The World's Most Expensive Paintings

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

London, England, 2008. Some of the most distinguished experts on the work of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) gather at the National Gallery to examine a painting known as Salvator Mundi; an event that turns out to be the first act of one of the most fascinating stories in the history of art.

A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.

This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role as her overbearing husband's assistant, Noriko finds an identity of her own.

A science-fiction story of a billionaire's private space exploration program returning to Earth with an abducted extraterrestrial from a newly discovered alien planet.

Thomas Hart Benton's paintings were energetic and uncompromising. Today his works are in museums, but Benton hung them in saloons for ordinary people to appreciate.

The most expensive and specialized airplane ever built, the B2 Stealth bomber carries a price tag of more than two billion dollars. Highly effective and extremely technically advanced, it has been an integral part of the Air Force arsenal for the past 20 years. From a Cold War scrap heap candidate, to the go-to bomber in the 2011 strike against Qaddafi's army in Libya, "Spirit" has seen its share of trials and triumphs. Join us as we detail how this secret weapon evolved to overcome critics, espionage, and even tragedy, to change the shape of aviation forever.

With unique access to the inner world of the Getty family, this documentary unearths the lasting cultural impact of J Paul Getty and the Getty Centre in Los Angeles - the wealthiest art institution in the world.

In Pride And Prejudice: Having A Ball, social historian Amanda Vickery leads the action as a team of experts recreate a Regency ball in honour of the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s popular novel. Joined by Alastair Sooke and a coterie of professionals – a food historian, a costume expert, music history academics and a choreographer who trains a team of dance students to take to the floor– cameras will follow the recreation inspired by Austen’s Netherfield ball. This intimate country house ball drives the plot of the Pride And Prejudice, and is a key turning point in the romance between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy.

Art, politics and motorcycles - on the occasion of his 90th birthday John Berger or the Art of Looking is an intimate portrait of the writer and art critic whose ground-breaking work on seeing has shaped our understanding of the concept for over five decades. The film explores how paintings become narratives and stories turn into images, and rarely does anybody demonstrate this as poignantly as Berger.

The Haywain by John Constable is such a comfortingly familiar image of rural Britain that it is difficult to believe it was ever regarded as a revolutionary painting, but in this film, made in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at the V&A, Alastair Sooke discovers that Constable was painting in a way that was completely new and groundbreaking at the time. Through experimentation and innovation, he managed to make a sublime art from humble things and, though he struggled in his own country during his lifetime, his genius was surprisingly widely admired in France.

Art critic Alastair Sooke delves into the murky world of art theft. Despite the high stakes - and often daring - involved, many cases are shrouded in mystery and go unnoticed by the media. Around 47,000 works of art are reported missing each year, yet it is only the heists involving the world's most valuable paintings that hit the headlines. But high-profile or not - once gone, the works are rarely recovered.

Odd Nerdrum draws much of his inspiration for his paintings from Iceland. What is it about this lava island that makes him travel there every year? What is he looking for? We went with him to Iceland to find some of the answers.

Alastair Sooke takes us on an exclusive personal tour of the Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern. Offering an in-depth look at one of the year's most talked about exhibitions, Alastair and guests explore the enduring appeal of Lichtenstein's imagery, debate the controversies around his work and his influence on today's generation of artists and tackle the big question - was Lichtenstein a Pop Art genius and one of the defining image-makers of the 20th century, or a one-trick wonder whose big idea was so powerful he could never let it go?

Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, including market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, this documentary examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society.

The Bay Area is in the midst of a real estate boom, with many young tech workers calling the area home and willing to spend big bucks for some of the most expensive properties in the U.S. Competition in the market is stiff, and agents are always competing to land new clients; three of those agents are profiled in this series. San Francisco native and luxury broker Justin Fichelson is a pro at networking, and his relationships with venture capitalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs help him get ahead in the game. Roh Habibi, who was born in Afghanistan but raised in the Bay Area, is willing to do whatever it takes to close a deal, which has helped him make it to the top of the profession in just a few years in the business. Andrew Greenwell's philosophy -- go big or don't go at all -- has helped lead him to become CEO of a real estate company.

The Joy of Painting was an American television show hosted by painter Bob Ross that taught its viewers techniques for landscape oil painting. Although Ross could complete a painting in half an hour, the intent of the show was not to teach viewers "speed painting". Rather, he intended for viewers to learn certain techniques within the time that the show was allotted. The show began on January 11, 1983, and lasted until May 17, 1994, a year before Ross' death.

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

Museum Secrets is a TV series on History Television in Canada and a website with videos and games

The renowned definitive eight part series on the rise and fall of the modern art movement presented by Australian art critic Robert Hughes.

John Berger's Ways of Seeing changed the way people think about painting and art criticism. This watershed work shows, through word and image, how what we see is always influenced by a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilization, form, taste, class and gender. Exploring the layers of meaning within oil paintings, photographs and graphic art, Berger argues that when we see, we are not just looking - we are reading the language of images.

Alastair Sooke tells the story of Ancient Egyptian art through 30 extraordinary masterpieces.

Antiques experts travel across the country, competing to make a profit at auction.

Alastair Sooke explores the riches and unique legacy of Greek art.

A six-part documentary series that takes a deeper look into the stories, people and events that have transformed the world of comic books.

Andrew Graham-Dixon and Giorgio Locatelli's latest Italian adventure brings them to Rome in search of the greatest food and art that they can find off the beaten track.

Art historian Waldemar Januszczak uncovers the secret meanings hidden within some of the greatest paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Seurat .

Are you prepared for the apocalypse? Scholars use the ancient words of Nostradamus and paintings from a mysterious book to decode the infamous seer's prophecies, revealing groundbreaking interpretations of the destruction soon-to-be inflicted upon us.

Granted unparalleled access, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan takes viewers on an adventure behind the curtains of Industrial Light & Magic, the special visual effects, animation and virtual production division of Lucasfilm. Learn what inspired some of the most legendary filmmakers in Hollywood history, and follow their stories from their earliest personal films to bringing George Lucas’ vision to life.

Despite decades of research, many mysteries remain about the ancient Maya. Now, archaeologists are unearthing new clues that transform long held ideas about how these people came to dominate vast areas of Mexico and Central America. Through immense lost monuments, ancient inscriptions and new forensic evidence, this series tracks the Maya from their earliest origins all the way to the present day, unlocking the dark secrets of the rise and fall of the Maya.