He repeatedly lied to and misled his interrogators, grew wealthy from the sale of works looted from Jewish families in Paris, was brought to trial — and acquitted — and died peacefully at the age of ninety-five. Bruno Lohse was an SS officer, one of the leaders of Hitler’s art-looting unit, and Hermann Göring’s personal art dealer. He looted tens of thousands of works of art on their behalf, as well as for himself. The historian Jonathan Petropoulos, the central figure in this film, met him in his home and attempted to extract some form of confession from him, but failed.

After Lohse’s death, the extensive network of connections he had woven over the years with art dealers and museum curators came to light. It emerged that some of them had been his interrogators on behalf of the Allied powers after the Second World War, and later became his partners in dubious transactions. Thus, the investigative story presented in the film reveals — much like the film LOOT: A Story of Crime and Redemption, also screened at the festival — the world of art trading with its cynicism, greed, and intrigue.