I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and this is the Sunday story from up first.

Late one morning in September 2023, the famous Dutch art detective, Arthur Brand, was pacing

around his Amsterdam apartment, waiting for a special delivery.

And then at 12 o'clock, the doorbell went.

Brand looked out the window, and on on the stoop he saw a man,

who he'd been expecting holding an iconic big blue bag.

So I opened the door and he was standing there with an IKEA bag.

Now, what Brand was expecting inside that IKEA bag was a painting.

Not just any painting, but a Vincent Van Gogh that had been stolen from a Dutch museum.

But when he peeked into the bag...

The only thing I saw was a pillow full of blood.

A pillow full of blood.

Today on the show, a story about an art detective, the criminal underworld, and what it took

to solve one of the greatest art heist in recent history.

We'll be right back.

We're back with a Sunday story.

I'm Aisha Roscoe, and today I'm joined by NPR contributor, Rebecca Rossman,

who has a stranger-than-fiction story about an art detective and his very unlikely partner and how together they solved one of the greatest

art heist in recent history. Rebecca, welcome to the Sunday story.

Hi, Ayesha. Thanks for having me.

So, Rebecca, you cover a lot of art and culture stories from your home in Paris. And, you know, Paris sounds lovely.

And it is. It's a pretty lovely city. But when I think about art in Paris, of course, I think of

...