The Rescue Artist Part 5

The National Gallery, following Scotland Yard's instructions, made a great fuss of announcing that anyone who had any information about The Scream The Scream should contact Jens Kristian Thune, the museum's chairman of the board. Thune was a prominent and prosperous lawyer, but he had been chosen as mission control for the recovery of should contact Jens Kristian Thune, the museum's chairman of the board. Thune was a prominent and prosperous lawyer, but he had been chosen as mission control for the recovery of The Scream The Scream essentially by default. More worldly than the rest of the crew at the National Gallery, the portly and red-faced lawyer seemed better suited than any of the other museum officials to serve as the intermediary between the National Gallery and the public. essentially by default. More worldly than the rest of the crew at the National Gallery, the portly and red-faced lawyer seemed better suited than any of the other museum officials to serve as the intermediary between the National Gallery and the public.

But all this-the theft of a masterpiece, the clamor from the world's press, the presence of Scotland Yard, the hatching of undercover schemes-was new and astonis.h.i.+ng to Thune, who found himself living inside one of the thrillers he liked to read. When The Scream The Scream was stolen, he had been National Gallery chairman for less than a week. The position, as it had been explained to him, was largely honorary. He would be expected to attend a few board meetings a year and to help choose a new director when Knut Berg retired the following year. No heavy lifting, except for the occasional gla.s.s of wine at a fundraiser. was stolen, he had been National Gallery chairman for less than a week. The position, as it had been explained to him, was largely honorary. He would be expected to attend a few board meetings a year and to help choose a new director when Knut Berg retired the following year. No heavy lifting, except for the occasional gla.s.s of wine at a fundraiser.

On Friday, February 10, the day before the theft, Berg had taken his new chairman on an attic-to-bas.e.m.e.nt tour of the National Gallery. Thune met all the museum's employees, visited the guard's security station, and marveled at the Munch exhibit. The next morning, Sat.u.r.day, he drove with his family to the main train station in Oslo, headed for Lillehammer and the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games. At 6:25 in the morning, the taxi pa.s.sed in front of the National Gallery. Thune chattered excitedly to his family about the museum and his new job and the tour he had taken the day before.

Had the taxi been four minutes later, he might have seen a ladder standing curiously out of place.

Thrilled that the job of art museum chairman had magically given him entree to a world of hard-boiled detectives and shady informants, Thune performed his new duties zealously. He was especially pleased with the tape recorder that the police had rigged up in his office. Each time the phone rang, he eagerly pressed the "record" b.u.t.ton.

The calls poured in, the tapes rolled, and the red herrings piled up. Many tips seemed so transparently dubious-"Buy me dinner and a drink and I'll make it worth your while"-that the police could reject them at once. Some leads took time and trouble to investigate. In early April, a police source told Leif Lier, the detective in charge of the investigation, that Munch's painting was in Stockholm in a locker at the train station. The Scream The Scream had been taken from its frame-Lier groaned-and stuffed inside a hockey bag. The Norwegians prevailed on their colleagues in Stockholm to check out each of the thousands of lockers in the train station. The search began on April 3, Easter Sunday, interrupting the Swedish cops' holiday. It took three days. Nothing. had been taken from its frame-Lier groaned-and stuffed inside a hockey bag. The Norwegians prevailed on their colleagues in Stockholm to check out each of the thousands of lockers in the train station. The search began on April 3, Easter Sunday, interrupting the Swedish cops' holiday. It took three days. Nothing.

The breakthrough finally came on Sunday, April 24. Thune had a cousin by marriage named Einar-Tore Ulving, who happened to be an art dealer. Small and high-strung, with a large, bald head that made him look a bit like Elmer Fudd, Ulving didn't cut much of a figure. He had a sharp eye for a deal, though, and his business had prospered. Ulving owned a summer house and a part-interest in a hotel (both properties only a short distance from Munch's summer house, in the town of sgrdstrand), and he liked to swoop low over the Norwegian countryside in his helicopter.

One of Ulving's clients stood out. His name was Tor Johnsen,* and he and Ulving made a strange pair. Ulving was soft and nervous, with the scrubbed-pink look of a ten-year-old buffed and honed for a piano recital; Johnsen was big and disheveled and, if not quite handsome, at least somewhere in the vicinity. Above all, he was menacing. Johnsen was, in Norwegian parlance, a "torpedo"-an enforcer, or leg-breaker, whose job was to convince people who owed money to Johnsen's employers that it would be prudent to pay up. He had spent a dozen years in prison for setting fire to a house and killing several people inside. Between stints in solitary-Johnsen repeatedly attacked the prison guards-he had taken up Thai kick-boxing. Strong, agile, and bad-tempered, he became a jailhouse star and later a Scandinavian champion. and he and Ulving made a strange pair. Ulving was soft and nervous, with the scrubbed-pink look of a ten-year-old buffed and honed for a piano recital; Johnsen was big and disheveled and, if not quite handsome, at least somewhere in the vicinity. Above all, he was menacing. Johnsen was, in Norwegian parlance, a "torpedo"-an enforcer, or leg-breaker, whose job was to convince people who owed money to Johnsen's employers that it would be prudent to pay up. He had spent a dozen years in prison for setting fire to a house and killing several people inside. Between stints in solitary-Johnsen repeatedly attacked the prison guards-he had taken up Thai kick-boxing. Strong, agile, and bad-tempered, he became a jailhouse star and later a Scandinavian champion.

In the early 1990s, Johnsen developed an unexpected interest. He began showing up at art galleries and auctions, both buying and selling paintings. Ulving had noticed the "well-dressed, good-looking" newcomer but had not caught on immediately to his true character, perhaps because at their first meeting Johnsen was accompanied by a well-known and wealthy s.h.i.+powner (the two had met at the racetrack). Soon enough, Ulving learned enough to fill in a little of Johnsen's biography. Still, he was an art dealer, not a social worker. Johnsen became a valued customer.

Toward the end of April 1994 Johnsen phoned Ulving. He knew some people, the ex-con said, who could arrange for The Scream The Scream to be returned to the National Gallery. He remembered, too, that Ulving and Thune were cousins of some sort. Maybe Ulving could give Thune a call. to be returned to the National Gallery. He remembered, too, that Ulving and Thune were cousins of some sort. Maybe Ulving could give Thune a call.

On April 24, Ulving phoned Thune. Ordinarily, Ulving would have highlighted the good points of someone he was vouching for. Here, in an attempt to boost Johnsen's credibility as a thief and a friend of thieves, he stood the usual formula on its head. "I told him that Mr. Johnsen's reputation was not very good," Ulving recalled years later. "I told him he was a violent man. I told him he had been sentenced to jail for twelve years. So Mr. Thune knew all about him. And he asked me, 'Do you think this is substantial?' And I said, 'Based on what I know about Mr. Tor Johnsen, I think this is really substantial, and should be followed up.' "

When Ulving reported back to Johnsen, he admitted that he didn't know how seriously Thune had taken his message. For the next few days, Johnsen replied, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the newspaper.

The next day, April 25, the top crime reporter at Dagbladet Dagbladet picked up his phone and heard a familiar voice. The caller had pa.s.sed along useful tips in the past, and now he claimed to have information about picked up his phone and heard a familiar voice. The caller had pa.s.sed along useful tips in the past, and now he claimed to have information about The Scream The Scream. He couldn't say more than that on the phone.

The reporter, Gunnar Hultgreen, arranged to meet his informant face-to-face. Hultgreen rattled off questions, but the informant ducked them, on the grounds that he was only delivering a message. He mumbled something vague about "evidence" that would support his story, rattled off a few place names, and told Hultgreen to find a photographer. Hultgreen scribbled names and crude directions in his notebook-Nittedal, just east of Oslo; signs for Skedsmokorset; the village of Slattum; a right turn; a bus stop.

Hultgreen nabbed one of the newspaper's photographers. Then he phoned Lief Plahter, the chief restorer at the National Gallery, and told him he would pick him up in a few minutes. Plahter had worked on The Scream The Scream and knew it well. and knew it well.

Nittedal was about a dozen miles east of town, but the informant's directions were frustratingly sketchy. Eventually the reporter, the photographer, and the art restorer found a likely bus stop and inched along the road nearby, scanning the ground, though they weren't quite sure what they were looking for. Finding nothing on their first sweep, they turned around and crept back toward the bus stop.

It was the photographer who shouted first. "Could that be it?"

He had spotted a piece of carved wood a few inches long in the gra.s.s by the side of the road. The three men scrambled out of the car, the white-haired art restorer trailing his younger colleagues.

"Oh, my G.o.d," Plahter cried, as soon as he caught up with the others. "This is the frame."

It was, more precisely, a short section of the frame, lying upside down. No one touched it, in case the thieves had left fingerprints, but Plahter bent down for a closer look. He had recognized the frame at once because of its color and design, and now he saw indisputable proof that this small piece of wood was what it purported to be. Plahter pointed at the neat lettering on the back of the frame and read off the National Gallery's identification number.

The next day's tabloid headline screamed out, WE FOUND THE FRAME WE FOUND THE FRAME.

14.

The Art of Seduction The discovery of the frame was a good news-bad news joke on a giant scale. On the plus side, the police were finally dealing with actual thieves rather than hoaxsters and con men. Almost as important, it seemed likely that The Scream The Scream had not been smuggled out of Norway to some more remote hideaway. But the minuses were plain, too. If Munch's masterpiece had been removed from its frame, the painting was as vulnerable as a turtle taken from its sh.e.l.l. And the thieves were still at large. had not been smuggled out of Norway to some more remote hideaway. But the minuses were plain, too. If Munch's masterpiece had been removed from its frame, the painting was as vulnerable as a turtle taken from its sh.e.l.l. And the thieves were still at large.

Ulving, the art dealer, a.s.sured the Norwegian authorities that he was merely a good citizen caught up in a story that had nothing to do with him, and doing his best to cooperate with the authorities. This was not the first time, he said, that he had helped the police recover stolen paintings.

In 1988, thieves had stolen a number of Munch paintings and lithographs from private homes around Oslo. Out of the blue, someone phoned Ulving, trying to sell him a Munch lithograph. Ulving knew by the work's description that it had been stolen and called the police. They told Ulving to go ahead with the deal, but the thief caught sight of the police lurking near the designated rendezvous and fled.

Several days later Ulving's contact phoned him again, offering more Munch works. Ulving told the police again. They proposed another trap. This time Ulving was to say he wanted to buy several of the prints and paintings, rather than just one, for a client in Germany. Since the art was stolen, Ulving would offer only KR 1 million, about $125,000.

The art dealer and the thief agreed on a deal. The police rented an apartment above the thief's, so they could keep watch uninterrupted. On a Sat.u.r.day morning shortly before the a.s.signed meeting time, a detective phoned Ulving. The thief had left home, and they had a car tailing him and a plane overhead tracking him. He was headed away away from Ulving; if he arrived at all, it wouldn't be for a long time. from Ulving; if he arrived at all, it wouldn't be for a long time.

Two minutes later, Ulving heard a knock on the door.

The thief burst in. "Everything ready?"

The police, Ulving later learned, had followed the wrong car. The thief hadn't been in Oslo for two days. While the surveillance cops monitored an empty apartment in Oslo, the thief had checked into a hotel in the countryside, in the tiny town of sgrdstrand. Ulving did a double-take. The hotel in sgrdstrand? The hotel in sgrdstrand?

Ulving stalled for time. It would take him a little while to get the money together, and they needed to set up a new rendezvous. Once he had pushed his guest out the door, Ulving phoned the police and launched into an astonis.h.i.+ng tale.

The hotel the thief had chosen for himself, of all the hotels in Norway, happened to be the one that Ulving owned! The coincidence was, Ulving would agree in an interview years later, "so "so strange, really unbelievable." Ulving phoned his hotel manager and told him to check the register of the tiny establishment. Look for a room booked two nights before, by a male guest, traveling alone. strange, really unbelievable." Ulving phoned his hotel manager and told him to check the register of the tiny establishment. Look for a room booked two nights before, by a male guest, traveling alone.

One name fit. The manager hotfooted it to the room. There, in the closet, he found seven stolen Munch paintings and lithographs. The police, in the meantime, nabbed the thief at the rendezvous.

Despite the happy ending, Ulving said the experience had left him gun-shy. One brush with thieves was more than enough. Who knew what might happen if he got mixed up with cops and crooks again?

To Charley Hill's suspicious mind, everything about Ulving rang false. What was this good Samaritan doing tangled up in another stolen art case? Ulving insisted that his relations.h.i.+p with Johnsen was aboveboard. He was an experienced and knowledgeable art dealer; Johnsen had only recently discovered art. What could be more natural than for an expert to help a novice develop his eye? Hill's working theory was far simpler: Johnsen brought Ulving art that he had stolen (or that someone he knew had stolen), and Ulving sold it. Ulving was a "typical art dealer, a mendacious son of a b.i.t.c.h, just patently and obviously weasely."

The dogmatic tone was characteristic. Hill knew and admired dozens of serious, thoughtful, dedicated art dealers, and yet, confronted with a single dealer he thought was shady, he could forget all that in an instant. "Art dealers are used car salesmen," he complained, thinking of Ulving but generalizing wildly, "except they have all the upmarket social graces."

In other aspects of his life, Hill was p.r.o.ne to spectacular pratfalls, but he took great pride in his ability to read people. He made judgments about people quickly and amended them slowly or not at all. Whether his instinctive dislike of Ulving reflected insight or only nasty-mindedness was hard to know. Cops spend their careers scanning the gutter, and it is not a vantage point that gives them a sunny view of human nature. On one idyllic spring day years before he had ever met Ulving, Hill happened to see a jogger pa.s.s by in Richmond Park, the biggest and greenest open s.p.a.ce in London. "Probably a rapist," Hill muttered, "looking for some mum who's only thinking about her baby in his stroller."

The novelist and ex-prosecutor Scott Turow could have been thinking of Hill when he called cops "our paid paranoids." "A copper sees a conspiracy in a cloudy day," Turow wrote. "He suspects treachery when you say good morning."

Though Hill disliked and distrusted Ulving, he had no doubt that he could win him over. Over the years, he had learned how to befriend all sorts of crooks and liars. In his line of work it was an essential skill. "That's been my great strength," he once observed, "to be able to develop rapport with criminals who tell me things they wouldn't tell anybody else."

Oddly, Hill's gift for forging alliances seems to work at both ends of the social scale but to fail in the middle. Killers will happily drink with Hill, and lords and ladies, too, but good, solid, salt-of-the-earth citizens purse their lips in distaste and back away.

"Now, that's an example of a man who's a killer and a horrible sc.u.mbag in anybody's book," Hill said once, naming a gangster, "and yet he and I can talk as easily as you please." Not long ago the two men met for a drink, in a bleak pub long after midnight. The bartender recognized Hill's companion as soon as he walked in. His hands trembled as he served their drinks.

"That son of a b.i.t.c.h is a f.u.c.king Khyber Pa.s.s bandit, British-version," Hill said later. "But when he meets someone who isn't frightened of him, and it's someone who's not out to do him harm, he likes talking to him. That's the way these guys operate. It's like Kipling's poem: 'There is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, /When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth.' "

At the other end of the social spectrum, Hill noted proudly, he and the Duke of Beaufort can happily pa.s.s an afternoon talking about art and armagnac. And though Hill would gladly visit with either the gangster or the duke, the two men on their own could not possibly find even an inch of common ground. "Never," said Hill. "It couldn't happen. Not unless [the gangster] sneaked into Badminton, held a gun to the duke's head, and locked him up in a cupboard in the bedroom with the d.u.c.h.ess while he ransacked the place. That's the only rapport they would ever have."

But n.o.bles and thieves are easy for Hill. It's those in between he finds hard. His problem is not with shopkeepers and salesmen in stores and conductors on trains; he likes turning rote exchanges into small conversations. Things go astray when Hill decides that the person across from him has his nose glued to a rule book. "If I were dealing with a bureaucrat," Hill conceded in an interview in 2003, "the chances are it would go horribly wrong. As often it has. They write me off as a snake-oil salesman, the sort of person they hate to have any dealings with, because they want to deal with bureaucratic procedures and buzz words and jargon from management-speak."

Hill paints his failure as proof of his virtue-better to be one of Kipling's strong men than a member of the herd of "little bureaucrats feeding the meter"-and perhaps he could could win over his enemies if he would make an effort. But he seldom does. Instead, in his encounters with those drab creatures who occupy neither the lowest nor the loftiest margins of society, Hill indulges himself in private jokes and obscure allusions. win over his enemies if he would make an effort. But he seldom does. Instead, in his encounters with those drab creatures who occupy neither the lowest nor the loftiest margins of society, Hill indulges himself in private jokes and obscure allusions.

Occasionally Hill finds himself called on to talk to a group of museum officials or insurance agents. He tends to leave them bewildered. His stories begin in the middle and end without warning. He scatters endless names without explanation. Even comments that he intends as transparent leave many in his audience feeling they have wandered into the wrong lecture hall. At one talk, for instance, Hill wanted to make the point that collectors worried about art thieves must take steps to protect themselves, rather than rely entirely on the police. "In the early fifth century," Hill remarked, "the Roman emperor wrote to a group of complaining Roman Britons that they should look after themselves. In the same year, Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome, so the emperor obviously had a point about what he could do for this part of his empire."

With crooks, in contrast, Hill labors diligently to establish a bond. Honor among thieves is a fiction, but Hill has found that criminals do have a code of self-respect and self-esteem, and he has learned to turn that code to his advantage.

His role-playing takes him far from his true character. In his personal life, Hill's moral code is strict. He makes fun of his own uprightness ("I'm a Yankee Puritan of the worst kind, a Brit one"), but he adamantly adheres to such old-fas.h.i.+oned beliefs as the sanct.i.ty of promises and the obligations of friends.h.i.+p. His penchant for truth-telling is so extreme-perhaps this is part of its attraction-that often it verges on rudeness. At work, on the other hand, lying is a job skill as fundamental as driving. Chatting up criminals and spinning stories to thieves is all in a day's work. For crooks, too, lying is second nature. One of his favorite sources, Hill says fondly, has "a capacity to lie that makes your eyes water."

Whether he is working undercover or as himself, Hill relies less on tricks than on the standard repertoire of anyone bent on seduction. He is outgoing but low-key, far too reserved and English to go in for backslapping or joke-telling. But he is friendly and solicitous, good with names, attentive to even the longest and most rambling stories. Some of this is simply good manners, but it goes deeper than that. "Even a villain has some humanity," Hill remarks, "and the trick is finding a way to connect with it."

Well before the Munch theft, Hill had begun cultivating a network of criminals and near criminals with good sources in the art underworld. The meetings are clandestine, but Hill is not undercover. Watch him at work as recently as 2002, at dinner with an informant he has known for years. Tom Russell* is a fit, sixty-ish man who looks like Anthony Hopkins, or as Hopkins might if he had gone in for gold jewelry and s.h.i.+rts that revealed great tufts of chest hair. Despite the flash, Russell occupies a lowly, vulnerable spot in a dangerous business. In the ecosystem of the London underworld, he is a small, scurrying animal trying to live by his wits among a host of bigger creatures with short tempers and sharp teeth. is a fit, sixty-ish man who looks like Anthony Hopkins, or as Hopkins might if he had gone in for gold jewelry and s.h.i.+rts that revealed great tufts of chest hair. Despite the flash, Russell occupies a lowly, vulnerable spot in a dangerous business. In the ecosystem of the London underworld, he is a small, scurrying animal trying to live by his wits among a host of bigger creatures with short tempers and sharp teeth.

Hill and Russell make a curious pair. The two men look and sound nothing alike. Hill, resplendent in his blazer, looks like a weekend sailor who has popped into his club for a few drinks. Russell looks as if he has been up all night in Atlantic City, and losing. Hill sounds posh; Russell speaks in the London equivalent of a dese-and-dose accent, in short bursts that overflow with slang and underworld shorthand. "A million quid" becomes "a million squid." "Nothing" is "nuffink." A job that was supposed to be easy "were going to be a piece o' p.i.s.s."

And yet the two seem like old friends. Rivers of drink lubricate the conversation. Hill is a self-described heavy drinker, and Russell is not far behind. Tonight Hill is drinking gin-and-tonics-he's on his third before the appetizers are cleared-and Russell is having scotch. Hill, as host, makes sure that his guest is not left even momentarily holding an empty gla.s.s. (For either man to say "enough" or just to skip a round would be as unexpected as asking the bartender to brew a pot of chamomile tea.) Russell has a lot to say, but his voice is low and his manner furtive. His eyes flicker around the room as he talks. When a waiter approaches or a patron wanders by on his way to the bar, Russell goes silent and drags on his cigarette until the intruder departs.

The recurring theme in all Russell's stories is that, despite the risks he takes on their behalf, the police constantly double-cross him. He pa.s.ses on information and, instead of paying him the reward money they have promised, the police shortchange him or stiff him outright. If he complains, they threaten to hand him over to his enemies. Sometimes the betrayal is so skilled that it is almost artful. "I've been s.h.a.gged so beautiful I never even felt it," Russell laments.

To hear him tell it, Russell lives in an Alice in Wonderland world where those charged with upholding the law spend their days subverting it, and what little honor there is, is among thieves. "The decline in standards in this country is a disgrace," he moans. "The things that go on-it makes me ashamed. Except for three men I could name-you know who they are, Charley-I wouldn't trust the police to say an honest word."

Hill listens to all this with what seems like utter empathy. Often, as the two men talk, the tone veers from casual and light to dark and angry and back again. Russell takes the lead, and Hill adapts at once to every s.h.i.+ft. When Russell mentions the name of one crooked cop, Hill's eyes narrow in disdain. "I really do hate that b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Hill snarls, and it is hard to detect the well-spoken art lover beneath the venomous mask.

"Well, then, you've got plenty of company," Russell says, "because I f.u.c.king hate him, too."

Both men turn to their drinks for a moment.

Russell does most of the talking, and when he pauses between tales of how he has been done wrong, Hill catches up on domestic news. He asks after Russell's wife and gets updates on his kids. The surgery went well? Is his son's football team off to a good start? Hill is impressed that Tom looks so fit. Is he working out? And where did he get that tan? Has he been on holiday?

This is standard banter, but Hill appears to hang on every answer. The two compare notes on old acquaintances and run through a roster of cops and robbers they have known. The rhythm of the conversation evokes sports fans at a bar, recalling the old days. "He were a right villain, weren't he?" Russell asks cheerily, when Hill throws out yet another name.

The reminiscences turn from past triumphs and follies generally to art cases in particular. Russell asks Hill if he recalls the affair of the two 'eads. Years before, a pair of thieves had set out to steal a monumental Henry Moore bronze from a garden. The statue, called King and Queen King and Queen, proved too ma.s.sive to move, so the thieves took a chainsaw to the figures and cut off their heads, figuring they could at least sell those.

Russell's usefulness to Hill is that, one way or another, he hears lots of gossip and rumors about stolen art. "I'd have no compunction about turning him in if he was doing the crimes himself," Hill says later, "but he's not. He just lives in that world, and he knows what's going on."

Hill does not try to connect with Russell by minimizing his own knowledge of art, or his enthusiasm for it. When Russell struggles to come up with the name of a stolen painting that had once floated through London's seamier backwaters, Charley reminds him that the missing work was Bruegel's Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery. Russell's interest in sixteenth-century religious art would have to multiply many times before it could qualify as negligible, but Hill rattles on happily about Bruegel for a few minutes. Hill, at least, is rapt. Pieter Bruegel, he notes, was known as Bruegel the Elder because his son, also an artist and also called Pieter, was Brueghel the Younger, but the son spelled his name with an "h," whereas ...

The fancy talk, which seems like pointless showing off, is actually showing off with a point very much in mind. Two points, in fact. One is flattery: treating Russell with respect rather than condescension costs nothing and might earn some goodwill. More important, the highfalutin talk cements the notion that, however peculiar such devotion might be, Hill really does care deeply about art. The aim is to insure that when a stolen painting makes the rounds, Russell will make sure that Charley Hill hears about it.

How much of his camaraderie with Russell and his ilk is sincere and how much put-on, Hill himself seems not to know. Certainly his disdain for dishonest cops is unfeigned, as is his belief that they are legion. "Wthout exception," Hill says, "in every single job I've been involved in, there's been a corrupt cop somewhere." But Hill's distrust of the good guys does not spill over into fondness for the bad guys. He is far too cynical to believe that thieves are unfortunate souls who might have been redeemed by a kind word and a helping hand at the right time. Hill is fond of invoking the great names of English history and legend, but the tales he likes best are of knights errant battling black-hearted villains. There are no Robin Hoods in Charley Hill's Britain.

Hill's wife is a smart, insightful woman (and, by profession, a psychologist) who has often rebuked him for taking too rosy a view of his "horrible" acquaintances. Charley, she says, makes the mistake of thinking that because his informants are trying to do do something good-help him find stolen paintings-they something good-help him find stolen paintings-they are are good. The notion makes her indignant. "These are not good people," she insists, as she has a hundred times before. "These are bad people, and the only reason they'd help to get a painting back is so they can tell somebody-a parole officer or a judge or someone-that 'I helped Charley Hill.' They're manipulative, they've screwed a lot of people in the past, and now they're simply trying a new maneuver, entirely for their own benefit." good. The notion makes her indignant. "These are not good people," she insists, as she has a hundred times before. "These are bad people, and the only reason they'd help to get a painting back is so they can tell somebody-a parole officer or a judge or someone-that 'I helped Charley Hill.' They're manipulative, they've screwed a lot of people in the past, and now they're simply trying a new maneuver, entirely for their own benefit."

Hill mounts a halfhearted defense, to little avail. (His acknowledgment that many of the characters he mingles with are "pretty appalling human beings" is perhaps a shade too cheerful.) The problem, his wife goes on, is that Charley decides to think the best of his dubious acquaintances ahead of time, because otherwise he could never behave in the friendly way he must if he is to forge alliances, and then he performs so convincingly that he takes himself in with his own act.

It might seem a tough position for a professional cynic, to hear himself accused by the person who knows him best of holding a naively sunny view of human nature. Hill doesn't seem much fazed, in part because the charge of naivete doesn't quite hit home. His tolerance has a different source. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously observed that "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." First-rate or not, many of us display such abilities every day. We scan a story on page one about astronomy and the cosmos, and then we turn to the back pages and read our horoscope to see what the day has in store for us.

When it comes to judging friends and lovers, though, people tend not to be so tolerant of contradiction. A lover who betrays us reveals his entire entire character in a new and d.a.m.ning light. "I thought I knew you!" we cry, in a howl of anger and bewilderment. Hill has a rare talent for viewing character in a double light. He can look at one of his criminal cronies and say, "This is someone whose company I enjoy" character in a new and d.a.m.ning light. "I thought I knew you!" we cry, in a howl of anger and bewilderment. Hill has a rare talent for viewing character in a double light. He can look at one of his criminal cronies and say, "This is someone whose company I enjoy" and and say, "This is a dangerous person who would sell me out without a second thought." say, "This is a dangerous person who would sell me out without a second thought."

Hill is not merely tolerant of violent and dishonest men, though, but drawn to them. The fascination is not so much with the men themselves-often they are merely schoolyard bullies grown up-as with the opportunity they offer. Crooks mean action.

Hill's character is a mix of contrary pieces, and "restlessness" is one of the most important. In his case, restlessness is a near neighbor of recklessness. It takes a jolt of adrenaline to give life its savor. Years ago a friend dubbed him "Mr. Risk."

Hill is a man willing to put up with a great deal for a chance to experience something new: he insists that his motive for volunteering to jump from airplanes and to fight in Vietnam was "intellectual curiosity." Crooks and con men, whatever else they may be, are not boring. For a man as temperamentally allergic to blandness and routine as Hill, that is a virtue almost beyond price.

"I like dealing with these people and trying to work out how they think and what they're about," he once said, in a moment of uncharacteristic defensiveness. "I find it a h.e.l.l of a lot more interesting"-his tone had darkened and his customary belligerence had returned-"than sitting in some office pondering mankind in the abstract, or counting beans about how the rate of one kind of crime compares with the rate of some other kind."

"The awful truth," Hill went on, "is that I tend to like everyone and dislike everyone, including myself. I prefer the company of robust people. I suppose it's a matter of taste. I prefer to drink a gutsy rioja to some G.o.dawful chardonnay."

"Robust" was coy. Hill's real preference is for people and situations that offer the enticing possibility that at any moment things could go disastrously, irretrievably wrong.

15.

First Encounter MAY 5, 1994.

With the discovery of The Scream's The Scream's frame, the police finally had the break they needed. The Norwegian police and Thune, the National Gallery's chairman of the board, contacted Charley Hill and caught him up on the players: Johnsen, an ex-con; Ulving, an art dealer playing the role of middle man. frame, the police finally had the break they needed. The Norwegian police and Thune, the National Gallery's chairman of the board, contacted Charley Hill and caught him up on the players: Johnsen, an ex-con; Ulving, an art dealer playing the role of middle man.

Hill phoned Ulving at once. "This is Chris Roberts. I'm a representative of the Getty in Europe, and I hope we can meet." Hill gave a phone number in Belgium.

The Belgian number was a tiny ploy. To hide any connection with Scotland Yard, Hill told Ulving he was based in Brussels. The Belgian police had taken care of the phone setup as part of a thank-you for Scotland Yard's help in recovering the Russborough House Vermeer in Antwerp a few months before.

Hill suggested to Ulving that he fly to Oslo so they could meet and negotiate the painting's return. A good idea, Ulving said, and he suggested that Hill not come empty-handed. Half a million pounds sounded right. In cash.

The money came from Scotland Yard, which kept a cash account for undercover operations. It fell to d.i.c.k Ellis, an Art Squad detective, to sign for the money, 500,000 in used notes. Taking responsibility for so much money, even briefly, was not an a.s.signment anyone would seek. It carried all the potential for calamity of, say, being drafted to baby-sit a prince of the realm. In a long career, Ellis had never been involved in a deal with so much cash. He stuffed the bills, bundled in slabs, into a sports bag, nearly filling it. The plan was to fly the money to Oslo first thing the next morning. It would be too early in the day to sign the money out then, so Ellis planned to leave it overnight in a Scotland Yard safe.

The bag proved too big for the safe. Ellis decided to lock it in his office. "The Yard's a pretty secure building," he says, "but I can tell you that was a long night." The next morning, Ellis says dryly, "I was there on time."

On the morning of May 5, Ellis handed the cash to a thick, burly detective, an armored car in human form, called Sid Walker.* Six feet tall and 230 pounds, with a deep voice and a gruff manner, Walker looked like someone best left alone. In a long undercover career, he had convinced countless criminals that he was one of them. When he was young-he was about fifteen years older than Hill or Ellis-he had gone in for wrestling and rugby, and he still came across as formidable. Sometimes too much so. "He's been hired for more contract killings than some contract killers," Ellis says admiringly. Six feet tall and 230 pounds, with a deep voice and a gruff manner, Walker looked like someone best left alone. In a long undercover career, he had convinced countless criminals that he was one of them. When he was young-he was about fifteen years older than Hill or Ellis-he had gone in for wrestling and rugby, and he still came across as formidable. Sometimes too much so. "He's been hired for more contract killings than some contract killers," Ellis says admiringly.

Walker's fellow cops, who gave one another a hard time almost as a matter of reflex, spoke of his coups with something approaching awe. But a few roles-shady art connoisseur, for one-lay beyond his reach. "Drugs, guns, contract killings, anything like that, and Sid was perfect," Charley Hill remarked. "Because he looks like a gorilla, and he sounds like one."

Despite appearances, Walker was quick-thinking, as agile mentally as he was physically-so experienced that almost nothing took him by surprise. He was well-organized, too, and he had laid down the guidelines that governed all of Scotland Yard's undercover operations. Walker had been Hill's mentor when the younger man first ventured undercover, and he had come to the rescue more than once when Hill had managed to offend his superior officers and get himself banished to Siberia.

Hill revered him. "He was, quite simply, the finest undercover officer of his generation," Hill has said on more than one occasion, "and he also happens to be a personal friend whom I trust implicitly." When the Art Squad put together its plan for retrieving The Scream The Scream, Hill made only one demand: Sid Walker had to be part of the team.

With the cash ready and a plan in hand, the Scream Scream team set off from Scotland Yard to Oslo. There were three players: Charley Hill, playing Chris Roberts; Sid Walker, whose job was to guard Hill and head off trouble; and John Butler, the head of the Art Squad, who would stay in the background but would run the operation. team set off from Scotland Yard to Oslo. There were three players: Charley Hill, playing Chris Roberts; Sid Walker, whose job was to guard Hill and head off trouble; and John Butler, the head of the Art Squad, who would stay in the background but would run the operation.

Hill arranged to meet Ulving in the lobby of the Oslo Plaza, the sw.a.n.kiest hotel in town, a brand-new, gleaming high-rise. Hill, Walker, and Butler had rooms on different floors. Walker would arrive first, on his own. With the help of the Norwegian police, Butler would transform his room into a command bunker for the operation. Hill would show up last, late in the evening.

On the morning of May 5, Walker strolled through security at Heathrow Airport with the 500,000 in his carry-on bag. Baggage inspections were rare in those pre-9/11 days, but airport security hadn't been let in on the story. If someone found Walker's money and wanted to know what he was up to, Sid would have to dream up an explanation.

Hill flew into Oslo, rented the most expensive car at the airport, a top-of-the-line Mercedes, and sped into town. Always a bold figure, he dashed on stage at the Plaza with the bravura of a Broadway star emerging, already singing, from the wings. He wore a seersucker suit, a white s.h.i.+rt, and a blue bow tie with big green dots, and he piled out of his Mercedes, bills crumpled in his hand for tips, beckoning one bellman to see to the car and another to grab his bags. Then he strode through the lobby to the front desk.

"Hi there," in a loud and unmistakably American voice. "I'm Chris Roberts."

Ulving was waiting in the lobby with Johnsen. Ulving perked up when he heard Hill, and he and Johnsen came rus.h.i.+ng over to introduce themselves.

Sid Walker was already in the lobby, keeping a surrept.i.tious eye on things. Not surrept.i.tious enough, it turned out. Johnsen, a savvy and professional criminal, spotted Walker-though, for the moment, he kept silent-and recognized at once that he didn't belong. Why was a roughneck like that hanging around the hotel?

It was ten o'clock at night. Hill told Ulving and Johnsen that after he went to his room and changed, they could meet for a drink. Soon after, the three men settled in at the Sky Bar in the hotel's rooftop lounge. Minutes later, Walker came into the bar. Johnsen turned accusingly to Hill.