Charles Hill, art sleuth who tracked down works by Titian, Vermeer, Goya, and Edvard Munch’s The Scream – obituary
He recovered The Scream during an elaborate ‘sting’ operation in which he posed as a representative from the Getty Museum in California
Charley Hill: a natural for covert work in the art world
Credit: Richard Anset
Charles Hill, the art detective, aided the recovery of many priceless objects in an adventurous career both with the Metropolitan Police and as a freelance investigator, most sensationally Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Titian’s Rest on the Flight to Egypt.
A former soldier and aspirant priest, Hill gave up sword and cassock in favour of dagger and cloak. With a passion for art and a flair for theatrics, he was a plain-clothes man who could talk to academics and the criminal fraternity on equal terms.