
You're gonna grill? Yeah, you know, T-bone steak with Mom's amazing steak sauce.
A little corn on the cob.
Hey, you want some help? - No, no.
Think I can handle it.
- All right.
Charles, that is white corn.
Hey, you know how you told me about your mom's cousin not finding anyone.
Yeah.
You think you could give me a list of names? You're gonna find them? Yeah, I mean I'd like to try.
- What do you think? - Okay.
Guy must of come in during business and laid in wait.
He had key-card access to the entire building, could of hid out anywhere.
- Any witnesses? - No, he was wearing a mask, guards didn't get a look.
Well, this thing looks pretty high tech to me.
- What'd they get? - Pissarro painting.
Estimated worth- Yeah? What is it? Paris au Printemps, Apres-Midi.
You speak French? There was a girl, once upon a time.
- Who's that? - Museum curator, Arthur Ruiz.
He was in bed, when he got the call.
Excuse me, guys, I got it, thanks.
How are you doing? Don Eppes, FBI.
Hello.
So, uh, what can you tell me about the security here? Well, we're a small museum, but the system's state of the art.
Any changes in routine, security guard roster changes? You're thinking one of my people had something to do with this? Well, we're gonna need to see a list.
Any security footage you might have.
Of course, of course, that, uh, that Pissarro was the most valuable piece we had.
And frankly, the timing couldn't be worse.
And why's that? The painting was scheduled to begin a major tour next month.
Well, you got insurance, right? Actually, the Pissarro was on loan from a private owner in Glendale.
He's out of town on vacation.
He must be a generous guy, loan you something so valuable.
Actually, one of the advantages of loaning a painting to a museum is the savings on an insurance policy.
Assumption being a secure museum is as safe as a bank vault.
I'll get you that personnel list.
- So much for safe assumptions.
- So much.
You're not leaving that? So, so I'll I'll clean it up when I get back.
This isn't Animal House, Charlie.
Right, this is my house.
Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that.
It's not for sale.
I'm not interested in buying the house back.
Just like to see you put more into maintaining it.
It's a cup of coffee, it's a bowl of cereal.
Oh, yeah.
What about the leak in the attic, huh? The garage door needs fixing, cable is out.
- Cable's out? - Yeah.
Since when is the cable out? Since our resident math genius forgot to pay the bill.
Look, I don't want to be a nag, I just want you to live up to - your responsibilities.
- All right, all right, I'll tell you what: Make a list for me.
Okay.
I already did.
Running down the museum employees, but no one's popped.
And we have eyes on the video.
So this guy beat a card-entry system, - lasers and motion sensors.
- He's a pro.
- Hey, guys.
- Which is why we have to move fast if we have any hope of catching him or finding this painting.
Jack Tollner, from New York, Theft Unit out of D.
C.
- David Sinclair, Megan Reeves.
- Morning.
- You got here pretty quick.
- Yeah, well, 22 million buys you a red eye.
- Here you go.
- Art Theft Unit, huh? I always pictured you guys for horn rims and bow ties.
Well, Lasik surgery took care of the horn rims, and I've never been partial to bow ties, but if you like them, I'll go out and get myself one.
Oh, what are we looking at here? Well, based on the paperwork the museum sent over, I'm guessing a piece like this may be difficult to move.
- Because of its value? - Because of its provenance.
- Provenance? - The paper trail of ownership, the documentation of a piece of art's origins- and this Pissarro has quite a tainted one.
What do you mean, by tainted? This isn't the first time this painting's been stolen.
First time was by the Nazis.
Nazis stole the painting? The provenance shows a pattern of Nazi looted art that I've seen before.
- Looted how? - When the Nazis came into power, they passed laws forcing Jews to register property, it provided them virtual "shopping lists.
" They looted homes by day, shipped the families off to the camps the same night.
Right and no witnesses.
Except for the few who survived.
All right, well, what we do know is that whoever stole the Pissarro had skills.
Well, the Bureau has a database of career art thieves, I'd start there.
All right, I'll get on it.
This is the perfect way to show that electric and magnetic forces - are two sides of the same coin.
- Right.
Hey, guys, what, uh, what are we doing here? Oh, this screw is attached to this battery by a magnet and the current running through the wire is causing that screw to spin.
Let me guess, show-and-tell day? Yeah, Charlie and I are preparing a joint lecture on circular motion.
Yeah, the movement is governed by Fleming's Left Hand Rule.
Our lecture's also looking at the Coriolis force.
It's the same principle that causes hurricanes to spin counterclockwise in our hemisphere.
So, what's happened? What's up? A Pissarro was stolen last night.
The father of Impressionist painting.
Continue with the Pissarro, I'm sorry? At, uh, The Roland Museum, they were in and out less than six minutes, so we got a database of art thieves, names, M.
O's.
I'm figuring you can get through it faster than us.
Maybe we could use a Quadratic Discriminant Analysis.
Right, we can Look for a combination of attributes in this existing set of data that match to a new set of data.
- Good, good.
- In this case, identifying variables of a particular theft.
Type of art, museum, security, specifics of the crime.
Because there has to be something to this museum or something about this particular piece of art that proved attractive to your thief, right? - Right.
- In a field of flowers we know that only certain types of flowers attract certain types of insects.
An insect will alight on certain flowers.
Just like a thief will only be attracted to certain targets, based on specific characteristics.
We know the characteristics of this most recent theft.
And we can compare that data to past thefts using a Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, I mean, we should be able to quickly and, you know, efficiently boil down your suspect pool.
All right, I came to the right place.
I might have a suspect here.
Eight years ago, Mrs.
Erika Hellman, was notified by the Art Loss Register that the current owner of the Pissarro was trying to sell it.
- Art Loss Register? - Database of lost or looted artworks, I've often seen it come into play in Holocaust claims.
Owner's dealer checked the Pissarro against Registry, found Mrs.
Hellman's claim that it had been looted by the Nazis.
She sued the owner, his name's Peyton Shoemaker, and she lost.
Apparently, there was insufficient documentation.
Not surprising.
The Nazis were very good at covering their tracks.
How old is this woman? Um, according to the DMV, she's 78.
There are people she could have paid to do this.
Did you know about the Pissarro's provenance, Mr.
Ruiz? Well, of course.
As the museum's curator, I have to know.
Doesn't sound like you were too troubled by the indications that it was once looted by the Nazis.
No, it was a concern.
But we did our due diligence.
The owner's paperwork was in order.
We were satisfied with the assurances he provided us.
Especially with the importance of an acquisition like this one.
There are many paintings with problematic provenances, Agent Reeves.
That doesn't mean they're all Nazi looted art.
Yes, but none of those other paintings would have increased your admission revenue by 50 percent.
Look, I don't deny the Pissarro's been a boon to a small museum like ours.
Perhaps the Guggenheim can afford to be more selective, but we can't.
So, one family's misfortune will be another man's treasure.
The painting hung in our home in Berlin.
When I was little, my father used to pretend we were the people in the painting.
He always promised that when I got old enough he would take us all there to Paris.
Obviously, did not happen.
I'm sorry for your loss, and I hope you understand why I would have to ask you about it.
Well, I hate to disappoint you, but you, you have the wrong man.
Naturally, I would love to have it back again.
You see, the Nazis, they took everything.
Not just the painting.
I don't have one photograph of my family.
But when I look at the Pissarro I- I feel as if I was seeing them all again.
You have any idea who might have taken it? No, but we know who stole it 70 years ago.
Sorry, Nana, traffic on the freeway.
I got here as soon as I could.
- Yeah.
- Hi.
This is my grandson, Joel.
This is Agent - Eppes, Don Eppes.
- FBI.
From what I understand, a federal court denied your grandmother's claim? They used the law against her, same as they used it against my great-grandfather in 1938.
We just didn't have the money to continue the fight.
What my grandson is saying is that we did not lose the painting on the merits of the case.
We lost it because my memory is failing.
My grandmother is the only living witness who ever saw the Pissarro hanging in her father's home.
The rest of the family were murdered by the Nazis.
The court would not accept the failing memory of an old woman.
I had seven sisters and brothers.
You have family? Yeah, I have a father and a brother.
But my mother passed away a few years ago.
You know what loss is then.
Well, I-I, um Look, I'm going to need to take a look at your phone and your bank records.
Now, of course, this would be with your consent.
Maybe you'd like to take a painting.
Joel, please.
I did not steal the Pissarro.
Though I admit, it has run through my mind many times.
Surely you can understand this.
Family is our anchor to life.
We lose it, we're adrift.
You have no idea what it's like to be the only survivor of your family and to have no idea why.
I find this whole Nazi association just so sadly ironic.
How do you mean? Okay, just observe this perspective.
Now, most artists at the time, they painted street scenes from the street level.
Yeah, but this was painted from a rooftop.
Why? Artistic choice? Survival.
Pissarro was Jewish.
He was living in Paris at the time of the Dreyfus Affair.
Anti-Semitic mobs were roaming the streets.
He feared for his life.
How do you know so much about Pissarro, Larry? Oh, my father was a painter.
Really? You never told us that.
It's not a memory that I gladly inhabit.
File this one under the heading of, what, parental disappointment? He wanted you to be a painter? He wanted me to see the world the way he saw it.
Which is the folly of fatherhood.
Tell me about it.
Why? Are you and your dad having problems? You know, he's been getting on my case about how I maintain my house.
Now you see why I sold my house, okay? Renounce all worldly cares for the more sublime pursuits.
I think we got something from the FBI's Art Theft Database.
Three similar robberies.
Analyzing past thefts for common variables with our current crime, I've succeeded in identifying three suspects; Michael Ness, Ben Larkin, and this is Ronald Wheeler.
Ness is in a prison in Turkey.
Now, there's a good time.
And I think Larkin's dead.
Yeah, murdered three years ago in Kiev.
All right, so we focus on Wheeler.
Wheeler's Canadian.
Database has a current address for Wheeler in Toronto.
You know your art thieves, huh? I'm impressed with how quickly you combed through our database.
Homeland Security has no record of Wheeler entering the country.
Well, no surprise there, right? He'll be traveling on a false passport.
Let's get his picture out to everyone, right? The hotels, airports, train stations, you know? And I'd start with the upscale ones.
And within the last week.
You got a $22 million painting, you're not going to stay in some dump.
He said his name was Gautier.
His real name is Wheeler.
Good morning, Mr.
Gautier.
Mr.
Gautier is not entertaining visitors.
We're going to need you to stay back.
Ronald Wheeler, FBI.
We want to talk with you.
Clear.
You smell gunpowder? We just went way past stealing high-end art.
Somebody's willing to kill for this painting.
Mrs.
Hellman's story's not that unusual.
Similar thing happened to a woman who got several Klimt paintings back from an Austrian national museum.
They fought her for years.
I mean, she said it's the only thing that's left from her family.
I guess the federal court didn't see it that way, though.
Not for the Hellmans anyway.
Or the owner, this Mr.
Shoemaker, just has more bucks to throw at a high-priced legal team.
Is he back from his vacation? Why? Do you think he stole his own painting? Look, I mean, he tries to sell it he gets a lawsuit.
Right.
Maybe an insurance company won't ask the same questions? When did you get home? Uh, about an hour ago.
- Didn't you hear me working outside? - No, I didn't.
The re-circ pump on the koi pond's on the fritz.
Yeah? Fish are okay? Yeah, thanks to me playing bucket brigade.
Don't you remember I told you that that pump needed servicing? The list? Yeah, right.
I'm sorry.
- I've been busy.
I'm busy.
- Yeah, well, I've been busy, too, Charlie.
You know, at your age, I had a house, a wife, and two kids to take care of.
Any murders to solve? No, seriously.
Any life-altering mathematical advances to conceive of? Oh, I see; The same old story, the same excuse for everything.
I don't need You know what? I don't need a lecture on how to run my own home, much less my life.
The Pissarro was inherited.
My father's the one who made the original purchase.
Any idea from who? A reputable dealer in Paris.
Right after the war.
My father was in the Army on leave in Paris.
He stopped by a shop, saw the painting, fell in love.
And did he question its origin? After the war, it was difficult to know where anything came from.
So many had died or fled.
Well, how hard did you think he, uh, actually tried? My father bought the painting from a legitimate dealer.
I have the paperwork.
He paid a fair price.
What, $12,000? $12,000 was a great amount of money in those days.
Well, still, it's nowhere near the to get eight years ago.
I'm just curious- does it even bother you at all knowing where it came from? Well, the fact is, I don't know where it comes from.
No one does.
But they have suspicions, don't they? And I understand with the taint on the painting, it'll be almost impossible to get the price your asking.
I'm not sure I understand where this is going.
The Pissarro is insured.
For $22 million.
If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting Yeah? I feel bad for Mrs.
Hellman, I really do, but the court heard all the evidence.
That woman did not stand a chance.
Which is precisely why I offered her a settlement.
if she agreed to drop her claim against the painting.
- And she refused? - Her grandson.
He threw my attorney's offer in my face.
You know, I had my father's honor to consider.
I had to match it against the compromised memory of an elderly woman.
If it were your father, who would you believe? Hey.
Ooh, it looks pretty serious.
Huh? No.
Oh, no.
Come in.
- Yeah? - No, actually, no.
I'm just, uh I'm balancing my checkbook.
The bank called.
I guess I overdrew paying some bills.
- Oh, don't say it.
- What? I'm a math genius, and I can't even balance my own checkbook.
- Right.
I got an earful from Dad.
- I didn't say anything.
I should have known, you know, this arrangement of dad living with me would just end up driving us both completely insane.
Nah.
I sort of get it now.
I mean, why you bought the house.
It's, like it gives you an anchor, you know? I mean, where you grew up, your family.
What's up? Why do you think we were never religious? - Mom wanted a Christmas tree.
- Yeah, exactly.
I mean, it's funny, right? This case got you thinking about that? Yeah, a little bit.
Actually, I need some help with this, Charlie.
Oh, great, and Dad wonders why I can't get any work done.
Well, it's just I'm trying to figure out where, you know, whoever stole the Pissarro would go next.
With Wheeler dead - I imagine the options are pretty limited.
- Totally.
But I do suspect that there are only a few places that this painting might end up, and that can be charted with a diffusion map using a network diffusion proba Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Just slow down.
It's like a vehicle traveling along a network of roads.
You know, cars can go anywhere, right? But a commercial truck is limited to how many routes it can travel, and if that truck is carrying hazardous material, well, then, the network becomes even more restricted.
If it's carrying nuclear waste, the network becomes even more limited, and there are only a few destinations- repositories- where nuclear waste can go.
It's the same with the Pissarro.
There are only a few places that it can travel.
Shoemaker might be right on target with the grandson.
I have phone logs going back to the time that Shoemaker made the settlement offer.
And? Mrs.
Hellman's grandson made several calls to a private investigator specializing in the recovery of stolen artwork, Peter Tucci.
Why do I know that name? He has, uh, pending charges in Istanbul related to the crime that Michael Ness is doing time for in Turkey.
Ness is one of the art thieves that Charlie pulled off the database.
Yeah, check this out.
Uh, the museum records its, uh, security footage digitally.
I pulled an MPEG file from about three months ago.
Nice.
Mrs.
Hellman's grandson? - Is he casing the place? - He contacted Tucci three years ago.
About hiring Ness to rip off the Pissarro.
But when Ness got caught, he couldn't do the job.
Wow.
Joel Hellman really couldn't take no for an answer.
I don't know a guy named Ronald Wheeler or how he ended up dead.
Have a seat.
I haven't done anything.
Tell me about your relationship with Peter Tucci.
That was over three years ago.
Right around the time the courts decided against you.
I lost my cool.
It was a stupid thing to do.
Look, I understand how you feel.
I mean with your grandmother and all and then not being able to help her.
They embarrassed her.
They brought in doctors and tested her memory and made her live through things that That's you at the museum taken three months ago.
I go a lot.
I don't know, somehow it made me feel better to be close to it.
Not as good as having it would make you feel though, right? No.
I told you, I haven't done anything.
So what do you think? Well, I think he thought about it, but I don't think he did it.
He didn't make any real efforts to cover his tracks either.
Well, now we're back to the owner, Shoemaker, and the insurance scam.
It's a nice theory, but so far I can't find a paper trail between Shoemaker and our thief, Wheeler.
I mean, there's no payments to a middle man, there's nothing.
That painting's got to be somewhere.
Yeah, the numbers are staggering.
The Nazis looted hundreds of thousands of artworks.
Nearly a fifth of all European art at the time.
Yeah, there's still a lot out there, you know? Museums, dealers, collectors Yeah, it's just appalling- blood trade.
I am starting to see a pattern here.
You know, the heaviest flow of art running along these networks.
- China being a prime destination.
- Hmm.
So we should start concentrating on networks supplying to China.
- Wouldn't be Dad, would it? - It's a standoff.
Hey, here's another chestnut from my rather exhaustive study of the great artists.
Did you know that Monet's father wanted him to be a grocer? Oh, yeah? Well.
Good thing he didn't listen.
Well, fathers imposing their wills on their sons I tell ya, that is the stuff of legend.
This is hardly so grand.
I mean, the last message he left me equated my refusal to take out the garbage with my supposed commitment-phobia and my failure to settle down.
There might be some truth in that.
- What? - Uh, I'm just saying Where were we? China? Oh, yeah, it was China.
Hey, that smells good.
Where's Charlie? I don't know, working late I guess.
Yeah? Or hiding from you.
He's been complaining? You been giving him a hard time? Hey, he owns the place, you know.
Remember when I was looking for a place of my own? And I thought that staying on here was gonna keep me from moving on.
What does this have to do with Charlie? Well, he just comes and he goes.
He has no idea how to maintain a home.
Dad, the guy's got a lot on his plate.
Hey look, I don't want to be a pest.
I just want to make sure that when the time comes, he knows how to take care of his own house- his own family if he ever have one.
Well, you got to talk to him.
I mean, you can't just ride him like he's a little kid.
Are you referring to my failures with you? Me? I'm a lost cause, pal.
What's up? You had a tough day? You know I had to interview that Holocaust survivor yesterday, her grandson today.
Oh, about that painting, huh? I felt weird 'cause nobody believes the woman; It's like her life never existed because there's nobody left who remembers it.
Yeah.
You remember my mother's cousin, Anna? Yeah, I mean That was the same way with her.
She got out before the war, but she spent her whole life- the whole rest of her life searching for her people.
Can you imagine that? I mean, living that life going through all that? Afraid this woman finds a piece and it gets taken away again.
Let me get you a plate.
Hey, did your mom's cousin ever find anyone? No, not a single soul.
Still taking your meals outside the home, I see.
Still brown bagging it.
Is this some of your work? It's my submission for entry into art school.
One of the many life steps I never took.
You're pretty good.
Don't mistake technical ability for originality.
Almost every one of these is a copy of a masterwork.
My father insisted that before I attempt anything original, I had to understand those who came before me.
Hey, what is all this red marginalia here? When network analysis came up empty, I found these leads to China.
Still no sign of the Pissarro, so I must've miscalculated.
You know, some of the greatest errors in cosmology come not from poor math, but from poor assumptions.
What poor assumptions am I making? Well, current wisdom holds that the picture's Nazi associations have compromised its potential for sale on the black market.
Compromised yeah, but eliminated no.
Yet you can find no market to which you can trace a sale.
China seemed the best bet.
Don came up empty.
Perhaps this Pissarro is not for sale anywhere because for some reason it's simply not saleable.
Even with the taint, it's still worth millions.
Why wouldn't it be "saleable"? No idea.
I'm leaving.
All right.
I think I've figured out why you haven't been able to find the Pissarro.
Using a computer program that analyzes fine art paintings from enhanced photographs.
Now uses two criteria: - Craquelure - Craquelure? It's a fancy word for the cracks that form on the surface of a painting.
And those cracks form patterns which will give us an idea of where and when a work was painted because the pattern depends on the artist's materials: the paint, the brush even the canvas.
A painter in 15th century Florence used different materials than a painter in 17th century London.
Or a painter in 19th century Paris.
See, different materials and the vagaries of time create specific craquelure patterns which we can analyze using mathematical models.
You said there were two criteria.
Right, well The analysis also looks at visual style- the artist's actual brushstrokes.
- Like a fingerprint? - More like a signature.
See with currency, I used a wavelet analysis.
But with paintings, I can use a more sophisticated curvelet analysis, allowing us to look at the art in three dimensions.
Using curvelet analysis, we can measure the contours and depth of an artist's brushstrokes, giving us a mathematical expression of the artist's unique signature which we then use to evaluate other works attributed to the artist to see if the same hand did, in fact, paint them all.
Enhancing the museum catalogue photo of the Pissarro, I ran both analyses and compared it to other Pissarros from museums around the world.
The results are undeniable.
This isn't a Pissarro.
It's a fake.
The Pissarro a forgery? It's not possible.
Our math consultant did an extensive analysis, Mr.
Ruiz.
From a photograph.
With a computer's enhancement.
I'm sorry, but whatever consultant you used is mistaken.
I'm afraid that's not really possible.
Well, it has to be.
This painting underwent an extensive authentication process when it arrived here a year and a half ago.
Then what about a switch? What if someone changed the painting since the authentication? How? Hmm? When? I don't work at a museum, but have you cleaned the painting in the past year and a half? Under the strict supervision of the museum conservator.
Who also, by the way, performed the authentication.
And that would have been done on the premises, correct? Yes.
In our restoration department.
The Pissarro was taken down June 3rd for a cleaning.
- Who did the work? - Me.
And you also performed the authentication on the Pissarro when it first arrived here? That's right.
And you're certain that the painting you cleaned on June 3rd is the same one you authenticated eighteen months ago.
Patrick has been with me 20 years.
I trust his judgment completely.
So, there's no chance you missed something? This painting was the most important piece we've ever displayed here.
Mr.
Holden? I'm certain that the painting was the same one that I examined a year and a half ago.
You have your answer.
Is it you that also does the museum catalogues, Mr.
Holden.
For every exhibition.
And when was the photograph of the Pissarro taken? I don't know.
What do you mean you don't know? This particular photograph was furnished by the owner.
Peyton Shoemaker gave you the photograph? Once in a while an owner loaning a painting does accompany the piece with his own photographic documentation.
So Shoemaker provided the photo when he first loaned the piece to the museum.
The same photograph your brother used to determine it was a forgery.
Okay, so we're saying, what, the stolen one was a fake.
But did Shoemaker know it? He may even be the one who had it made.
Forgery of his own painting? Owners often have forgeries made to protect their art against theft.
But maybe Shoemaker was afraid he'd lose his painting another way.
The Hellmans.
Those type of claims never really go away.
Collectors tend to shy away from paintings with questionable histories for that very reason.
In other words, if the Hellmans ever find more evidence to support their claim They could go right back to court.
He creates a fake to hedge his bet.
Then he loaned it to the museum to get the break in the insurance premium.
Shoemaker might even be trying to pull off a double scam; Have the fake one stolen for insurance, right.
And then sell the real one later on the sly.
Why steal back the fake Pissarro now? I mean, it's been hanging on the museum wall for a year and a half.
Hey, wait, what that guy, that curator guy say - it was going on tour.
- Next month.
Which would have meant another authentication.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice Now the question is - where is the real Pissarro? - Right.
- You can add, but you can't hide.
- What's broken? I've come with a peace offering.
French dip.
Well, thank you, but you didn't have to do that.
But there are a lot of things I don't have to do, Charlie, but I just do them because I want to.
Just feel like you worry about me too much, Dad.
Charlie, look, you're a grown man, but you're still my son and I'm still your father.
Okay, i-i-it's not about the house or chores.
It's, uh, it's about accepting responsibility.
Dad, I'm a I'm a full-tenured professor at one of the most prestigious universities in this country.
How do you think I got here, by slacking off? You can do the math, Charlie, we all know that, but, uh, sometime, you're going to want more for your life.
And i I know you can't see that right now, but sometime, God willing, you're going to have to make a choice between one of your algorithms and one of your kids upstairs with the flu.
I have a kid with the flu now? Charlie, I look at Larry, you know, a-and I respect him, but look at him; He's all alone.
I mean, he sleeps on couches, puts his work ahead of relationships.
You got to start somewhere.
The kind of life I'm talking about, it just doesn't happen by magic.
Is that what this has been all about? You're worried that I'm going to turn into Larry? I worry about that, too, sometimes.
Yeah because I look around and I don't see the best role models.
For example, Einstein.
Einstein never had a home life.
Einstein dumped his wife and married his cousin.
I hope that's not your way of making me feel better.
Dad, I'm wrestling with all this, all of it.
My math, my work with Don, Amita.
I'm sorry, I just don't have it all figured out yet.
You have no right.
Actually, we have a warrant.
This is ludicrous.
You're telling me that my painting is a forgery based on an analysis of a photograph? A photograph that you submitted to the museum, and I spoke to your insurance company; They're going to withhold your payment.
Yeah, well, I'll take them to court.
I wouldn't count on the courts backing your play a second time, Mr.
Shoemaker.
The Hellmans are behind this, aren't they? They paid some sleazy math expert to look at a photograph and say that my Pissarro is a fake.
Well, if they think they're going to get something out of this, they're wrong.
That's a really interesting theory, but the math expert works for us.
Why? Why would I steal my own painting? And if it was a fake, why would the Hellmans have fought for four years to get it back? - Nothing so far.
- Of course, there's nothing! I didn't steal the painting and I never shot a gun off in my life.
My father was an honorable man who served his country.
He was not a criminal and neither am I.
So, where would someone like Shoemaker hide that original? If he is our guy, he's done a real good job of eliminating the one witness who could pin the forgery on him.
By killing Wheeler.
Wait a minute, if he commissioned a fake, there's got to be a forger.
Maybe our second witness.
Find him, we find the killer.
It won't be easy catching this guy.
I've met any number of forgers capable of work this good.
Well, maybe he's been caught before.
Maybe he even has a file.
That's a lot of names to run down.
Well, what if we don't run down the names? What if we run down the paintings? We have a photograph of the forged Pissarro, right? Yeah, and the Bureau has a photographic database of other forgeries seized over the years.
So, we give the photograph to Charlie, he can do an analysis against all the other forgeries.
If he can tell us Pissarro didn't paint the fake, maybe he can tell us who did.
So per your request, I compared my analysis of the forged Pissarro to the FBI database of other recovered forgeries.
The algorithm identified one painting in the database that most closely resembles the handiwork of our suspect to an accuracy rate of, like, 89.
9%.
- All right, so you found him? - Oh, I definitely found him.
- So who's our forger? - His name is Gustav Stolberg.
- Well, where is he? - He's in a Jewish cemetery in Budapest.
He died in 1948.
So, our forger died 60 years ago? So the fake's at least that old then.
Interpol just faxed over the file on Gustav Stolberg.
In 1946, he was convicted of fraud.
He died in prison two years later.
Hungarian police seized what they believed to be five forged paintings in his shop.
Take a look at the list.
Fourth title down.
The Pissarro.
Hungarian police assumed all five canvases were a fake.
Right, but one wasn't.
So, we think that the real Pissarro's been sitting in a Hungarian police vault for 60 years? Wouldn't surprise me.
The Communists never threw anything away.
They packed the Pissarro into a crate along with the other forgeries.
So Mrs.
Hellman's father must have paid Stolberg to paint the forgery and then gave him the original for safekeeping.
At least there's some justice; the Nazis looted a fake.
It also means that Shoemaker's probably telling the truth.
that he didn't know the Pissarro was a forgery.
And maybe no one did.
Look, the fact that that painting was stolen a month before it was supposed to go on tour can't be a coincidence.
Wait a minute.
Holden, the museum conservator.
Yeah.
If what you're saying is true, that the real Pissarro has been found, then I must have made a mistake.
A mistake? But you've been doing this for 20 years.
The fact is, you lied to us, didn't you? You knew that Pissarro was a fake the whole time.
Now we're not just talking about a painting.
A man is dead.
And you're looking at conspiracy to commit murder.
Whatever you were paid, Mr.
Holden, it's not enough.
Paid? You think my integrity would be for sale? He said it would ruin us.
We'd already announced the acquisition.
It's one thing to display a painting that's suspected of being Nazi looted art but to exhibit a forgery? Who said it would ruin you? Excuse me.
Holden gave you up, Ruiz.
I spent my life devoted to the reputation of this museum.
Killing a man's not going to do much for the reputation.
Wheeler was a charlatan.
He found out the painting was a forgery, he tried to blackmail you.
Do you know how difficult it is for a museum like ours to actually acquire a Pissarro? Yeah, but you didn't actually acquire a Pissarro, did you? By the time Patrick alerted me to the forgery, it was already too late The Pissarro had put us on the map.
Only the tour next month would have exposed you.
I thought if the painting had just disappeared- what would be the harm? Shoemaker had his insurance and the museum would have had its future.
Yeah, it's not much of a future now, is it? Is this really necessary? Yes, this is really necessary.
Come with me.
The Hungarian police just delivered it to us.
It's yours, Nana.
Always has been.
I think your father clearly saw the writing on the wall with the Nazis.
So he went to Stolberg and commissioned a forgery.
After all these years To think, even I was beginning to question whether what I remembered was even true Well, I hope this can give you a little bit of comfort.
Yeah.
You know, I can't imagine- six years old- the world around you safe.
Then one day everything disappears- parents, family, everything you know One painting can only give you back so much.
Well, maybe for Mrs.
Hellman, given the wisdom of her years, that'll be enough.
Hallo! Oh, hey.
What, you guys started without me, huh? I'd think Einstein would say we started with you.
Just a different time and space, am I right? I like that.
I've been taking a closer look at Einstein lately.
- What's to eat? - Red meat on the barbecue.
Provided we still have a barbecue.
Did you got my note, we're out of propane.
I thought you'd take care of it.
I'm kidding.
We got a new tank, we're good to go.
- All right - No, no, no, stay, stay.
I got it.
You're gonna grill? Yeah, you know, T-bone steak with Mom's amazing steak sauce.
A little corn on the cob.
Hey, you want some help? - No, no.
Think I can handle it.
- All right.
Charles, that is white corn.
Hey, you know how you told me about your mom's cousin not finding anyone.
Yeah.
You think you could give me a list of names? You're gonna find them? Yeah, I mean I'd like to try.
- What do you think? - Okay.