Skip to main content

Up Next

Back to Show
Secrets of the Dead

How Americans Profited Off Looted Art

The explosion of new museums in post-war America increased the demand for art –while, at the same time, those looking to shrink their taxable income were being given tax breaks for charitable donations. These two factors created a “very murky” market, explains restitution attorney Raymond Dowd, as “museums became filled with toxic assets. Almost no one had a motivation to look into provenance.”

Support Provided By
Season
The Woman in the Iron Coffin
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:10
Uncover the story of early America’s free Black communities via 150-year-old remains.
Leonardo, The Man Who Saved Science
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:11
Was Leonardo a copycat?
Nero’s Sunken City
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:11
Follow archaeologists who map underwater ruins of ancient Rome’s version of Las Vegas
Van Gogh’s Ear
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:09
What did Vincent Van Gogh really do on the night of December 23, 1888?
Graveyard of the Giant Beasts
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:11
Follow scientists trying to determine which giant animal was the apex predator
Jamestown’s Dark Winter
Unlock with PBS Passport
54:41
Discover the truth about the first permanent English colony in the New World
Ben Franklin's Bones
Unlock with PBS Passport
54:41
Learn why Franklin held human skeletal remains in the basement of his British residence.
Active loading indicator