WEBVTT - The Skylight Caper: Canada's Biggest Unsolved Art Heist 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.880 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:16.160 partnership with I Heart Radio, called the largest art theft 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.439 in the country's history by the Journal Canadian Art in 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.239 The Skylight Caper, as it's been nicknamed, was a major 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.120 news event in its own right, but it was just 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.320 one of several major news stories to occur over the 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.720 Labor Day weekend of seventy two in Montreal, Canada, and 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.199 it got a little bit lost in the shuffle. On 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.320 Friday that weekend, three men were refused entry to Montreal's 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.840 Wagon Wheel a country in Western bar and in retaliation, 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:51.120 set fire to a rear staircase. The blaze ultimately consumed 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:55.200 the building and killed thirty seven people. The next day, 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.120 Canada lost the opening game of the nineteen seventy two 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.000 Summit Series to the Soviet Union at the Montreal Forum, 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:08.280 and hockey was all that the media and really almost 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.040 everyone could talk about. The seventy two hockey series has 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.600 since been called the greatest event in Canadian sports. By 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.279 the time the Skylight Caper unfolded in the early morning 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.440 hours on Monday, Canada was immersed in the games, and 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:27.760 internationally attention was focused on the unfolding Munich Olympics hostage crisis, 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.880 and what went down was an art heist that left 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.840 dozens of paintings and objects missing and most still are today. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.759 Welcome to criminal lya, I'm Maria trum Marquis and I'm 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:44.160 Holly Frying. One of the world's greatest unsolved art thefts, 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:49.160 which included De la Croix, Rubens and Rembrandt, happened in Montreal, Quebec, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:54.880 Canada in ninety two. Seventeen paintings remain missing, and the 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:59.320 cat burglars behind the incident have never been apprehended. This 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.360 story outs a lot like a Hollywood script. Just after 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.760 midnight on September four, under the cover of darkness, a 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.240 man wearing climbing spurs, you know the kind that are 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.920 used by telephone linemen, scaled one of the trees on 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.880 the property between the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.239 the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. Gaining access 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.360 to the museum's roof, he lowered a construction cruise ladder 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.000 to two men who were waiting below. The three men 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.200 then entered the building through the one skylight that was 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:36.720 under repair. Its alarm was deliberately disarmed for construction. They 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.239 repelled through the skylight with fifty ft or fifteen meter 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.400 fixed nylon ropes into the galleries of the museum's second floor. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.480 Katherine Scofield says Kim, contributor to the Association for Research 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.600 into Crimes Against Art, said what we are all thinking quote, 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:58.799 it was a very cinematic theft on the second floor 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.880 of the museum that the thieves, donning ski masks, spent 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.040 roughly thirty minutes or so gathering paintings and other objects 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.560 before they encountered a security guard crossing paths with them 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:14.160 either in or nearby the kitchen. The thieves were armed. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.120 At least one had a twelve gage shotgun and another 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.480 may have had a revolver. One thief fired a warning 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.320 shot from that shotgun into the ceiling, not really to 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.239 cause harm, but as an indication of who was in 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.320 charge here. The two other night guards on duty heard 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:35.560 the gunfire, and though they responded, they were overwhelmed. Security 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:39.200 staff were bound, gagged and locked in a lecture hall 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.640 on the first floor. The guards later described to police 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.440 that the thieves were two men with longish hair, wearing 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.080 ski masks and armed with guns. One spoke French and 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.280 another spoke English. They heard the voice of a third 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.600 man who also spoke French, though they never saw him. 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.880 Police never recovered the shotgun or revolver that were said 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:04.000 to have been at the scene. The thieves had planned 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.600 to exit the museum through the same skylight that they 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.800 had entered, and they had actually mcgivered quite an elaborate 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.920 pulley system to hoist the artworks up to the roofs 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.760 so that they could then take them away, but they 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.520 ultimately gave up on this pulley plan, instead collecting the 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.760 artworks and other items at the museum's loading dock to 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.520 escape in the museum's small cargo van, But when one 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.239 of the men triggered the alarm while exiting the side 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.480 entrance of the museum, the trio just decided to leave 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.599 with whatever they could carry. They fled on foot with 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.880 eighteen paintings and thirty nine smaller pieces, mainly jewelry, down 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:44.000 Sherbrooke Street. Among the paintings were works by Caro Corbet 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.200 de Lacroix, Broigel, the Elder Rubens, and a Rembrandt that 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.640 was then valued at one million dollars. Among the objects 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.839 were to seventeenth century Spanish pendants, and an eighteenth century 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.000 gold watch that had once been owned by Montreal's first mayor, 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.760 Jacques via It's reported it took the museum guards about 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.400 an hour to free themselves after the thieves left, at 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.520 which point they contacted Well. No, they did not contact 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.280 the police. They contacted the highest ranking available member of 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.440 the museum's staff that they could think of, the then curator, 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.279 Ruth Jackson, who then instructed them to contact the police. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.360 Jackson was among the first museum staff at the scene 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.520 of the crime, and reports she found the gallery rants 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.960 act shattered display cases, torn backing, and many hundred year 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.599 old frames cracked to pieces. There was a stack of 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.960 about twenty paintings left behind, which contained a Picasso and 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.560 al Greco, two goyas, a Renoir, and another Rembrandt. We 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:48.680 talk a lot about the masters and their works, but 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.680 museum officials noted that thieves did also select works from 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:57.240 lesser known artists and works from more obscure collections. Those 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.279 paintings had value that would be considered more academic or 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.839 historic in nature rather than obvious. Jackson later told the 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.920 Montreal Gazette quote with what they'd proposed to remove. It 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.440 was just like they meant a general clear out of 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.599 the museum. News of the robbery and the names of 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.000 the stolen works were printed in newspapers across North America 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.080 and eventually around the world. Museum spokesperson at the time, 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.440 Bill Banti told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC quote, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.640 they were discriminating thieves and had a fairly good idea 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.719 of what they were looking for. The thieves got away 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:38.880 with these eighteen paintings. Number one Landscape with Vehicles and Cattle. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.360 This painting, which was subsequently recovered during ransom negotiations, had 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.559 been attributed to Jan Breigel the Elder, but was later 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:49.920 determined to have been the work of his students. We're 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:51.719 gonna talk a little bit more about this one in 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:55.760 a minute. To Landscape with buildings and Wagon by Joan 0:06:55.839 --> 0:07:00.599 Broigel the Elder. Three Laavosa la Fontaine or the Dreamer 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:05.080 at the Fountain by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot for Jean 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.880 fame Ach or young girl leaning on her left arm 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.680 by Jean Baptiste Camillo Caro. Five Landscape with Rocks and 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:20.960 stream by Gustave Courbet. Six Head by honore A Daumier seven, 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:25.480 Lioness and Lion in a Cave by Eugene Delacroix. Eight, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.640 The Sorceress by Narcis Virgilio Diaz de la Pa nine. 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.600 Portrait of Brigadier General Sir Thomas Fletcher by Thomas Gainsborough. 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.880 Ten Vanitas, still Life with books, a globe, a skull 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.560 of violin and a fan by Jon David zund Him eleven, 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.760 still Life with a fish by Jon David zund Him twelve. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:53.800 Laboratus or young Woman churning by Jean Francois Millay thirteen, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:59.000 Portrait of Madame Milais by Jean Francois Mela fourteen. Portrait 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:05.000 of a Man, possibly a self portrait by Giovanni Battista Piazetta. Fifteen, 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:09.640 Landscape with cottages by Rembrandt von Riene sixteen, Head of 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.680 a young Man by Peter Paul Rubens seventeen, Portrait of 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:18.000 a Lady by Francois le Vensson. Eighteen Portrait of a 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:23.240 Man by francoisanble Vinson. Police later concluded that the works 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.880 on this list were all small enough to be easily 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.600 stacked together for a quick getaway, and the same could 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:31.760 not be said for the pile of art that had 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.160 been left behind. This all made sense knowing that the 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:41.640 thieves fled on foot and fast Montreal investigators contacted Interpol 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.880 as well as the Art Dealers Association and the International 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.959 Art Registry to help in the investigation and art recovery process. 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.960 Customs officials at border checkpoints were also alerted to be 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:57.120 on the watch for the stolen works. Investigators initially stated 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:01.840 they were looking for at least suspect a man between 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.680 the age of thirty five and forty. There really wasn't 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.679 a lot of information to work with, but they did 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.200 broaden their search details to include three men, two of 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.320 whom were approximately five ft six and had long hair, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.680 and two of whom spoke French while the third spoke English. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.679 And that was it. Those were the details. We're going 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.800 to take a break for a word from our sponsor, 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.240 and when we're back we'll answer the question, just how 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:44.199 did those thieves know which skylight to enter? Welcome back 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.840 to Criminalia. Let's talk about what happened when the alleged 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:54.600 thieves tried to collect ransom. The two art heist wasn't 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:58.320 actually the first time thieves targeted the Montreal Museum of 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.720 Fine Arts. In nine teen thirty three, a man removed 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.760 a dozen paintings from the gallery space through an open 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.679 bathroom window, eventually holding the works for ransom. We've seen 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:16.000 that bathroom window business before. You know, there are clear patterns. 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.960 In nineteen sixty, thieves were foiled while trying to rob 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.200 a Vincent van Gogh exhibit. More recently, in eleven, two 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.760 artifacts were stolen from the museum's permanent collection in broad daylight. 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.920 In fact, it happened during visiting hours on the anniversary 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:38.160 of the nineteen seventy two crime. One of those two pieces, 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.840 a fragment of a Persian bab relief dating from the 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.360 fifth century b c E, was recovered by the Surate 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.480 di Quebec in Edmonton three years later. The second piece, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.199 a Roman marble statuette dating from the first century CE, 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:58.040 has never been recovered. As their investigation began, authorities were 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.560 suspicious how that thieves knew there was one skylight with 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:06.200 a deactivated alarm, and investigators considered the possibility the theft 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:12.040 was actually an inside job. However, after interviewing museum staff, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.920 they determined this to be inconclusive. Plus, would someone from 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.280 the inside have tripped an alarm, they wondered. Many museum 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.360 employees reported they'd seen in the weeks preceding the theft, 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:28.480 men sitting unfolding chairs on the rooftop of an adjacent building, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:34.880 smoking cigarettes, and apparently watching the museum's renovations very closely. 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.080 What followed the heist was a series of seemingly arbitrary 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:45.120 yet related events. Not long after the theft, someone claiming 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.720 responsibility for it directed museum officials to go to a 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:53.280 pay phone outside McGill University's rotic gates, where they could 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.559 expect to find a discarded cigarette package on the ground. 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.320 Officials did as this tip told them, and inside that 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:06.840 package they found appendant, which was one of the stolen items. Then, 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.840 in late October of nineteen two, museum officials received a 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:16.720 brown envelope labeled Ports of Montreal. The contents were photos 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.120 of the missing paintings with a requested ransom of five 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:25.600 thousand dollars for both paintings and objects. In correspondence with 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.040 the alleged thieves, which happened through phone calls and mail, 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.400 the director of the museum suggested returning one of the 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.760 taken paintings as a sign of good faith, a painting 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.040 was selected, landscape with vehicles and cattle, which was at 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.840 the time attributed to young Broygal the Elder. It was 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:44.880 returned by those who had taken it, left in a 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:48.280 locker at Central Station unharmed as part of the act 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:53.640 of good faith during negotiations. When inspected upon its recovery, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.560 though experts found well, they uncovered a few problems. The 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.440 painting and the signat sure were inconsistent with Brogel, the 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.800 artist the piece had been attributed to since it was 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.959 painted in the mid sixteen hundreds. The work was determined 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.400 to be misattributed, and that means it was determined unlikely 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.640 by museum experts to have been painted by this great master. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.280 It was instead concluded to be a copy of the 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.880 original painted by students in Brogel's workshop. Did the thieves 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.520 know that the painting they returned in a show of 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:34.360 good faith was actually a fake? That we will never know. 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.880 The museum did not pay the ransom, and the thieves 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.559 continued to bargain. They dropped their price, though, from half 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.360 a million to two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Instead, the 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:51.040 museum requested another show of good faith they wanted another painting. 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.480 Using an undercover officer, police carried on and attempted to 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:59.920 exchange cash for another of the missing paintings, but an 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.120 unexpected and unrelated appearance of a squad car near the 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.960 scene where they were supposed to make this exchange put 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.480 a stop to the handoff. In that moment, that show 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.040 of good faith fell apart, and the alleged thieves called 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.360 museum officials the next morning, claiming that the whole thing 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.240 had been a trap and a police set up. There 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.880 were alleged plans for a secret meeting between museum officials 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.120 and the thieves, but in the end, whether that meeting 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.880 happened or not, because after all, it was a secret, 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.520 nothing more was recovered from this heist, and no one 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.960 was arrested for the matter. Communications ceased shortly after the 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:41.880 Broigel debacle. A last apparent effort to exchange artwork for 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.600 cash came in the summer of nine three, when an 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.760 anonymous caller contacted the museum offering information that could lead 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.840 to the missing paintings in exchange for ten thousand dollars. 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.240 So they followed this lead an insurance a jester contracted 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.680 on behalf of the museum when on what became really 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:06.800 a fourteen hour wild goose chase across the city, they 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.560 followed tips from pay phone to pay phone before finally 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.240 being instructed to drop the payout under a sign in 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.000 a vacant law in Laval, a suburb of Montreal. But 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.600 the whole thing was bullshit actually, and the paintings were 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.120 never recovered, and this seems to have been really the 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.160 final recovery effort, or at least the final one that 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.760 gained any news coverage. Within days of the heist, the 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.320 Montreal Gazette reported that there was in fact actually a 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.240 second art heist that had taken place that same week, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.920 as fifty thou dollars worth of paintings were stolen from 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.200 the summer home of Agnes Meldrum, who ran a successful 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.320 trucking and storage business in the city. Authorities tried to 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.120 link that event to the same thieves. Both were said 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.320 to have involved three armed men, to who spoke French 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.600 and a third who spoke English. At the Meldrum crime scene. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.560 Ropes were also used here to scale a six foot 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.480 cliff from a waiting motor boat on the Lake of 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.400 Two Mountains in order to gain access to the home. Ultimately, 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.720 though police noted similarities between the crimes, they considered these 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.280 circumstances to be coincidental. We are now going to take 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.400 a break for a word from our sponsor, and when 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.920 we're back we will talk about one theory that art 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:40.160 students may have been involved in the heist. Welcome back 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.040 to Criminalia. Let's meet the Columbo of the art world, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.680 a man named Alain la Courtier, who may have gotten 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:52.680 the closest to solving this cold case. Advice for thieves 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.400 that we've seen again and again this season is lalo 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.880 for a few years. If you've nicked some high profile work, 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.280 they need to cool off before they're transported or they're sold. 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.480 Two items, one of two stolen burgles and dependant were 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.040 returned to the museum during the initial ransom and negotiations, 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:17.360 all within weeks of the crime. But fifty years later, 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:22.720 nothing else has resurfaced. Nothing has been inadvertently brought to auction, 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.760 nothing has been intercepted or discovered during police raid at 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.199 the home of some criminal kingpin. There are still no leads, 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.240 and still no one has been implicated in the theft. 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:39.679 Evidence little there ever was was reportedly improperly stored and 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.040 has degraded over time as well, and the museum's insurers 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:49.720 settled the claim, which means the paintings aren't museum property anymore. Technically, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:54.320 if they were to be returned, they would belong to Lloyd's. 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.600 But not everyone has given up on this case. Allain 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.200 le Courtier is today an art praiser, but is a 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:06.080 former art investigator from Montreal and Quebec police forces. He's 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.640 known as the Columbo of art for his successful efforts 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.439 in investigating other cold case art thefts in Quebec, and 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.720 he took on the Skylight caper as something of a 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:20.600 pet project during the nineteen nineties. Every solid lead or 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.160 theory that authorities had in the nineteen seventies fell apart, 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.640 and Allen has gone on record with his frustrations over 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.800 the sloppy way with which the investigation was initially handled. 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.840 Early in the investigation, police put some of their focus 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.120 on the possibility that the theft was committed by art students, 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.760 and they surveiled five students for just shy of two 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.360 weeks before they gave up on the lead. Elaine, decades later, 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.440 picked up that lead and began looking into students who 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.199 were at the Cold Bozao in the nineteen seventies, and 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.600 I apologize for what I just did to the name 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.879 of that school, the Fine Arts Institute in Montreal, LA 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.480 And ultimately, like those before him, could not crack this case, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.800 but he did develop some interesting theories about what may 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.720 have happened. About thirty years after the theft, Elane struck 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.159 up a conversation with a man he would come to 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.359 nickname Smith, a man who was an art student in 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.040 Montreal at the time of the heist. Smith was not 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.640 one of the five suspects initially surveilled by police, though 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.000 he liked to hint he may have been one of them. 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:31.040 Smith was interesting because he knew details of the crime 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.879 that had never been made public. Smith also seemed to 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.760 have come into a considerable amount of money shortly after 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:42.159 graduating from school and had become an art collector. Elan 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.680 always maintained that in his gut he knows Smith had 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.000 to have been involved somehow, but Smith, though he may 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:54.320 have teased otherwise, always denied any involvement. And now we'll 0:19:54.359 --> 0:20:01.080 never know because Smith passed away in or The museum, 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.600 as we mentioned earlier, settled with insurers, and with part 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.000 of the payout in nineteen seventy five, purchased Reubens The 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.240 Leopards in a show of extraordinary bad luck, though and 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:16.720 adding insult to injury, A conservationist who examined the painting 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.879 after its purchase determined that it, like that Breugel's landscape 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.000 with vehicles and cattle before, it was not what it 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.800 seemed to be. Leo Rossandler, the museum's deputy director in 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.000 nineteen seventy five, is quoted as saying fake is a 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.040 harsh word. But the painting is not by the person 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.800 who was said to have painted it, but probably by 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.560 his studio. The work was not by Reubens but by 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:45.760 his apprentices, and it has not been exhibited since. A 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.040 subsequent review of the museum's files on the stolen paintings, 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.080 as reported in the Journal of Art Crime in twenty eleven, 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.440 revealed that there had been doubts about the authenticity or 0:20:55.480 --> 0:21:00.240 the attribution of seven paintings in the museum's possession, and 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:02.919 it couldn't be blamed on the heist or sleight of 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.560 hand knockoffs returned in so called good faith by thieves. 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.080 In some cases, the records dated back to at least 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:14.399 six years before these thefts even took place. It's reported 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.240 that the estimated value of most of the missing pieces 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:21.800 has dramatically increased since nineteen seventy two, in particular the Rembrandt, 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.360 which some art experts and dealers believe could be worth 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.840 as much as twenty times more than it was when 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:31.000 it went missing. Today, though there is limited interest among 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.840 a limited group to continue this investigation, the theft is, 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:39.720 for all intents and purposes, a cold case. On the 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:44.600 fiftieth anniversary of the heist in two, spokesperson a Unique 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.679 de Repentinee of the Montreal Police Department, when asked for 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:51.040 comment about the unsolved theft, stated that the case is 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.880 still considered open, but offered no further comment. Stated Maud 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.919 belan media relations officer for the museum, quote, any ore 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.000 it works. Theft is a tragedy as it deprives society 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.280 of the benefits of art and knowledge. Of course, we 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.840 would love to have them back. Unfortunately we do not 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:14.560 have any new information. This one makes me sad because 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.520 it was just early enough in history that there were 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.879 not a lot of great photographs of these paintings. So 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:24.760 for some of them, it's what did that look like? 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.359 Their descriptions so they're black and whites. Let me draw 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:33.560 you a quick little piece that you can compare it to. 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.960 I know, like we did a show earlier in the 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.200 season where I believe it was considered the first art 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.400 theft and it was Pirates, which makes sense. But it's 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.760 not like you're alarming. Anything like that. Doesn't really happen 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:58.520 until centuries later, and then sometimes not at all. Tip 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:00.840 up a little heist hoods to guys who seem to 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.280 have gotten away. I'm ready for heist hooch, but you 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.240 have to make a deal with me where you won't 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.600 be pedantic about the time of day this heist took place. 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:14.880 We know, we know, I love my Dayton High. This 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.879 one will have daytime lighting, not night time. You know 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.240 it came up on our last episode. But this one 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:24.000 is so intense, the whole skylight maneuver, and so I 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:28.560 wanted to make a drink inspired by a skylight entry. 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:30.959 That's fantastic. I can't wait to see what this is. 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:34.639 And this one is called Skylight and you'll see that 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:38.080 it references the sky. It's a pretty easy drink to 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:40.720 put together. There is a little trick in execution, but 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.520 I will give you my trick on how to do it. 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:46.520 And I am not particularly graceful in this regard. So 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:48.320 if I can do it, I think probably most people 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:52.000 can as well. This starts with a very simple bass 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:54.480 to the drink. It is three quarters of an ounce 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:57.119 of lemon cello, and then you're going to pour that 0:23:57.240 --> 0:23:59.440 over ice into like a rocks class and then top 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.159 it with ginger rerail. You pour in that ginger real second, 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:03.600 you kind of get them to mix on their own. 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:04.760 You don't have to do a whole lot of work. 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:09.800 Then into a shaker, you're gonna combine a half ounce 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:13.120 of blue curos ow three quarters of an ounce of vodka, 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:15.560 and you're going to give that a dry shake, meaning 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:17.639 it doesn't have ice in it. You just want to 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:21.639 combine those two things so that you thin out the 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:24.399 blue curos ow a little bit. Because we're going to 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:27.119 do a floater. I feel we have not done this 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:30.040 in a while. We haven't. And the thing is right, 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.720 we talked about it many moons ago. But if you're 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:34.840 going to try to float any liquid on top of 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:37.560 another liquid, the one on top has to be a 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:39.880 lower density, or it will just fall to the bottom 0:24:40.200 --> 0:24:42.399 and blue curos ow because it is so surrupy and 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:44.760 it has that sugar content is heavy. That's why we're 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:47.360 mixing it with vodka to thin it out and make 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.640 it a little bit like lighter in its volume. So 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:54.080 then you're gonna take here's the trick. You need a 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:57.240 bar spoon with one of those flat bottoms at the end, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:24:59.280 you know what I mean. Some of them have the 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:01.880 tear drops and some of them have just like literally 0:25:02.800 --> 0:25:05.280 it sits on a little disk, and those are your friends, 0:25:05.320 --> 0:25:09.920 because that disc will allow you to pour your mixture 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:14.280 of blue Curius sound vodka down the spirally shape of 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:17.320 the spoon and onto that little disk, and then it 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:19.399 floats out over the top of the rest of the 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:22.040 drink and it doesn't drop to the bottom, and you 0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:26.439 get a really beautiful blue stripe across the top of 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:29.400 your beverage. And it looks very pretty and it makes 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:30.960 you think of the sky. Now, I will say, to 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:34.920 drink it. This is a presentation thing. You probably want 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:38.240 to mix it for because all your spirits sitting on 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:40.879 top right, but it looks pretty right up until the 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:43.960 moment that you do. Yes, I have definitely been with 0:25:44.040 --> 0:25:47.680 people who don't realize that sometimes you gotta mix in 0:25:47.720 --> 0:25:50.320 a floater like on Classic Matie. Sometimes they'll have that 0:25:50.800 --> 0:25:53.400