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00:00This may seem like a piece of quiet woodland,
00:07but this place was once Hitler's home.
00:10Everywhere you look, there's brickwork and bits of stone.
00:16This actually was Hitler's house, the Berghof.
00:21It was a place he loved above all others, his own refuge.
00:27And it was once stuffed full of tapestries and great works of art.
00:34And actually, I've got an incredible bit of film footage
00:38shot by Eva Braun.
00:41And what he says is really fascinating.
00:46When the people see that I support art, they will do so too.
00:51That's why I've been collecting so many pieces of art.
00:55Yes, one day these will all belong to the German people.
00:59And then he turns, pauses, looks back and says,
01:03I am merely the curator.
01:07Hitler had a dream to create the world's most spectacular art collection.
01:12It was a dream that would become Europe's nightmare.
01:17At the end of World War II, the Allies made a series of shocking discoveries.
01:23Hidden in trains, bunkers and deep underground,
01:27they found mountains of stolen treasure.
01:30That must have been like going into Aladdin's cave.
01:33Hitler and the Nazis had looted an entire continent
01:36and committed the greatest theft in history.
01:40Now, a team of investigators is opening up cold case files
01:44of Nazi plunder still missing today.
01:47We're talking about things that are worth tens of millions of dollars.
01:50Robert Edsel is author of the best-selling book turned Hollywood movie,
01:54The Monuments Men, and an expert in Nazi-looted treasure.
01:59Hundreds of thousands of objects are still missing.
02:02Well, we have a lot of digging to do.
02:03Joining him is Second World War historian James Holland.
02:07None of this was really his.
02:09He'd just taken it.
02:11And investigative journalist Connor Woodman.
02:14And this is a genuine treasure hunt.
02:15We dig a hole in the ground and we find those cases.
02:18Their mission? Uncover new clues.
02:21Oh, gosh, this is it.
02:22Explore Nazi hideouts.
02:24Whoever built this brick wall
02:25really didn't want anyone to get through to the other side.
02:28Find out how the treasure was stolen
02:30and where it might be now.
02:32What a piece of history.
02:45The team have come together at their Dallas HQ for a new investigation.
02:52I want to go back in time, talk about in May 1945,
02:56when the Monuments Men arrive at this salt mine in Altausse, Austria,
03:00and make an enormous discovery.
03:02The Allied Art Protection Unit,
03:06aka the Monuments Men,
03:08were a specialist army unit
03:10tasked with rescuing valuable art and cultural treasures.
03:13In May 1945, they hit the jackpot
03:16at a salt mine in Altausse, Austria.
03:18Hidden deep in a network of underground chambers,
03:21they made an astonishing find.
03:23An art collection belonging to Adolf Hitler.
03:28Here's a sculpture by Michelangelo.
03:30Yeah, look at this.
03:32Wow, so some pretty serious works of art.
03:35Hugely important.
03:37Some of these are the most famous works of art in the world.
03:40In today's money,
03:42the trove would be worth nearly $6 billion.
03:45Wow, there's hundreds of them.
03:46Do we have an idea how many paintings were there?
03:48Well, actually, I've got a report here.
03:50It's just incredible.
03:51There's hundreds of drawings,
03:53954 etchings,
03:55134 sculptures,
03:56and a staggering 6,577 paintings.
04:016,500 paintings?
04:02Yeah.
04:03Well, the Monuments Men arrive here,
04:05and they don't realize it at the time,
04:06but they're the first detectives on what was a crime scene.
04:09These are crime scene photos.
04:10Well, some of it he has bought, hasn't he?
04:12Yep.
04:13But a lot of it is just stolen.
04:15I mean, and sometimes at gunpoint.
04:17Well, that's right.
04:18These aren't random thefts on their way out of town.
04:20These are things that they've specifically targeted to go get.
04:22I mean, if the Monuments Men already solved this,
04:25what's left for us to do?
04:26Well, the Monuments Men did an extraordinary job,
04:29but it's possible that some of the other works of art
04:32walked out of there before the Monuments Men arrived.
04:37In spite of the recovery at Altase,
04:39hundreds of artworks stolen by Hitler have never been found.
04:42The team's mission,
04:44to investigate how and why he stole the trove,
04:47and find a looted piece of art,
04:49and return it to its rightful owner.
04:51So what do we do?
04:52We need to go to Altase and go back to the scene of the crime.
05:02Connor and Dorothy fly into Austria.
05:04They're investigating the mine
05:06where the looted artworks were discovered.
05:09Altase is still a working salt mine,
05:12but those areas which stored Hitler's art collection
05:14have been preserved for posterity.
05:17So this is the entrance to the mine.
05:21Oh, my God. Look at that.
05:25That is huge.
05:26It goes all the way back.
05:28Go on, then. I'll follow you.
05:29Okay.
05:33Just goes on and on and on.
05:37Salt has been carved out of these mountains
05:39for over 900 years.
05:41They're honeycombed by hundreds of subterranean chambers,
05:45linked by nearly 70 kilometers of tunnels.
05:48Look at this place.
05:50For the Nazis, it was the perfect place to hide a treasure trove.
05:55So, look.
05:56This is the first chamber of the chambers where arts were stored.
06:026,577 paintings, sculptures, books.
06:07Everything was stored in here.
06:09Well, suddenly you can just imagine all of those paintings stacked up.
06:14So the monuments men, when they walked into this room,
06:16must have thought it was Christmas.
06:18Yeah, especially because they'd been looking for these things for months.
06:22So do you think a lot of the art that was in this room and in this mine was actually personally selected by Hitler?
06:31Well, we know that for his own collection, yes, absolutely.
06:34Every single piece was what he wanted and what he thought was wonderful and was his own taste.
06:43The artwork found by the Allies was stored in four separate underground chambers.
06:48But recent research has revealed that there were other caverns packed with art treasures.
06:53What happened to this artwork remains a mystery.
06:58But we do know that the mountain contains numerous entrances that were likely known only to local salt miners.
07:06Is it possible there are still people in the area who know where the booty is?
07:10Conor and Dorothy are meeting local treasure hunter Gerhard Zauner.
07:15For nearly 60 years, he's been following every lead he can in the quest to find looted treasure.
07:24In 1959, Zauner hit headlines with an incredible discovery.
07:30Diving in nearby Lake Toplitz, he and some friends found 72 million pounds in counterfeit British currency dating back to the Nazi era.
07:40He takes Conor and Dorothy to see some of his other finds in his own private museum.
07:46Wow, look at all this.
07:48Is this all stuff that you have found yourself?
07:53As the Allied armies closed in, German soldiers flung their weapons into the lakes around here in a desperate attempt to hide their Nazi past.
08:03What are these from here with the swastika?
08:05The swastika.
08:08Everybody would have had something like that on their writing desks.
08:11It was a real cult.
08:13It was almost like a crucifix.
08:15People had one of those at home.
08:18Right, so these just would have been everywhere all over Germany at the time.
08:23It isn't just Nazi weapons that Zauner has pulled out of the water.
08:27What's your most prized find ever?
08:29He found this ring by an SS officer and he would love to show it to you.
08:42An SS officer's ring.
08:43I'd love to see it.
08:44I'd love to see it.
08:45Yeah, I'd love to see that.
08:51Here in ring inneren is the name Milius, engraved for his birthday.
08:59So inside is the name engraved and Hitler's birthday.
09:04It is, yeah, 20th of April.
09:08It's written inside.
09:10You were married to Hitler.
09:13Yeah, you were married to Hitler.
09:16That's why his birthday is in there.
09:24That's an incredible find.
09:28The SS ring is a rare find, but it's not what the team are looking for.
09:33Somewhere out there is Hitler's missing artwork.
09:36Explain to me, what are the laws in Austria with regard to finding treasure from the Second World War?
09:47The best thing is always apparently to keep quiet about what you found and have it at home and don't talk about it.
09:54Under Austrian law, any Third Reich artifacts must be reported to the government and evaluated for possible confiscation.
10:02In other words, it's entirely possible that if anyone has found anything of real value, they've kept it quiet.
10:08Just think about what Gerhard said, and I can't help but wonder whether the Austrian authorities, in their efforts to draw a line under the Second World War, aren't actually putting in force laws and regulations that make it more difficult for people to come forward and actually admit to what they have.
10:29And that's incredibly frustrating for people like me that just want to know the truth about what is still out there.
10:39The team are hunting down artwork that Adolf Hitler plundered during World War II.
10:53Much of it was located after the war in a salt mine in Austria, but not all of it.
10:59In 2013, a remarkable discovery made headlines around the world.
11:06At its core was one of the murky characters hired to bring Hitler the world's greatest artworks.
11:13Art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt.
11:22James flies into Germany to uncover more about Gurlitt.
11:26He's meeting up with Marcus Stotzl, a lawyer who's been intimately involved in the case.
11:33And Marcus, why have you brought me here to this kind of slightly nondescript street?
11:38Well, James, actually, this is a place where a man used to live, the son to a notorious art dealer, one of Hitler's henchmen.
11:48His name was Hildebrand Gurlitt. And this became one of the most incredible stories about looted art in recent years.
11:58Finding 1400 works of art in Germany is just the start of the treasure hunt.
12:03In early 2012, the German tax authorities were on a routine investigation when they stumbled upon an astonishing find.
12:09A treasure trove of art hidden away for more than 70 years in a small city apartment.
12:16It belonged to the son of Hitler's personal art dealer, Hildebrand Gurlitt.
12:20This is the apartment where he kept most of his art.
12:25And we're talking about hundreds.
12:27We're talking about more than a thousand, actually.
12:30Wow. So how much is this worth?
12:32Well, about up to maybe one billion euro.
12:36I'm just blown away by that. It's just, it's so unremarkable, isn't it?
12:40And you just can't imagine that one of those apartments would have all this sort of looted, stolen art.
12:46It's just incredible.
12:48So far, investigators suspect that nearly a hundred of the recovered artworks were unlawfully seized by the Nazis.
12:56Hitler's operation to rob Europe of its finest art was ruthlessly efficient.
13:02Soon after occupying a country, specialist units would seek out and seize whatever artwork they could find,
13:09usually from national museums or Jewish family collections.
13:13In Germany, Jewish collectors would be forced to sell their paintings at knock-down prices.
13:20So how did Hildebrand Gurlitt acquire such a massive art trope?
13:26He run the show.
13:28He had access to all famous collections in Europe, in the occupied countries.
13:34He bought stuff officially for the Fuhrer, and he bought also for himself, obviously.
13:39Okay, so I'm Gurlitt, and I go in and I'm looking at a big collection. I make an inventory of that collection.
13:46Yeah.
13:47But then the inventory I then show my boss, the Fuhrer. Do I leave a few bits off? I mean, how does that work?
13:53Gurlitt had figured out a way to steal from Hitler himself.
13:56This is an official receipt, a bill.
14:01Oh yeah, Dr. H. Gurlitt.
14:03This is what he bought in the occupied zone in France, in which you can see in detail a number of paintings by name, artist and so on.
14:12And if you, uh, go to the next document, compare the lists. There are two or three items which do not appear on this list.
14:22So, in other words, he managed to get some stuff for himself.
14:26So those missing paintings, he's basically just siphoned off himself.
14:30That's what he did, yeah.
14:31God, he's playing a dangerous game, isn't he?
14:33That's also.
14:34He's stealing from Jews, but he's also stealing from the Fuhrer.
14:36Yeah, on both sides, yeah.
14:38Yeah.
14:39Wow.
14:40Two years after finding Gurlitt's secret stash of art, Austrian authorities made another discovery.
14:50Hildebrand Gurlitt's son didn't just have a flat in Munich.
14:54He lived in a house in Salzburg, too.
14:57And there, police uncovered another horde of paintings, including incredibly rare pieces by Monet, Renoir, and Picasso.
15:05But the Gurlitt story doesn't end there.
15:10Hildebrand had a cousin.
15:12Wolfgang Gurlitt was another one of Hitler's art dealers, helping the Fuhrer to amass his collection.
15:17He lived in the same region of Austria as the Altice salt mine, where Hitler's stolen art was stored.
15:27This is the address, so that villa on the right must be the house that Gurlitt used during the war.
15:33And the bungalow on the left, apparently it's still owned by the Gurlitt family.
15:38But, you know, all week people have been coming up to us and saying that they know about looted art that's still hanging in private homes.
15:46But they won't come out and say it on film.
15:49It's amazing that after 70 years, there's still this veil of secrecy and, frankly, air of menace, too.
15:56And it suggests to me that in this region here, there's still huge amounts of looted art that we just don't know about.
16:08Just a few miles away, Connor is searching for some of that hidden Nazi treasure.
16:12This is Lake Udensee. This is where Herr Sauner found the SS ring.
16:19And conditions are perfect today for diving.
16:23The lakes around here are a rich hunting ground for Nazi treasure.
16:28Why are we diving in this particular spot?
16:31My friend knew a very old lady, and she told him that some SS troops dropped some wooden cases into the lake.
16:39They had a rowing boat, and they dropped in 15 or 16 cases.
16:4615 or 16 cases?
16:4716 cases, wooden cases.
16:49And what else should we be looking out for down there?
16:52There could be some weapons as well.
16:54Hand grenades, guns.
16:56Because we know the Nazis at the end of the war used these lakes just to throw everything away.
17:02Okay, let's go. Let's get in the water.
17:09Connor and the diving team are acting on information that Hitler's elite SS sunk 16 wooden crates in this lake.
17:20Is it possible those crates contain treasures stolen at the behest of Adolf Hitler?
17:26If the team are going to locate them, they're going to have to take great care not to disturb the one meter deep layer of silt which covers the bottom of the lake.
17:36Seven meters down, Connor and the team think they've found something.
17:46Through the murky water, they appear to be artillery shells.
17:52But on closer inspection, it's just decaying tree trunks.
17:55They move on.
17:59It will take hours to search the 120,000 square meters of lake bed.
18:06Back in Dallas, the team are examining the motives behind Hitler's unprecedented art theft.
18:12Robert has uncovered some footage which offers fascinating clues.
18:16Hitler and Mussolini meeting in Florence, May 1938.
18:25Into his car in the motorcade.
18:28Look at the people.
18:33The throngs of people cheering.
18:34No one can see what's getting ready to happen.
18:39The transformation of an entire continent over the ambitions of this one man.
18:44And this is it right here.
18:47This is the moment.
18:49He sees the great collections, this Michelangelo, the Botticelli that had been collected by the Medici family.
18:55And having a sense of the immortality of the remarkable works of art that they assembled.
19:01Hitler was fascinated.
19:03In fact, two hours out of this visit is allocated to walk through the museums and look at these works of art.
19:09And this is the spark.
19:11The idea's been planted.
19:13This moment where he realizes the possibilities of immortality.
19:17It's a stunning moment in history.
19:19Hitler's obsession with art dates back to his early years.
19:25To learn more, Robert is in Virginia at Fort Belvoir Army Museum.
19:31Hitler's watercolors are so controversial, they're not on public display, but stored securely in the museum's basement.
19:39Curator Sarah Forgy is showing them to Robert.
19:42So here they are.
19:43Gwen.
19:49Joining them is watercolor expert, Gwendolyn Bragg.
19:53What do you think about them, Gwen?
19:55Well, I'm surprised.
19:57I think, frankly, they are quite accomplished.
20:00And there's a lot of detail.
20:02There seems to be an almost obsession with fine, tiny little details, even in the variety of stonework that he's rendering.
20:10Viewing these, it makes you wish that he had gotten into art school and developed his talents.
20:16What strikes me about these things is a complete absence of people.
20:21And you really see this focus of Hitler not really caring about people, just focusing on drawing structures.
20:28I think the composition is good. It's not dynamic.
20:34Maybe we would say it's competent.
20:36Yes, competent. Good, a good term.
20:39Here's his signature.
20:41Munich 1914, A. Hitler.
20:43Despite Hitler's obvious technical ability, his old fashioned and unimaginative approach was totally out of step with the bold new currents coursing through the European art scene in the 1920s.
20:57But his obsession with art never waned. If he couldn't become a great artist himself, he decided he would plunder the work of others.
21:11The salt mine at Altesse is not the only place the Fuhrer's plundered art collection was stored. Artwork earmarked for Hitler was sent to his Southern Command HQ in Munich, the Fuhrerbau.
21:27The Fuhrerbau.
21:30In early 1945, hundreds of valuable paintings were still here.
21:35But there's evidence that in the final days of the war, they vanished, and James is here to investigate.
21:41Today, it's a music and theatre school.
21:44But the labyrinth of tunnels below, where the art was once stored, have been barely touched since 1945.
21:51Hello, Dr. Krauser. How are you?
21:52Yes, come please.
21:54The university's chancellor, Dr. Krauser, has offered James rare access to the tunnels.
22:01Please.
22:03He's keen to search for clues as to what happened to the missing artist.
22:07Can I go there? Please.
22:09Take this. Oh, okay.
22:11This way?
22:12Yes, please.
22:18Oh, my goodness. It just goes on forever.
22:21Yes.
22:22Yes.
22:23I can show you some graffitis if you want to see.
22:25Oh, yes, please. Yes.
22:31SS.
22:33Wow.
22:37Gosh, they go on and on.
22:39Yes.
22:40They're so extensive, aren't they?
22:41God, they are amazing.
22:43Oh, here is the entrance to the air shelter.
22:49In 1944, with Allied air bombardment nearing its climax, Nazi officials decided it was no longer safe storing the priceless hoard here.
22:58And it was moved to the salt mine, where it was later found by the Monuments Men.
23:01These rooms would have just been filled with amazing works of art.
23:06Yes, yes, yes.
23:077,000 paintings.
23:087,000.
23:10But stolen art kept arriving at the Führerbau.
23:13As the Allies closed in, it became too risky to move it to the mountains.
23:18In early 1945, there were still some 700 valuable paintings stored here.
23:23Look at these.
23:25Potato cellar.
23:27Yeah.
23:29Look at that.
23:30Look at that.
23:31They just shot it off.
23:33These tunnels weren't just used for storing Hitler's art, but also food.
23:36It looks like desperate locals broke in when the guards fled.
23:40It's absolutely incredible to see this, because this is a potato store, and you can see the bullet holes absolutely smashed away in the lock.
23:47These are made by local civilians in Munich, and they're just desperate to get their hands on the potatoes in here.
23:54They're so hungry.
23:56But what it also shows is that if they can get in down here to get the potatoes, they can also come down and take any bits of art that were there.
24:03Yes.
24:05You know, this is no longer a secure, safe place for these precious works of art.
24:12When the Allies took the Führerbau, more than 700 paintings had vanished.
24:17The mystery is being investigated by a team of art detectives, including Professor Micah Hopp.
24:23So, Micah, how do you go about finding all these missing pieces?
24:27I mean, what's your start point?
24:28Well, our start point are actually lists like these.
24:34The Führerbau rooms in the cellar were numbered, and here you have, for example, room number six, and what you can see on the list is a painting, and this is actually this painting.
24:47The only thing that we know about this painting is the National Gallery in Berlin bought it in 1967 from a Munich private person.
24:59Right. So, in other words, that Munich private person got in there on the night of whatever it was in April 1945, took it home, hung it on the wall for a bit, and then sold it in 1967. Probably.
25:10Probably.
25:11Probably. We don't know it exactly, but, of course, this might be the case.
25:17It's a challenging forensic investigation. As valuable paintings emerge into the art market, Micah and her colleagues identify them.
25:26And if they're stolen by the Nazis, then the legal process begins to return them to their rightful owners.
25:31Does it kind of still shock you, the degree of this?
25:37Of course. Sometimes it is still unbelievable how many paintings they've transferred from the whole of Europe and collected together.
25:46In Austria, Conor is hunting for 16 lost crates, supposedly dumped by Hitler's SS. Their contents unknown.
26:07Visibility on the dive can be pretty good.
26:09But if you disturb the sediment, that can quickly change.
26:20By working together and combining the light from their flashlights, the team has a better chance of finding things.
26:26But after four hours searching, their air tanks are almost empty. And it's time to call off the quest for now.
26:41Hey, hey, hey.
26:42You can show us where he found the ring. The SS officer ring.
26:59You know, it's amazing, isn't it? Because that means that that SS officer, 70 years ago, must have stood exactly where you are now and taken that ring off and thrown it into the water there.
27:18Yeah.
27:19The hunt for Nazi treasure goes way beyond the lakes and mountains of Altasay.
27:30Now, the team turn their attention to North America and make an incredible find.
27:36Fantastic.
27:38An artwork which belonged to the Fuhrer himself.
27:49The team's been searching for looted artwork which once belonged to Adolf Hitler.
27:55Much of this priceless trove was found at the end of the war, but not all.
28:00So what exactly did Hitler intend to do with one of the grandest art collections the world has ever seen?
28:10James flies into London to investigate.
28:12He's meeting with a man who, in 1945, made an extraordinary discovery.
28:18A Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, Herman Rothman was an intelligence officer in the British Army when he translated a document that would shake the world.
28:28The last will and testament of Adolf Hitler.
28:32The original is kept at the Imperial War Museum, London.
28:35You must be Herman.
28:38Hello, James Holland.
28:40Nice to meet you.
28:41Yes, indeed.
28:47Oh, gosh, look at that.
28:49Can I touch it or not?
28:51Of course you can, yes.
28:55So take me back, Herman, to the day when you first saw this.
28:59So what happened? You...
29:01What happened was something which I will never forget.
29:03I was woken up at 4 o'clock by my commanding officer and he said,
29:08Have a look at this.
29:10What do you think it is?
29:12The impression I had was that this is such an important document.
29:18Even without translating it, I knew that it was Hitler's will, Hitler's private will.
29:25You're touching something that he was touching in that bunker in those last desperate moments.
29:30Hitler's will was found hidden in a German soldier's uniform, and it reveals that even as he contemplated suicide in his bunker, he has no regrets for unleashing a war that killed 60 million people.
29:45But what the will does say helps explain his pathological desire to plunder Europe's greatest artworks.
29:53I have my art which I have not collected for my own private use, but for the gallery in my hometown of Linz.
30:03And signed by A. Hitler.
30:04Hitler dreamt of creating the finest art gallery the world has ever seen in the town he grew up in, Linz, Austria.
30:18A magnificent home for his looted collection.
30:23It was a building so ambitious in design, Nazi engineers calculated it would take 12 years to complete.
30:30It was never even started.
30:33All that remains of this mythical building is a photograph of an architect's model.
30:37But there is one way to get a glimpse into the collection Hitler had wanted so badly.
30:46How are you?
30:48Robert is at the German Historical Museum, which houses a set of albums containing photographs of the artwork destined for the Fuhrer Museum.
30:57Let's look at these images.
30:59There are about 50 pages for each of these books.
31:02They're known as the Linz albums.
31:06Over the course of the war, 31 of them were made by the Nazis as they acquired artwork for the Fuhrer.
31:13Amazing to think these were presented to Adolf Hitler for his birthday and then on special occasions.
31:19These are some of the greatest names in painting.
31:23I'm sure that Hitler would have looked at these with a great sense of satisfaction.
31:26It's a sort of collection of trophy art.
31:29These are the big names, the big labels that you needed in order to have an old master collection of some kudos, of some standing.
31:38Twelve of the Linz albums went missing when the war ended.
31:42But Robert and the Monuments Men Foundation was instrumental in recovering one of them and returning it to the museum.
31:49Album 13. I haven't seen it in six years since we found it. Incredible piece of history.
31:54These albums are all that remain of Hitler's dream to create the world's most spectacular art collection.
32:08Back in Dallas, the team are hard at work.
32:11In Europe, they've hit a series of brick walls.
32:15But Robert is renowned for finding and returning art stolen during the Nazi era.
32:20He knows that some objects found their way to North America after the war.
32:26Although it was against the rules, it was commonplace for GIs to bring home so-called souvenirs.
32:33Yeah, all I'm sitting here looking at the document.
32:36There's been a new development.
32:37The daughter of a veteran has contacted the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, wanting to return a piece of art that's been in her family nearly seven years.
32:49And the museum has asked Robert to help figure out who the rightful owner is.
32:53A tapestry surfaced, and it's in one of these photographs, and it was at the Eagle's Nest.
33:02This little dining room, and there's this Flemish tapestry.
33:08High up in the Bavarian Alps, Hitler's Eagle's Nest was just a few miles from his Berghof home.
33:13And like the Berghof, it was decorated with fine artworks, some of dubious provenance.
33:20I have a photo that they've scanned and sent to me.
33:24And you can see it's in great condition, this tapestry.
33:27An amazing, amazing connection having this photograph.
33:32And I'm off to New Orleans to the National World War II Museum to see it.
33:34A few helmets.
33:47Yeah, lots of uniforms.
33:49But this is what you're after.
33:53Robert is meeting with the museum president, Nick Muller, and Kathy Hines, whose father, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Dehaney,
34:00was an intelligence officer with 101st Airborne, and one of the first soldiers to take control of the Eagle's Nest at the end of the war.
34:11When Colonel Dehaney took the 500-year-old Flemish tapestry...
34:15Fantastic.
34:17...he had little idea of its true value.
34:19What a piece of history.
34:21...and it hung in the family home in Minnesota for nearly 70 years.
34:25At today's prices, it's worth up to $80,000.
34:30If you see the piece, there are four boys and two girls.
34:35And there were four boys and two girls in our family.
34:38So we all had a role in the picture.
34:41Were you any one of these people in particular?
34:44I was this one.
34:46I was this one.
34:48And this was, this was my Prince Charming right here.
34:50So to see it again is to see an old friend, but I'm ready to say goodbye.
34:59And send it back home.
35:02Thank you, Kathy.
35:06It's been a special journey together.
35:09It has been. It has been.
35:11Kathy wants to see the tapestry returned to its rightful owners.
35:15But for Robert and the team, working out who that might be after all these years is a challenge.
35:23They need to go to Hitler's Alpine fortress, the Eagle's Nest.
35:36James and Dorothy have traveled to Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat in the Bavarian Alps.
35:40They're hoping to shed light on a valuable 16th century Flemish tapestry that once hung here and was taken by an American officer.
35:53Here we are.
35:55Let's go.
35:56Isn't that an amazing view?
36:02Oh, it's absolutely stunning. But the irony is, of course, is that Hitler didn't particularly like it up here.
36:06The whole place was built for him by Martin Bormann as his 50th birthday. That was the whole point of it.
36:12And when he brought him up, you know, really expecting lots of praise from his beloved Fuhrer, Hitler was a bit sniffy about it.
36:18He didn't like heights.
36:19Wow, look at this. It's a lovely room. It's stunning.
36:24Look, they even got a picture on the wall. Is that it? Is that the tapestry?
36:27That's the one.
36:28Amazing.
36:30The photos show the tapestry took pride of place in Eva Brown's favorite room.
36:35And look, you can even see the lighting fixtures. It's exactly the same. Isn't that amazing?
36:40Amazing.
36:42Hasn't changed at all. Really hasn't. You know, we no longer got that table in here and...
36:47The carpet is gone.
36:49Yeah.
36:50But we found the tapestry.
36:52Brilliant.
36:57Oh, gosh, look at that.
37:02Look, you can see there's a graffiti here.
37:04Oh, yeah.
37:0546. So these are done by American troops, obviously, here.
37:08And you can see that this would have been straight, wouldn't it?
37:14I mean, this has been chipped off.
37:16And what this means, of course, is that this has been spread to the four winds.
37:20There must be bits of this fireplace in homes all across the USA, don't you think?
37:27More than any other building, it is the one place, above all, that people most associate with Hitler.
37:33And you're an American serviceman at the end of the war. You're going to know that.
37:37And suddenly you're in it. You're pouring all over it.
37:39Of course you're going to want a memento.
37:41You're going to want a piece of that, whether it's a chip from the marble fireplace or even a tapestry.
37:48There's no doubt the tapestry donated by Kathy Hines was once owned by Adolf Hitler.
37:54The question is, where did Hitler get it from?
37:59The team have unearthed a potential answer.
38:01This is a sales receipt from a firm called Bernheimer in 1938.
38:07And it has to do with the tapestry that's at the National World War II Museum.
38:10And this is amazing because I know a Bernheimer, a Conrad Bernheimer.
38:15I'll bet it's the same family. Their family was horribly looted during the war.
38:18We need to follow up with him.
38:20Robert continues the investigation in Germany. He's meeting Conrad Bernheimer.
38:31His family have been dealing in fine art for four generations.
38:35Before the war, they owned the largest privately owned textile gallery in Europe, based here in Munich.
38:41It was from here that one of Hitler's art dealers bought the tapestry.
38:46Connie, how are you?
38:50How are you?
38:51The question is, was the sale a fair one?
38:53Or were they, like so many Jewish families, forced at gunpoint to sell the artwork at a knockdown price?
39:00So the tapestry sold for 24,000 Reich marks about $10,000 at the time.
39:05Yeah.
39:06Did that seem about like the right price at that time as much as you would tell?
39:09Well, that was my question. When you called me and you asked me,
39:12do you think this might be a case for a forced sale?
39:15Remember, my first question was, well, do you know the price?
39:19If it would be below the market value, then we could say maybe this could have been a forced sale.
39:25Yeah, $10,000 at the time was a lot of money.
39:27Was a lot of money.
39:28So, in a way, I would have felt stupid if I would have said this was a forced sale.
39:34For Conrad to stake a claim on the tapestry, he'd have to prove the sale was forced.
39:40And he doesn't have the evidence.
39:43But just weeks after the tapestry was sold, the Bernheimers' world changed forever.
39:48They were all taken, imprisoned, and taken to Dachau.
39:52My grandfather, my father, my uncle, all the male members of the family.
39:57And what happened to the business?
39:58It was taken over by the Nazis.
40:01In the end, the Bernheimers escaped Nazi Germany for exile in the U.S. and South America.
40:08Conrad has decided he isn't going to stake a claim to Hitler's tapestry.
40:12But this means Robert needs to work out who should rightfully own it.
40:24At their Dallas HQ, the team get down to work.
40:27Trying to establish who should be the rightful owner of a tapestry that once hung in Hitler's eagle's nest is not an easy task.
40:37Restitution of Nazi artwork is fraught with problems.
40:40But after months of negotiations, there's a decision.
40:43Conrad Bernheimer believes it should go on display in Germany.
40:47And Robert's legal advice backs this up, confirming it should be returned to the Bavarian government.
40:55Today, Robert's in Munich to celebrate the tapestry's unveiling at the Bavarian National Museum.
41:01This is a very exciting moment for the Monuments Men Foundation.
41:04We've put a tremendous amount of time into the research and the discussions
41:09with all the different parties that had to come together to make this return happen.
41:14It's really an important opportunity for us to see the conclusion to the work that's gone into making sure that this important tapestry is returned to its rightful owner.
41:28The two people central to the tapestry's return have flown in for the ceremony.
41:44Kathy Hines, whose father took the tapestry, and Conrad Bernheimer, whose family business once owned it.
41:51Today, we're gathered to return a 16th century Flemish tapestry that once hung in Adolf Hitler's eagle's nest, and to thank those involved in its return.
42:06So does it come at a feeling of loss for you?
42:16Of course. Of course, it's been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
42:22But it's time for it to go to its home. This is where it belongs now, and I'm very happy to be a small part in that.
42:30Marvellous. I'm glad it's home. Yeah.
42:35The tapestry's epic journey from the Bernheimers to Hitler's eagle's nest to America and finally home to Munich makes headlines all over the world.
42:45It's absolutely right and perfect that it came to the museum.
42:49Today's ceremony's been a wonderful example of the great appreciation by the people receiving these things for returning them.
42:57And so I hope this will encourage a lot of other people to come forward and contact us that may have objects and let us work with them to make sure it gets home.
43:09The team's investigation has taken them from the mountains and lakes of Bavaria.
43:13Can I touch it?
43:14To the British soldier who found Hitler's will.
43:17Look at these.
43:19To the maze of tunnels beneath the Führerbau.
43:22They've unearthed valuable information about how and why Hitler committed the greatest art theft in history.
43:28And crucially, where the missing artworks might be today.
43:32The tapestry's return may only be a small step towards putting right a great historic wrong.
43:37But it's an important one.
43:39See you soon.
43:40Bye.
43:41Bye.
43:42Bye.
43:43Bye.
43:44Bye.
43:45Bye.
43:46Bye.
43:47Bye.
43:48Bye.
44:09You