Plot Synopsis

Using re-enactments, expert commentary and archival footage, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART reveals how the world's most amazing works of art disappeared, because they were looted, stolen or vanished into the archives. Besides uncovering the great mysteries behind these famous paintings, this one-hour series also shows how some have been recovered, while many more are still waiting to be found. Each 60-minute episode focuses on a single collection, including: a haul of missing masterpieces purchased for Hitler by a German art dealer, which resurfaced in Munich in 2013; Carl Faberge's jewelled eggs vanished during the Russian Revolution of 1917, but one recently reappeared; the unearthing of a lost landscape by artist Vincent van Vogh in 2013, which launched the hunt for his other missing masterpieces; how an Allied unit tracked down some of the world's greatest artworks that the Nazis plundered during WWII; and much more. Ovation aired the U.S. premiere of this series on Saturday, August 30, 2014 at 7pm ET/4pm PT.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART returned for its second season in the United States on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 from 10-11pm ET on Ovation. Works of art featured in Season 2 include: "The Scream," one of the world's most-famous works of art has been stolen on numerous occasions -- one time in 1994 when thieves left a message saying only "thanks for the poor security"; Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele," painted during Vienna's cultural heydey and confiscated by the Nazis during WWII; "Lady with an Ermine," which has revealed the workings of the ultimate genius, Leonardo Da Vinci; Rembrandt's "Self Portraits," which have been scattered across the globe and had a life and history all their own; El Greco's "Opening of the Fifth Seal," which may have been the inspiration behind Picasso's masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; Claude Monet's "Impression, Sunrise," the painting that started the Impressionism movement, which was stolen in 1985 and was missing for five years; "Il Spasimo," which was painted for a Sicilian monastery, stunk in a storm on a boat, recovered, and later stolen by Napoleon; Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece," one of his many works that have been desired and stolen; Turner's "Light and Color," which was stolen in Frankfurt in 1998 and was bought back from the thieves in a curious deal; Vincent Van Gogh's "The Sunflowers," a set of paintings created for the arrival of Paul Gaugin in Arles and then taking an astonishing journey ever since; Johannes Vermeer "Girl with a Pearl Earring," made famous by a film; and Cezanne's "The Boy in the Red Vest," which was stolen in 2008, but was recovered recently in Serbia.
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On Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 10am ET/7am PT, Ovation aired "Chinese Special," the U.S. premiere of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART's third season.