Crossing Continents - Raiders of the lost art

What do the stolen love letters of John Keats have to do with homicide on the streets of New York? Prosecuting both crimes falls under the remit of assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdanos. A retired Marine colonel with both law and classics degrees, he has been the head of the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit since its creation in 2017. In his time on the job, the office has has seized more than six thousand pieces of stolen art and antiquities from various museums, art galleries and private homes in order to return them to their countries of origin.

In this Crossing Continents, Sandra Kanthal travels to New York to learn more about this special unit of law enforcement and the reasons why one man thinks tracking down stolen treasures of the art world and reuniting them with their rightful owners is vitally important to our past and for our future.

Presenter and Producer: Sandra Kanthal
Editor: Penny Murphy
Studio Mix: James Beard
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman

Published on Tuesday, 18th August 2026.

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