The Stolen Painting, a Pascal Bonitzer film starring Alex Lutz, Léa Drucker and Nora Hamzawi, is airing on Arte on 8 April 2026 at 21:00. Released in theaters on 1 May 2024, this story inspired by a true story follows the rediscovery of an Egon Schiele painting missing since 1939, weaving together an art-market investigation and the memory of Nazi looting.
The Stolen Painting
Film | 2024
Theatrical release: May 1, 2024
TV broadcast: Arte, on April 8, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Dramedy | Runtime: 1h31
Directed by Pascal Bonitzer | Starring Alex Lutz, Léa Drucker, Nora Hamzawi
Country: France
In The Stolen Painting, André Masson, an auctioneer at a major auction house, receives an anonymous letter claiming that an Egon Schiele painting has turned up in Mulhouse. At first skeptical, he soon confirms it is a genuine work that disappeared on the eve of World War II. The film centers this discovery around a restitution case, set against the backroom politics of the auction world and the clout surrounding a piece that suddenly takes on outsized significance.
Pascal Bonitzer, here serving as screenwriter and director, grounds his film in a real incident: the early-2000s discovery of a Schiele painting by a young worker from the suburbs of Mulhouse. This documentary thread drives a story that unfolds as much in the orbit of the art market as in the social fault lines between the characters. The filmmaker also drew on interviews conducted within the auction world to shape the plot.
The cast brings together Alex Lutz, in the lead, alongside Léa Drucker and Nora Hamzawi. The film unfolds as a dramedy where the investigation into a misappropriated work also exposes class tensions, reputational pressures, and the enduring weight of history in the present.
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