Forgive this man, found guilty here
of collaboration with the enemy.
May God have mercy on your soul.
Amen.
Attention!
Make ready! Aim!
Fire!
- Has it arrived? Is it here?
- Last night.
- Jerome, good work on those etchings.
- I aim to please.
There's a gift on your desk.
Cherries for the family.
I'll try not to eat them
before I get home this time. Thank you.
A Dutch Jew with a Canadian uniform.
Captain. Captain Piller.
Who let this one in?
Dekker, this is Minna.
Minna, this is Dekker.
- Hello, Minna. Nice to meet you.
- Hello.
We used to be in the Resistance together.
Yeah, but he couldn't resist anything
without me.
- Working with the Allies now.
- Yes.
Everything in here was stolen,
and they put me in charge
of finding out who took it
and who sold it to the Nazis.
But I want to avoid interference
from the Ministry of Justice
'cause they seem to have their own agenda,
and that's why I need you.
I need someone I can trust.
Well, anything for an old friend.
But do I have to wear a uniform?
Oh, yeah, it's one of the perks.
This was just found
in Göring's hidden collection.
Christ and the Adulteress. It's a Vermeer.
- Vermeer!
- And... we found a letter.
Folded in the crate.
I attended a show there once,
had champagne and smoked salmon,
and saw some terrible paintings.
And what Germans did you meet there?
I shook a hand or two.
Those pigs were everywhere.
You couldn't avoid them.
I never had that problem.
No, me neither.
I'm a personal friend of Prince Bernhard
and the commander
of the Ministry of Justice.
That's very good for you,
but I don't work for the Dutch government
who ran off when things got hot.
Dekker, will you please go sit down?
I was commissioned by the Allied Command.
Who will soon relinquish power
to the rightful Dutch government.
But not today.
And the more time I waste on you,
the Nazi sympathizers
you drank champagne with will slip away.
I'm afraid I must ask you to...
In this letter,
the owner of the Goudstikker Gallery
references you in verifying
the background of a Vermeer painting...
I don't collect art.
...before Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring
agreed to buy it.
Christ and the Adulteress was
just recovered from a railway car
in an Austrian salt mine.
Thing about Göring...
he kept meticulous records
of all his acquisitions.
So, now, tell me about this letter.
It was a favor.
I had a respectable name.
I simply wrote that I'd vouch
for the painting's provenance
to finalize the sale.
Because the painting had been stolen
from Jews?
Who was the favor for?
Who brought you the painting?
Han Van Meegeren.
Han Van Meegeren?
Indeed.
I'm Captain Joseph Piller
of the Allied Provisional Government.
- Please, come in, gentlemen.
- Thank you.
Were you expecting us?
In these times, one expects anything.
Do you play?
No, not anymore.
- May I offer you a drink?
- Yes.
No, thanks.
No?
Do you live here all by yourself?
For the time being.
I am recently divorced.
This is my wife's house now.
She is in France,
and the housekeeper went back to Utrecht.
The war has been good to you, huh?
I was lucky enough to sell
a series of Flemish primitives
before hostilities broke out.
So, you're an art dealer?
I am a painter and an art lover.
But, of course,
I take my opportunities where I can.
And during the war, what did you do?
Tried to survive, like everybody else.
Running out of champagne
must have been devastating.
Oh, not as bad as running out of caviar.
Shall we sit?
No, no, we're taking a walk.
Do I need a jacket?
You haven't asked why I'm here.
Well, I find that in life, as in art,
it's always best
not to spoil the surprise.
Or maybe it's no surprise at all.
Shall we?
- Do you like Johannes Vermeer?
- Of course.