In 2007 two Bruegels, a Monet and a Sisley disappeared from the Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret. Only later would a complex undercover operation conducted by the FBI and the French police return the canvases to the halls of the Nice museum.
The new year on the small screen opens in the name of yellow. Among the mysteries of Gioconda and the extraordinary wonders of the Prado museum, here are the events not to be missed on TV from 2 to 8 January.

Bruegel, Leonardo and the Prado museum protagonists on Sky Arte
Sky Arte’s first appointment of the year takes us to Madrid. On Monday 2nd January at 12.10, Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons will guide the audience into a treasure trove of beauty. Thanks to the documentary The Prado museum – The court of wonders we will cross the halls of the museum which is over two hundred years old to wander among the 1,700 works on display, extraordinary masterpieces that tell the story of Spain, and to discover a treasure of 7,000 objects conserved in the warehouses. The docu-film written by Sabina Fedeli and directed by Valeria Parisi reveals a collection that has its roots in the vicissitudes of kings, queens, dynasties, wars, defeats, victories, accompanying the public face to face with rulers, painters, artists, architects , collectors, curators, intellectuals.
It all begins with the marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, which marks the start of the great Spanish empire.

Jan Bruegel the Elder, Taste, Hearing and Touch, 1620, Madrid, Museo del Prado

Sky Arte Tuesday turns yellow with the fourth episode of Art Crimes, the ducu-series of Sky Original, produced by DocLab, Unknown Media, Sky and RBB/Arte, streaming only on NOW, and also available on demand, conceived and written by Stefano Strocchi. The first-run episode aired on Tuesday 3 January at 21.15 entitled Bruegel: Nice 2007 will turn the spotlight on an art theft that took place in 2007 when two Bruegels, a Monet and a Sisley disappeared from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice. A complex undercover operation by the FBI and the French police succeeded in returning the paintings to their place.

Friday 6 January at 17.40 the documentary The secrets of the Mona Lisa instead it will try to shed light on one of the most loved masterpieces in the world. Known at all latitudes, Leonardo’s Mona Lisa has kept the mysteries that accompany its origins and her story. In the company of art historian Andrew Graham Dixon we will discover various issues addressed by the film which calls into question the most recent discoveries regarding Leonardo’s work, between ancient documents and new revelations. To speak in this sort of “detective story” will be art historians, experts and academic figures, invited to offer their contribution to solve the mysteries that lie beneath the surface of the Gioconda.

Rai 5 on the trail of Titian
The star of the week on Rai 5 is undoubtedly Titian. Wednesday 4 January at 21.15 Art Night accompanies us in the footsteps of the great master of red. Endless Titian is the title of the documentary by Luca and Nino Criscenti, produced by Land Produzioni, which Neri Marcorè will present to the public. The program by Silvia De Felice and Emanuela Avallone, Massimo Favia, Alessandro Rossi, directed by Andrea Montemaggiori traces the life and career of the painter from Pieve di Cadore. When he arrives in Venice at the height of his glory, Titian brings the colors of his mountains into his eyes. By absorbing the novelties of Giovanni Bellini and working side by side with Giorgione on the frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedesco, the master manages to collect the legacy of a great pictorial tradition. From that moment Vecellio’s brush is unstoppable, it gallops throughout the Renaissance, helping to write its history, to leave a legacy that will be collected by the greatest masters of European painting, from Rubens to Caravaggio, from Rembrandt to Velazquez, from Delacroix to the French Impressionists and beyond.
Enrico Dal Pozzolo, Augusto Gentili, Stefania Mason will reconnect the threads of Titian’s artistic itinerary, accompanied by the music of Matteo D’Amico. Looks, voices, sounds will lead us through the life and work of the master, from the first steps to the last marks on the canvas. In this story in which the mountains of Cadore mix with the reflections of Venice and in the light of the great European courts, we find churches, museums, palaces that house immense masterpieces. In this chronological journey that embraces many masterpieces, following an itinerary made up of sudden turns and surprising transformations, we will learn to better understand “the heir of Venetian humanistic culture”, the artist who “lasts for centuries and remains for centuries”.

Endless Titian | Courtesy Art Night

From 2 to 9 January again on Rai 5, for travel lovers, the series Art Rider, produced by GA&A Productions, in collaboration with Rai Cultura, returns. The young and dynamic archaeologist Andrea Angelucci guides the public in the discovery of lesser-known places of art. From Venice, protagonist of the episode of Monday 2nd January, we will head towards Torcello and Monte San Michele on Tuesday 3rd January. Always a borderland, Friuli has gathered multiple cultural influences from Northern Europe. Andrea will set out on the trail of the “throne of Attila”, to recall the turbulent events linked to the “Scourge of God” which heavily struck north-eastern Italy. On Wednesday 4 January we will follow him from Manfredonia to Venosa, to discover the Daunia, an area that extends from Puglia to the border with Basilicata and Campania, while on Thursday 5 we will reach Molise to trace the signs that tell the close relationship between the world animal and human.
The last appointment of the week with Art Rider, on Friday 6 January, instead proposes an itinerary from Montelabate to Pergola. On the border between the Northern Marches and Umbria, Andrea will discover the value of patronage in art, weaving a story of the artistic heritage linked to the war fought by lords and lordships, among fortresses, soldiers of fortune and masterpieces.

On Arte TV Claude Monet under the lens
On the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to Claude Monet at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany, Arte TV presents until 31 March a documentary that tells the story of the father of Impressionism and his direct relationship with nature. From the water lilies of Giverny to the cliffs of Etretat, from the Gare Saint Lazare in Paris to the Cathedral of Rouen, the purpose of his innovative painting has always been to paint the beauty of things as they present themselves to our eyes.

Claude Monet, Soleil couchant à Etretat, 1883, Oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy