0:00

Once upon a time, there were

0:02

two titans of crypto, Sam Backman

0:04

Freed, CEO of FTX, and Changpeng

0:06

Xiao, founder of Binance, both vying

0:08

for dominance. Until the day,

0:11

they almost burned the whole industry

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to the ground. Now, Sam is

0:15

pleading not guilty to fraud and

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conspiracy charges, and Changpeng Xiao is

0:19

fighting to hold on to his

0:21

crown. But how did two kingpins

0:23

become locked in this death match?

0:25

Listen to Crypto Kingpins from USG

0:27

Audio and Project Brazen, available now

0:30

wherever you get your podcasts. William

0:58

Beres was arrested following the largest

1:00

ever investigation by the Italian police's

1:02

art squad. They accuse

1:04

him of running an art smuggling ring with ties

1:07

to the Sicilian mafia, and

1:09

stealing $40 million worth of

1:11

art and antiquities from Italy. He

1:14

faces a jail term of up to 20 years. But

1:18

he has a plan to save himself. How?

1:22

By solving the coldest cold case in the

1:24

history of art crime, the

1:26

theft of Caravaggio's nativity. Here's

1:29

a special preview of episode one. It's

1:35

three o'clock in the morning on July 3rd,

1:37

2018. The police

1:39

are banging on the door of a house

1:41

in a quiet, respectable suburb of North London.

1:45

This is police. Yeah,

1:47

police. The owner is a

1:49

64-year-old man called William Beres. I

1:53

went to the window and

1:56

there were a large number of

1:58

individuals waving torches. Bleried,

2:01

he goes downstairs to see what all

2:03

the commotion is about. The

2:06

lights aren't working in the hallway, and in

2:08

the dark he's confronted by nine offices from

2:11

Britain's National Crime Agency, London's

2:13

Metropolitan Police, and the

2:15

Italian Carabinieri. I immediately

2:17

began to understand the nature of

2:19

the visit. Dawn raids don't

2:22

happen in this part of town. Vérez's

2:24

neighbours are bankers and property developers,

2:27

lawyers and accountants. And

2:29

him? He's an emismatist. He

2:31

buys and sells ancient coins. At

2:34

least, that's his story. The

2:37

police? They take a different

2:39

view. The

2:42

officers barge past him and begin to spread

2:44

out. They search the living room. They

2:47

head upstairs to raid the bedrooms in Vérez's

2:49

study. They even climb a ladder to

2:51

get into the attic and inspect a shed at the

2:53

end of the garden. They

2:55

strip the place bare, clearing shelves

2:57

and cabinets, emptying drawers and

2:59

trays. Thousands of coins

3:02

of all sorts. They took

3:04

away a large marble head of Augustus, which

3:07

may or may not be ancient, a

3:09

collection of Anglo-Saxon pinnies. They asked

3:11

me for wrapping materials, which I gave them

3:13

all the bubble wrap I had. What

3:16

would they expect to find with somebody of

3:18

my standing? Somebody who's been a dealer for

3:20

50 years? The

3:22

Italian police have been on Vérez's trail for

3:24

years. It's the

3:26

largest investigation ever conducted by

3:29

the Italian art squad, codename

3:31

Operation Demetra. They've

3:33

arrested him before, but the charges didn't

3:35

stick. Now they have

3:37

enough evidence to prosecute. They

3:41

surveilled him at meetings and tapped his phones. In

3:44

the conversations they overheard, the speakers often

3:47

used nicknames to mask their identities. One

3:51

of them goes by Big Hair because his flowing

3:53

locks make him look like a cross between John

3:55

Travolta and Jeff Bridges. And

3:58

Vérez? He was the expert. that

4:00

all the other guys looked up to. The

4:02

one they deferred to. The one

4:05

they really respected. They

4:07

called him the Professor. According

4:14

to the police, he is the

4:16

kingpin of a pan-European art smuggling

4:18

ring, made up of tomb raiders,

4:21

counterfeiters, fences and frontmen. Together,

4:23

he and his co-conspirators are alleged to

4:25

have stolen 40 million euros

4:27

worth of art and antiquities. After

4:31

emptying the house, the police bundle

4:33

Verez into an unmarked car and take

4:35

him into custody. They charge

4:37

him with 14 counts, including

4:40

money laundering, wire fraud, forgery

4:42

and conspiracy. If

4:45

Verez is found guilty, he faces a

4:47

jail term of up to 20 years. Verez's

4:51

home isn't the only one being raided that

4:53

morning. Across Europe, the police

4:55

in Italy, Germany and Spain are carrying out

4:57

more than 50 simultaneous raids

4:59

to round up Verez's alleged

5:01

accomplices. By the

5:03

time the sun is up, the authorities have seized over

5:06

25,000 objects, and

5:08

51 people are in custody. Verez

5:16

doesn't deny doing business with his

5:18

co-accused. I've known these

5:20

people for many, many years in most cases.

5:23

But he claims their business was perfectly innocent,

5:26

and he never led a smuggling cartel. I

5:29

didn't command anybody. These people are all

5:31

autonomous individuals. But there's something you should

5:33

know about his co-defendants. Some

5:37

of them are suspected of having links with the Sicilian mythia.

5:44

So, Verez. Just a simple coin dealer?

5:55

From Brazen and PRX, this is The

5:57

Professor. I'm Simon Willis. I'm

6:00

a journalist and a few years ago I was

6:02

looking for stories about art crime. One

6:05

day I was having lunch with a contact who

6:07

worked as a private detective and he

6:10

told me that if it was art crime I was

6:12

interested in, I had to

6:14

meet William Verrez. This

6:17

guy was accused of being an international art

6:19

criminal. But that was only

6:21

half the story. There was also his plan to

6:23

get out of trouble. Let's

6:26

put it this way. It was audacious.

6:30

In this show we are going to follow Verrez

6:32

as he puts that plan into action. It

6:35

is a journey that will take us deep into the

6:37

underworld, onto the dark heart of the

6:40

most famous criminal organization of them all. The

6:42

Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra.

6:45

It's a story of drug dealers, hitmen,

6:48

smugglers, spies, even

6:50

a corrupt prime minister. And

6:53

in the middle of it all is one man's

6:55

quest to save himself. How?

6:59

By solving the most famous cold case in

7:01

the history of art crime. Episode

7:08

one. When

7:27

you imagine the house of an international crook,

7:29

trafficking in millions of dollars of stolen

7:32

art, you might think of

7:34

a luxurious penthouse, gold taps, giant

7:37

TVs, a long-lost Picasso

7:39

hanging on the wall. That kind of thing.

7:42

That isn't how William Verrez lives. It

7:45

is March 2019, eight

7:47

months after the raid. Verrez

7:49

is out on bail and I'm in his living

7:51

room. The place is

7:54

comfortable, but shabby. The

7:56

house of a middle-class bohemian. There's

7:59

a dirty fish tank full of colourful

8:01

gippies, a worn out leather

8:03

sofa, bits of wood strewn

8:05

all over the floor. My son started

8:07

a piano restoration, that's us mini grand

8:09

over there, and you'll see bits of

8:12

it everywhere. Verez

8:14

has a taste for elegant tweed jackets

8:16

and paisley silk scarves. He

8:19

is portly, balding, and has

8:21

a neatly coiffed handlebar moustache. His

8:23

conversation is frequently interrupted by phone calls,

8:26

which he feels in one of the

8:28

nine languages he speaks. Italian,

8:31

or German, or

8:33

Turkish. Verez

8:49

may be out of custody, but he's still

8:51

in a cage. He

8:53

is wearing an electronic tag around his ankle,

8:56

lives under a curfew, and isn't

8:58

allowed to spend the night away from home. Several

9:01

times a week, he has to present himself at

9:03

a police station. Meanwhile,

9:06

his lawyers are fighting an extradition

9:08

claim from the Italian authorities. His

9:11

legal bills are mounting, but he can't pay them. His

9:14

bankers blocked his accounts. They

9:16

don't like doing business with suspected money

9:19

launderers. Whether

9:21

his career was criminal or not, it's

9:23

in ruins. Verez reckons the

9:26

police stripped him of £400,000 worth

9:28

of possessions. He

9:31

says he doesn't have anything left. I

9:33

don't have many shares or pension

9:35

policy, so it's my wealth, basically.

9:38

Total wealth. The

9:40

way of this type of punishment, if we look at it in

9:43

the cold light of day, it is

9:45

actually to ruin you. It's been a

9:47

hard fall for Verez. Over

9:49

the course of his career, he has had

9:51

houses in Switzerland, Germany, and the south of

9:54

Spain. Businesses in London

9:56

and Zurich, clients all over the world. Billionaires,

9:59

politicians, and other people. politicians, even

10:01

the British Museum. He's

10:03

been photographed at glamorous art world parties,

10:06

chatting to the rock star Chrissie Hind, lead

10:08

singer of The Pretenders. In

10:11

the world of antiquities, his expertise

10:13

was in high demand, even

10:16

from fellow experts. I'm

10:18

Eleni Vasilica. I cut my teeth

10:21

at the Brooklyn Museum and then I was keeper

10:23

of ancient art in the Fitzwilliam Museum

10:26

at the University of Cambridge for ten

10:28

years. William is a coin

10:32

nerd, very knowledgeable in

10:34

history. If I needed to

10:37

ask someone, I

10:39

might actually want to

10:41

ask him about a certain period or

10:43

what was going on. He would know

10:45

that. I've read that

10:48

he's called the professor in

10:50

southern Italy by dealers and

10:52

traffickers because he is

10:54

so knowledgeable. And now, to

10:57

make ends meet, Verrez is trying to

10:59

buy and sell a few things online. There

11:01

are some English pennies here I

11:03

bought on eBay from a German dealer, a

11:06

nice penny of Henry II. I

11:09

believe that's Richard I possibly.

11:12

Yes, that's Richard Lionheart.

11:16

Not a bad coin. Verrez

11:23

was born in Hungary in

11:26

1953. When

11:28

he was three years old, his family

11:30

escaped Budapest just before Soviet tanks

11:32

rolled into the city to crush the revolution in

11:34

1956. They settled in

11:36

London. Verrez's father, who was

11:39

a tailor, got a dream job on

11:41

Savile Row. With Cyril Castle,

11:43

who was termed in those

11:45

days, tailor to the stars. The castle's

11:47

actually dressed James Bond in the form

11:50

of Roger Moore at the time. So

11:52

we got to know Roger Moore coming

11:54

to my father's atelier, if that's what

11:56

you want to call it. You

12:00

see? Clayless scissors. Growing

12:04

up, Verez's school friends called

12:07

him Weird Veers, deliberately

12:09

mispronouncing his foreign name. Verez

12:12

was the kind of kid that bullies are

12:14

drawn to. Nerdy,

12:16

solitary, obsessive. Already

12:19

his main obsession was coins, and

12:22

he remembers his first big deal to this day.

12:25

1968, so I'm 14 years old then. We're

12:29

looking at a receipt for

12:31

a coin left at Spinks. Spinks

12:34

is an auction house, then located

12:36

in Mayfair, London's poshest district. Verez

12:39

is haggling with its main coin expert. Well,

12:42

you can see it's a letter from

12:44

Douglas Liddell. On the 14th of November

12:46

1968, he writes to

12:48

me, Dear Mr. Verez, with reference

12:51

to the small penny of Elizabeth I, which

12:53

he left with me, I have now explored the market

12:56

for this and could obtain for you a net sum

12:58

of £150. I

13:01

think this is a very fair offer, because although

13:03

the coin is of course excessively rare, it is

13:05

a very small one and also in poor condition,

13:07

and therefore very much a student piece. You're

13:10

sincerely the little. Stepping

13:13

into the famous sale rooms at Spinks, Verez

13:16

rubbed shoulders with rich establishment

13:18

collectors. From that

13:21

moment, coins became more than just his hobby.

13:24

They became his root into English society.

13:28

All he needed was a steady supply

13:30

of valuable antiquities to sell to those

13:32

collectors. And in the 1970s and 1980s, that

13:36

was easy, especially

13:38

if you had friends in

13:41

Sicily. This

13:57

is Domenico Medunio, a singer from

13:59

southern Italy. He

14:01

recorded this song in 1973. It's called

14:04

Amara Teramir, My Bitter Land,

14:06

and it's a lament for the place he's leaving behind.

14:28

Goodbye, goodbye, love. I

14:30

leave my bitter land, bitter and

14:32

beautiful. This

14:35

was Sicily in the 1970s. Poor,

14:38

violent, riddled with crime and

14:41

corruption. Life here has

14:43

become dominated by a more sinister

14:45

kind of family. One

14:47

so secretive and so ruthless that

14:49

most Sicilian spirit and publicly denied

14:52

even exists. Almost every morning there

14:54

was another bullet-riddled body in the

14:56

streets of Palermo, Sicily's capital, or

14:59

slumped over the steering wheel of a car, victims

15:02

of the Matthew's turf wars. Since

15:05

the Second World War, thousands had been

15:07

leaving every year for better lives elsewhere,

15:10

people like the man in the song. But where

15:12

some saw terror and desperation, others

15:15

saw opportunity. Because

15:17

Sicily was a gold mine. Sicily

15:20

was the breadbasket of the ancient worlds.

15:23

It was part of Magna Grecha, which

15:25

was the kind of Greek diaspora. And

15:27

the colonies there created an agricultural

15:29

society that really fed much of

15:31

the ancient worlds. And

15:34

as a result of that wealth, they

15:36

built huge monumental temples to the Greek

15:38

gods and lavishly decorated

15:40

these and had a populace there that

15:42

was quite wealthy. That's

15:45

Jason Felt, an author and investigator

15:47

who published a book called Chasing

15:49

Aphrodite about the illicit antiquities trade.

15:51

So the grave goods in

15:53

Sicily are amongst the best

15:56

archaeological evidence we have of

15:58

Greek society. riches

16:00

that the ancient Greek world had. But

16:03

the Sicily of the 1970s was very different.

16:06

Yeah, you had the combination of two

16:09

factors that are usually behind archaeological looting.

16:11

You had a very rich archaeological history

16:13

just below the surface. And

16:16

at the same time, on the surface,

16:18

you have political instability, unrest, poverty, a

16:20

lack of government of tension in that region. Because

16:23

the government did not play a strong role

16:25

in society, mafia groups

16:27

really dominated. And organized

16:29

crime communities really control businesses

16:31

above grounds. And the

16:33

combination of those two, the rich archaeological

16:36

sites and organized crime's dominant

16:38

role in society, meant

16:40

that it was a prime spot for looting

16:42

for decades. Therese

16:44

began going to Sicily as a young dealer in

16:46

the 1970s. I

16:49

used to get coin fairs there. Now, the

16:51

coin fairs are somewhat different there, because of

16:53

course, in Sicily, you'd get more diggers. Sicily's

16:57

diggers were usually poor, unemployed people,

17:00

armed with metal detectors and shovels, and

17:02

hoping to hit the jackpot. Statues,

17:04

ceramics, gold and silver

17:06

vessels, and sometimes

17:08

literally money. There

17:11

was a huge boom when the first detectors came

17:13

out, you could imagine, you could find hundreds of

17:15

coins in it within a day. So

17:18

it goes hand in

17:20

hand, unemployment, lots of archaeology,

17:24

if these diggers and tomb raiders struck it lucky, the art

17:27

world was waiting to buy up their discoveries. Because

17:31

in those days, nobody cared whether

17:33

antiquities were looted or legitimately acquired.

17:37

You could do everything you wanted. Nobody was interested. This

17:41

is Arthur Brand. Brand

17:44

is a kind of art world

17:46

celebrity, lauded in the international media

17:49

for his work recovering stolen art. If

17:52

a grave robber in Italy found

17:55

a tomb of a of a royal whatever, and he found gold, silver,

18:00

stuff like that. Now

18:02

we say this should go to a

18:04

museum. But in those days, a grave

18:06

robber would put it up

18:08

for auction. Even the biggest museums in the world

18:10

bought from these grave robbers at the time. This

18:13

trade was worth millions of dollars. Here's

18:17

Jason Felch, the author and investigator

18:19

again. Some of

18:21

the most remarkable pieces of ancient

18:23

Greek art in the world came

18:25

from archaeological looting in

18:28

Sicily in the 70s, 80s and

18:31

90s. This would include the Getty's

18:33

Aphrodite, which was dug up in Morgantino in

18:35

the late 70s. They broke this

18:37

massive sculpture into three pieces and smuggled it

18:39

in the back of a carrot truck from

18:41

Sicily all the way up the spine of

18:43

Italy to Switzerland, where it was

18:46

smuggled across the border and put back together

18:48

before it was sold to the Getty in

18:50

1988 for 18 million

18:52

dollars. So how close was

18:54

Beres to the biggest looters in Sicily?

18:57

Well, put it this way.

19:00

Oratio di Simone was the one who

19:02

smuggled out of Italy the Aphrodite of

19:04

Morgantina. Oratio di Simone in

19:06

fact was my best man at my

19:08

wedding. Now I had nothing to

19:10

do with that, but of course the association

19:12

is rather unfortunate. In Sicily, where there was

19:15

money to be made, there

19:17

was the mafia. Here's

19:19

Eleni Vasilica, the ancient art

19:21

expert. If you think of

19:23

some poor Sicilian who barely speaks

19:26

or cannot even speak Italian,

19:28

speaks dialect, it's not

19:31

possible for that person to sell something

19:33

to a dealer in Mayfair

19:35

or in New York without

19:38

some sort of infrastructure.

19:41

And the mafia provided that

19:43

infrastructure. It's a kind of

19:46

force that can

19:48

negotiate judges, customs

19:50

officers, transport agencies,

19:53

and hide the material or

19:55

pay people off in order to get the

19:57

material out of Sicily. If

20:02

you were a dealer working in Sicily, you

20:04

probably crossed paths with the Mafia, whether

20:07

you knew it or not. In Sicily,

20:10

it's impossible not to know

20:12

somebody who is in the Mafia, whether it's a

20:14

relative, a friend of a friend. It's

20:17

just like saying it's impossible not to

20:19

speak English in Wales. Some

20:21

of the contacts they're as cultivated in

20:23

Sicily turned out to be directly implicated

20:26

in Mafia activity. His

20:28

biggest sale came in 1991 when

20:30

he acquired a golden bowl from the 5th

20:32

century BC for The

20:36

man he got it from was an old

20:38

Sicilian friend. He was a very erudite collector.

20:41

He was a landowner, well positioned

20:43

in Sicilian society, and

20:45

he was a very interesting eccentric

20:47

character, a typical collector, a little

20:49

bit loopy. The bowl was eventually

20:52

sold to a billionaire in New

20:54

York for $1.2 million. Perez

20:58

acted as an intermediary in the sale, and

21:00

the man he bought it from? Well,

21:03

one day in 1999,

21:05

Sicilian police came to his palatial house to

21:08

arrest him. Well as I say, I can't

21:10

remember the exact details, but he was accused

21:13

of collusion with the Mafia, using Mafia money

21:15

to collect and make money with antiquities and

21:17

coins. In the

21:19

art world, having contacts like this can

21:21

ruin your reputation. But

21:24

it can also make you useful. Here's

21:26

Arthur Brand again. It's

21:28

like a pyramid, and at the bottom you have

21:30

the petty thieves, the people who do illegal diggings

21:33

in Italy or wherever, and at the top you

21:35

have like 40 men and women who control more

21:37

or less the business. William

21:40

knows them all, from the top to the bottom. We'll

21:50

be back after this short break. William

22:00

Verez is in big trouble. This

22:03

is police! He is accused of

22:05

running a pan-European art smuggling with

22:07

ties to the Sicilian Mafia. And

22:09

if convicted, he faces up to

22:11

20 years in prison. He's called

22:13

the Professor by dealers and traffickers.

22:15

To stay out of jail, William

22:17

Verez plans to find a $100

22:19

million painting, Caravaggio's Nativity. I once

22:22

asked how many mobs do you

22:24

know in Sicily. He said, well,

22:26

officially none. From

22:29

Brazen and PRX, listen to The Professor,

22:31

wherever you get your podcasts. Out

22:33

now. Yeah,

22:37

I will press record here now. Good,

22:40

okay. So yes, Arthur, what

22:42

I want to do today is just talk a bit

22:44

about the Caravaggio.

22:46

Arthur Brand, the art world celebrity,

22:49

is the second big character in our story.

22:52

He started out as a small-time coin

22:55

collector. But about two decades

22:57

ago, he began to track down

22:59

stolen masterpieces. Picassos,

23:01

Darlies, treasures looted by

23:04

the Nazis during the Second World War. He's

23:07

often compared to a certain

23:09

brash, swashbuckling hero. This

23:11

is a man who's been referred to as

23:13

the Indiana Jones of the art world. He's

23:15

been dubbed the Indiana Jones of the

23:18

art world. My guest today

23:20

is perhaps the world's greatest art

23:22

detective, dubbed the Indiana Jones of

23:24

the art world. Brand

23:27

has turned this work into a

23:29

small media empire. He

23:34

has his own show on Dutch TV

23:36

called The Art Detective. And

23:40

has written a bestseller about his recoveries. Arthur

23:43

Brand has become, well, a

23:46

brand. And right now, he

23:49

is hoping to crack the coldest case

23:51

in the history of art crime. One

23:55

or two or three or four thieves

23:57

entered this church in Palermo.

24:01

cut off the Caravaggio and

24:03

walked away. That's all we know. The

24:08

Caravaggio in question is the nativity with

24:10

St. Francis and St. Lawrence, painted in

24:12

1600. It was

24:14

stolen in 1969 from a Sicilian church. It

24:18

could be worth as much as $100 million today,

24:21

making it one of the biggest deaths in art

24:23

history. But for

24:25

50 years, the case has

24:27

thwarted investigators. Well, there

24:30

are some facts and the

24:32

rest is speculation. The most credible

24:35

theory is that two or three

24:37

or one local thief cut

24:39

down the Caravaggio. And

24:42

afterwards, this group,

24:44

voluntarily or forced,

24:47

gave it or sold it to

24:49

a mafia

24:51

boss. That's normally

24:54

the theory which is

24:56

most accepted. Every

24:58

criminal in towns like Palermo

25:02

is somehow under protection

25:04

of the mafia. You just can't go

25:06

around stealing from tourists or starting your

25:08

own drug transport

25:10

unit or whatever without permission of

25:12

the mafia. For Bran, the Caravaggio

25:14

is the holy grail of art

25:16

recovery. He is desperate to find

25:18

it. But he doesn't work alone.

25:21

Over the years, he has cultivated

25:23

a network of underworld informants. People

25:26

who know where stolen stuff ends up and

25:29

who has the keys. That's where William

25:31

Berres comes in. Bran calls him

25:33

Bill, by the way. I

25:35

once asked Bill how many

25:38

mobsters do you know in Sicily. He said,

25:40

well, officially none, because it's

25:43

not like they are dressed in a uniform. But

25:46

he said to me, look, Arthur, we all

25:48

know that if you

25:50

go to Sicily, you are on a bed and breakfast, or

25:53

you go there shopping oranges, the

25:55

guy could be a mobster, you

25:57

know. It's so widespread there.

26:00

that you never know who you are dealing with.

26:03

So he said, I probably know some

26:05

of them without knowing that they are

26:08

in the organization. But

26:15

these two men need each other. Brand

26:18

needs Verez and his mafia contacts to

26:20

find the Caravaggio. And he

26:22

thinks he can help Verez in return, because

26:25

Brand also has contacts with police

26:27

all over Europe, including in

26:30

Italy. You

26:32

cannot go around as a civilian as

26:35

I am in the underworld without

26:37

having some kind of permission. You

26:41

have to do everything in coordination

26:43

with police forces. If Verez

26:45

can make himself useful to Brand and

26:47

to the Italian authorities, maybe they

26:49

can help Verez cut a deal with

26:52

the Sicilian public prosecutor who has put him

26:54

on trial, find

26:56

the Caravaggio and stay

26:58

out of jail. When

27:01

I asked William to help me, I have to offer him

27:03

something. He said, look, I know you have troubles with the

27:05

law. You're going to face a

27:07

judge and the judge will say, look

27:10

at all the things you did wrong. Is that not

27:12

anything good you did? In the meantime,

27:14

that you are waiting at home to face

27:16

the judge. Let's do something good.

27:19

Bad people can do good things. Verez

27:22

doesn't just need Brand's help for his own

27:24

sake. He has a family to

27:26

support and his family life is complicated.

27:30

While I was reporting this show, one

27:32

of his three sons died in a

27:34

car accident after a long struggle with

27:36

mental illness. Verez cannot

27:39

afford to go to prison. The

27:41

Caravaggio may be the only thing

27:43

between him and a jail

27:45

cell. It's

27:53

a Friday morning in October 1969.

27:58

Antonella Lampone is 15 years old. She

28:00

lives in Palermo, Sicily,

28:03

where her mother works as a caretaker in

28:05

the Oratorio di San Lorenzo, a

28:07

baroque church in the city's old centre. Their

28:11

tiny apartment is right across the courtyard

28:13

from the church's heavy wooden door. That

28:17

Friday, Antonella watches as her

28:20

mother strolls across the cobbles to

28:22

unlock the church and prepare it

28:24

for mass the following Sunday. And

28:29

when she went in, she

28:31

looked and saw that the canvas had

28:33

been cut, and she came out

28:36

crying. This

28:40

is Antonella speaking to me in 2022, remembering

28:43

that day more than 50 years earlier. The

28:46

church had been shut all week since last

28:48

Sunday's mass. But at

28:50

some point, someone broke in

28:53

and stole one of Italy's most

28:55

valuable paintings, Caravaggio's Nativity

28:57

with St. Francis and St. Lawrence.

29:01

It was a precision job. The thieves

29:03

scaled the altar to get to the painting, which

29:05

hung high above it. Then

29:08

they cut the canvas from the frame so

29:10

perfectly that not a speck of paint was

29:12

left behind. It

29:17

was a night of very heavy rain with

29:19

thunder. With that thunder,

29:21

you couldn't hear anything. The

29:24

church had also stolen a carpet in a

29:26

sacristy, a very large

29:29

rug of no value,

29:32

which had certainly been used to

29:34

wrap the canvas painting. This

29:40

wasn't one of those ingenious crimes

29:43

where a crack team of expert

29:45

thieves outsmarts museum guards and high-tech

29:47

security. It didn't have to be.

29:50

The old center of Palermo had been badly

29:52

bombed during the Second World War and hadn't

29:54

yet been rebuilt. The

29:56

place was practically abandoned. Not

29:59

even the Caravaggio. is protected. I know

30:01

it sounds crazy. At

30:05

that time there were not even grates on the

30:08

windows. It

30:10

was very easy to steal it. All

30:14

you had to do was force the

30:16

lock, and you were in. Any

30:19

old petty thief could have done that. We're

30:21

going to get to the police investigation in the next

30:24

episode. For now, all you need

30:26

to know is that the painting has

30:28

never been seen again. This

30:34

was Palermo in the 1960s. The

30:36

Mafia controlled the island. Palermo

30:39

was its power centre. You couldn't so

30:41

much as open a coffee kiosk in the city without

30:43

the Mafia knowing about it, much less

30:45

steal a multi-million dollar painting. And

30:48

so suspicion, inevitably, began

30:50

to fall on them. If

30:54

there's one thing the Mafia does well, it

30:57

is keeping secrets. And

31:00

nobody was saying anything. But

31:02

then, twenty years after the

31:04

painting disappeared, and completely out of

31:06

the blue, someone began

31:09

to talk. His

31:13

name was Francesco Marino Manoia. But

31:16

within the Mafia, he was known as the chemist.

31:18

In the 1970s and 1980s, the

31:20

Sicilian Mafia controlled the international heroin

31:23

trade, supplying addicts across Europe and

31:25

the United States from a network

31:27

of heroin refineries in Sicily. Manoia

31:30

ran the labs, hence the chemist.

31:34

The police also suspect that he worked as a

31:36

hitman. He once said that

31:39

to strangle a man is very cruel and

31:41

horrifying. By comparison, dissolving

31:44

the body in acid is nothing, because

31:46

by then the victim has stopped suffering. But

31:50

eventually, the killer became

31:52

the prey. literally

32:00

thousands of people are murdered in

32:02

and around Sicily. This is Alexander

32:05

Stele. He is an American journalist

32:07

who covered Italy in the Mafia in the 1980s

32:09

and 1990s. At

32:12

that time, a new branch of the Mafia

32:14

from the town of Corleone began

32:16

a war within Cosinostra in a

32:18

bid to take control of the

32:20

organization and its drug business. As

32:22

part of that power drive, they

32:24

began killing everybody associated

32:26

with the old clans, people

32:29

who were connected to the

32:32

old families are on

32:34

the run hiding out

32:37

and in many cases watching

32:39

helplessly as their

32:41

relatives are being exterminated. And

32:44

this inevitably creates a kind

32:46

of backlash. Manoia was one

32:48

of the people who turned against the Mafia. And

32:51

in 1989, he began to

32:53

collaborate with the state. Manoia's

32:59

brother disappeared, was

33:01

kidnapped and probably killed. And

33:04

Manoia understood that he would be next.

33:07

So he essentially cooperated to

33:09

save his life. This

33:14

is Maurizio Autolan. He is

33:16

a retired Italian cop and in the

33:19

1980s he was tasked with protecting Mafiosi,

33:21

who had turned state's evidence. Manoia's

33:25

decision would have catastrophic personal

33:28

consequences. In revenge for

33:30

his betrayal, the Mafia murdered his mother,

33:32

sister and aunt. At

33:37

that time, the Mafia followed the

33:40

scored earth policy with any Mafia

33:42

members who collaborated with the state.

33:44

They killed all their relatives. Manoia

33:54

began to give evidence to

33:56

Italy's leading anti-Mafia investigator Giovanni Falcone.

33:59

Autolan was there. to transcribe the testimony.

34:02

The three men gathered in a small theatre

34:04

in Rome usually used for police training. On

34:07

stage were two desks illuminated by a

34:09

single light bulb. We

34:13

smoked a lot because Dr. Farkone smoked

34:15

a lot. Marino Manoia smoked

34:17

more than him. I smoked as

34:19

well. There was always a cloud

34:21

of smoke on this stage. Manoia's

34:26

testimony was a litany of

34:29

assassinations, international drug trafficking and

34:31

extortion. He himself was

34:33

responsible for over 20 murders. But

34:36

that day in 1989, he was talking about how

34:39

he joined Cosinostra in the first place. It

34:42

was all because he stole a painting.

34:45

Manoia raconteldi guando encora...

34:48

Manoia recounted when he was still a

34:50

boy, not even 18 years

34:52

old. Some of your

34:55

guys started inviting him along to

34:57

commit petty thefts or small criminal

34:59

episodes. One of

35:01

these times that they took him with them,

35:04

he told me that he participated in

35:06

the theft of the Caravaggio Nativity. It

35:09

was one of the first things he did. To

35:15

Manoia, the Caravaggio wasn't all that

35:18

important. It was just something

35:20

he took to prove himself to local bosses. He

35:27

said that they went to this

35:29

place called the Oratorio San Lorenzo.

35:33

They got in very easily because there

35:35

were no locks on the windows and

35:37

they cut the painting leaving the frame

35:39

in place. Then

35:42

they rolled the painting and loaded it

35:44

on a track that they had brought

35:46

to take it away. Finally,

35:50

after 20 years of

35:53

silence about... the

36:00

theft of Caravaggio's nativity. Here

36:02

was confirmation that the mafia had taken it.

36:06

The question is, do they

36:09

still have it? It's

36:17

2021. Verez and Brand

36:19

are in a back room of an Amsterdam

36:21

hotel, behind the lobby. Brand

36:24

has arranged a meeting. I inform

36:26

the Dutch police and I say,

36:28

Luc, the Caravaggio, I'm going after

36:30

it and then I ask them, please

36:33

inform the Italians that I am trying

36:35

to recover that piece. Today,

36:37

three Italian agents are here to meet

36:40

with Brand and Verez. They

36:42

are from Italy's anti-mafia investigative

36:44

directorate, the DIA. Two

36:47

male agents I've calculated in

36:49

their late 30s, early 40s

36:52

and a woman who was

36:54

supposedly the second in command of

36:57

the organization. The

36:59

DIA oversees mafia investigations. It

37:02

also tries to seize mafia assets, assets

37:04

like priceless stolen paintings. The

37:07

police, the carmenieri and other police groups,

37:10

of course they know that the mafia is

37:12

involved. But the trouble is getting current members

37:14

of the mafia to admit that or

37:17

to give up information about where the painting might be.

37:20

And that's why Verez and Brand are at

37:22

the hotel in Amsterdam. They

37:24

are going to offer to help obtain information. And

37:27

if Brand and Verez are successful, the

37:29

Italians agree to talk to the public prosecutor

37:32

in Sicily to help Verez

37:34

in his own case. If I managed

37:36

to recover something, they would speak to

37:38

the prosecutors. The Italian police are

37:40

used to doing this kind of deal. Offering

37:42

favors in exchange for information has

37:44

been the key to cracking down

37:46

on organized crime for decades. Members

37:48

of the mafia who collaborated with

37:51

prosecutors were often given lighter sentences.

37:53

Some avoided jail completely. So

37:57

here's Verez's plan. He is going to be a

37:59

real man. going to reach out to contacts in

38:01

the underworld to see whether he can shed light

38:04

on a case that has eluded the Italian authorities.

38:07

You find it simply by using

38:09

human resources, by speaking to people

38:11

who have a chance to speak

38:13

to people who you

38:15

or they suspect know something about the

38:17

the case. You have to get to

38:20

mafia sources or people and then of

38:22

course at some stage somebody within the

38:24

mafia will be making a decision. About

38:27

whether to give it back? Or

38:29

how to give it back? Under what terms to give

38:31

it back? Sometimes when you

38:33

put somebody in the middle like me

38:35

who knows friends or friends or friends

38:37

sometimes it does work out. So

38:40

that's one of the reasons why I think

38:43

they let me do what I do. And

38:45

the most important thing is Bill is

38:47

willing to help for whatever

38:49

motive. Now

38:56

is the perfect time. Verezzas lawyers

38:58

have successfully fought against his extradition

39:01

and a British judge has agreed to lighten his

39:03

bail conditions. Meanwhile his

39:06

case is stuck in a Covid related

39:08

backlog in the Sicilian courts. If

39:10

he can recover the Caravaggio it would obviously make

39:12

a great deal of difference. The

39:14

delay gives him a window of opportunity and

39:17

he knows exactly where to start. Next

39:22

time on The Professor. It

39:24

wouldn't surprise me that some informants said look this

39:26

is the person who has the Caravaggio and if

39:28

that turned out to be a very close friend

39:31

to Berlusconi. Well

39:34

what do you think? This

39:40

has been The Professor with me Simon Willis.

39:42

This podcast is written and co-created by me.

39:45

The show is produced by Brazen in

39:47

partnership with PRX. producers

40:00

for Brazen are Bradley Hope and Tom

40:02

Wright. At Brazen, Marianne

40:04

Helgonzales is our project manager. Megan

40:07

Dean is our network manager. Francesca

40:10

Gellardi Quadriocurtcio is Italian research

40:12

assistant and podcast strategist. Arnav

40:15

Benaikia and Noor Abdel Latif

40:17

are assistant strategists. Ryan

40:20

Ho is the series creative director.

40:22

Cover arts designed by Julian Pradier.

40:24

Our interpreters Adaria Boquetti and Lawrence

40:26

Mogrig. Voiceover translation from

40:29

Denise Moreno and Tomasso Toulon. For

40:34

more information on this podcast and other

40:36

podcasts from Brazen, go to our website

40:38

brazen.fm. That

40:51

was a preview of episode one of The Professor.

40:54

To keep listening, search for The Professor

40:56

wherever you get your podcasts. New

40:58

episodes are released on Mondays. To

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41:32

BRX.