RECOVERY - JAMES JOSEPH JACQUES TISSOT

The French painter James Joseph Jacques Tissot is known for his illustrations of Victorian life. He studied in Paris, then fought in the Franco-Prussian War, before finally settling in England. In 1886, Tissot made his first visit to Palestine. He dedicated the next ten years of his life illustrating the Bible in watercolor paintings. The research behind these paintings was painstaking -- he often visited the sites of the biblical incidents. Many of these painting belong to the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York.

Tissot's painting, "Still on Top," was stolen from the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand during a dramatic heist in 1998. Armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a crowbar, a career criminal burst through the main doors of the gallery. He knocked a security guard to the floor, tore the painting from its frame, and ran to a waiting motorcycle with the six-million dollar painting under his arm. A ransom demand was made from the thief for the return of the painting, but it was recovered eight days later in Waikaretu, New Zealand. The painting was badly damaged during the theft and a two-year restoration project was needed to repair the damage. The painting is back on public display.