tv Stossel FOX Business October 29, 2017 5:00am-6:00am EDT
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>> and in the most recent quota we are over three percent except for the hurricanes. >> you think you are a member of the trump >> a tv hitmaker loves animals. >> he turned that creativity on animal rights, and it was unbelievable. >> one dog he rescues is off-the-charts dangerous. >> if it's a scale from 1 to 10, columbo's a 12. >> when the hollywood owner dies, columbo becomes their strange -- and expensive -- inheritance. >> acupuncture for a dog? i know we're in los angeles, but really? [ dog growls ] >> is it all worth it? >> your kids could get hurt. you're willing to take the risk. >> we made a commitment to healing dogs and showing other families how to do it. >> welcome to the weird world of pet inheritance. >> so, are you leaving your home to the birds? [ bird squawks ]
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i'm jamie colby, and, today, i'm in encino, california. will rogers once said, "if there are no dogs in heaven, then when i die, i want to go where they go." but when the owners go first, especially the rich or eccentric ones, it can make for one strange inheritance. >> my name is tyson kilmer. i'm an animal trainer. when one of my clients, sam simon, passed away in march of 2015, i inherited his dog, who is not exactly lassie, marmaduke, or any other lovably harmless pet you've seen on tv. >> hi, kilmers. i'm jamie. >> i'm tyson kilmer. this is my wife, alison. aliyah and tyler. >> how are you? >> i'm great! >> i heard your family has a living, breathing inheritance? >> indeed, we do. we have a cane corso that used to belong to the late, great sam simon. >> sam simon -- even if you
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don't recognize the name, you surely know his work as co-developer, with matt groening, of that iconic and long-running tv show, "the simpsons." sam was born in 1955 and grew up in beverly hills, just down the street from groucho marx. after graduating from stanford university, sam catapults his way up in the tv business, becoming a showrunner in 1978 for the hit series "taxi," at the age of 23. >> sam was the youngest showrunner in the history of television, when he was a showrunner on "taxi." >> mark thompson is an l.a. radio host and a long-time friend of simon's. >> to describe him as highly intelligent would be to understate it in the extreme. >> sam works on "barney miller" and "cheers," before teaming up with matt groening on "the simpsons," which premieres on the fox network in 1989. >> matt groening created these characters and this family, but
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the universe that the simpsons exist in -- the town, the nuclear power plant, mr. burns, all of these different characters... sam simon was the driving force behind that. >> but in 1993, after four trailblazing seasons, sam decides he wants a life outside of television. before quitting, he negotiates a deal giving him continuous credit as an executive producer and a share of the show's annual profit, to the tune of $30 million a year. sam, now twice divorced with no children, turns his energy to what becomes his calling in life -- saving animals, especially dogs. in 2002, at the cost of several million dollars, he creates this lavish, sprawling dog shelter in malibu. one of the neglected pooches that end up at sam's shelter is a 6-month old cane corso, also known as an italian mastiff, a
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breed some people refer to as "a pit bull on steroids." the big canine is quickly deemed too aggressive to stay at the shelter. so sam takes him home and names him columbo, after the rumpled, trench-coat-wearing detective played by peter falk. >> he adored columbo, clearly. i think he was like an offspring almost. he was like a son. >> a son with a nasty disposition. within months, columbo attacks staff members on the simon estate. there are as many as eight biting incidents. he even goes after sam's buddy, howard stern. >> ok, guys, go play! [ dogs barking ] >> so, in 2011, sam contacts tyson kilmer, who has a reputation for working with dangerous breeds. his hollywood clientele includes rob lowe and mike tyson, but none impresses him like sam simon. >> the first meeting he had with sam, tyson came back and went, "i met my hero.
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i met a guy that's doing way more than i am with animals." it was a bromance. >> alison kilmer is tyson's wife. >> was it more than just about the dog? >> oh, yeah. tyson knew right away that sam was someone that was gonna mentor him. >> still, tyson hesitates taking the columbo case. why? >> i had stopped working with that breed a few years prior, just because of the volatility and the liability issues around them. >> i'm sure that training aggressive dogs is dangerous. where is columbo on the scale? >> if it's a scale from 1 to 10, columbo's a 12. >> tyson says he makes an exception for columbo, when simon convinces him that health issues, like painful hip dysplasia, explain why he's such a bad dog. so, it's not just behavioral. it's also medicine? >> that's correct. >> simon's already paying for the best veterinary medicine money can buy.
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among other things, columbo gets electromagnetic therapy and acupuncture. acupuncture for a dog? i know we're in los angeles, but really? >> this dog has endured so much pain in his legs that this is not some frivolous treatment. >> and the price tag for columbo's first-class care? >> columbo costs approximately $138,000 a year. >> that's a four-year college education. >> the reality is -- i didn't hire these folks. i was just asked to be present while these folks were working. and this work changed my perspective on this dog entirely. ready to go. >> tyson takes over the actual training, hooking up columbo with a partner to keep him in line. >> hey, jamie. i brought my friends. >> i see that, tyson. i hope they'll be my friends. >> they will be your friends. so, kasha's been the one to teach him how he should be responding and reacting in these encounters. >> she's a pit bull. >> she's a pit bull, yes, but she's very fabulously trained. you want to give it a try? >> i'm willing to try.
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>> perfect. okay, so, let's start off by showing her a stay. point to the ground. tell her, "okay, down." >> okay, down, kasha. good girl, kasha. >> and now, this is how she smiles. so, it looks like kind of scary. >> oh! you get a rub on the belly! stay. tyson says his hard work and sam's money transform columbo into a loving and much-less-aggressive pet. so, the bottom line is -- you have rehabilitated this dog. >> i would say that this dog is living, at this point, within very acceptable margins for behavior and safety, as long as we continue to put the work in with him daily. >> it's late 2012, when, at 57, sam simon is diagnosed with colorectal cancer. the prognosis -- it's terminal. >> how did sam tell you he was sick? >> [ voice breaking ] he was just sick. >> what happened?
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>> you know, he said, you know, "tyson, i'm dying." >> will sam's death sentence also be the end for columbo? >> i was asked to make sure that columbo was taken off the property immediately. >> immediately? >> yes. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. was it roy rogers' trigger... mr. ed... or seabiscuit? the answer when we return. ♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ well i'm gone ♪ can i kick it? ♪ to all the people who can quest like a tribe does... ♪
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include tiredness, headache and weakness. ready to let go of hep c? ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. >> so, what stuffed horse fetched $266,000 at auction? it's "a," trigger, who belonged to roy rogers. >> with the help of his new friend and dog trainer tyson kilmer -- and a year and a half of intense training -- sam simon's rescued 140-pound cane corso is under control. so, you've given columbo a stay of execution. >> nobody else has been bitten, so the first part is amazing. secondly, he's a happier soul. >> but, in 2012, sam's diagnosis of stage-four cancer changes everything. after being told he has only months to live, "the simpsons"
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co-developer launches a campaign to save as many animals as he can before he's gone. he brings tyson along for the ride. >> as his body began to fail him, he would be jumping on a learjet and flying off, so somebody had to watch out for him. >> here was sam simon ready to do all of these things that seem unthinkable. he rescued all of these bears from roadside circuses. he shut down a mink farm. >> so, the money is kind of gone. >> you gave it all to peta. >> no, no, no, no, no, no, no. i put in a trust that will be distributed, in perpetuity, to save the children and peta and other organizations. >> fantastic. >> for two years, sam beats the clock, but his disease never relents. >> i got a call that he was in the hospital, and he had summoned for me to come to his bedside. he just said, "i'm sorry to burden you with this, but will you please take my dog?" of course, i said "yes." >> tyson looked at me and said,
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"i got to do this for him. if we don't, they're gonna put columbo down." >> tyson also makes sure columbo can stay by sam till the end. >> i was asked to train columbo to climb a set of steps beside sam's bed so that columbo could get up there and sleep with him. columbo was with sam right up until he passed. i was asked to be on the property when he passed to make sure that columbo was taken off the property immediately. >> why immediately? >> well, columbo couldn't be on the property with an influx of people coming in, just because it just wasn't safe. >> arguably even less safe -- bringing this strange inheritance home to your wife and kids. i have to ask you about that. i met him. he's fierce. you let them hang out with columbo? >> supervised. columbo cannot be unsupervised around my children or around anybody. when he's uncomfortable, he's grumpy. you don't want to be anywhere around him. and i don't want my kids to be
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anywhere around him. and stay. >> your kids could get hurt. you're willing to take the risk. >> we make all the precautions. we make sure they're never alone with columbo. we make sure that they train him every day. and us, as a family -- we made a commitment to healing dogs and showing other families how to do it. >> a noble commitment, but who's going to pay for columbo's ongoing $138,000-a-year medical care? was there some sort of verbal agreement between you and sam? >> sam just basically said, "listen, don't worry about this. everything's taken care of." >> ruh-roh! is it possible that sam made a promise to tyson he didn't intend to keep? that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. santa's little helper, the simpsons' family dog, is what breed? the answer in a moment.
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>> so, santa's little helper, the simpsons' family dog, is what breed? the answer is "b," a greyhound homer rescues from the dog track in "the simpsons'" first episode. [ dog growls ] >> the cane corso, or italian mastiff, is an aggressive breed, sometimes called a "pit bull on steroids." columbo, a 140-pounder who belonged to "simpsons" co-developer sam simon, was actually deemed too vicious for simon's dog-rescue shelter. hollywood dog trainer tyson kilmer says one of simon's last requests was that he take columbo when simon died.
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>> one thing that sam said is that, "every animal's life has value." >> tyson assumes simon's multi-billion-dollar trust will pay for columbo's costly medical treatments, including acupuncture and electromagnetic therapy. >> was there some sort of verbal agreement between you and sam? >> sam took care of everything while he was alive. when sam said, "will you take columbo?", i didn't say, "hey, how much, buddy?" i just said, "of course. i'll take care of it." >> then, in june 2015, three months after sam's death, tyson learns that those vets and therapists will no longer be paid and all those hollywood-style treatments will be discontinued. tyson reaches out to the executor of the simon trust. now, i'm a dog lover -- don't get me wrong -- but tell me how much you were asking, money-wise, to take care of columbo in the style sam had -- >> i didn't ask for money. i was asking for them to send the vets over.
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i wasn't asking for money. >> come on, columbo. >> either way, tyson says he's told there's no money earmarked for columbo. >> i first thought, "it has to be a misunderstanding," but, at some point, you'd think, even if that were the case, they would have an allegiance to what sam would have wanted." >> radio host mark thompson was a longtime friend of simon's. is it possible that sam made a promise to tyson he didn't intend to keep? >> i think the answer is -- of course not, of course not. sam would have wanted money to go for the continued care of columbo. >> the executor of simon's trust doesn't return our phone calls but has ripped tyson in the media. the trustee issued a statement that we got our hands on, and it starts with, "it's truly sad that someone would try to take advantage of sam's generosity to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense of other causes." >> and i'm just an outsider, but the same money that sam was paying for columbo, when sam was
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alive, is all tyson is asking for. and it's about his therapy, not a dollar more. i think that's a reasonable request. >> how much is it costing you a month, besides your daily time, to take care of columbo? >> it costs me approximately $9,000, $9,500 a month to take care of him. tyson has custody of a dog that is considered very dangerous. and we have a trustee unwilling to disperse money for the dog's care. end of case? >> if they're willing to go to court, tyson might be able to assert rights on columbo's behalf and get the court to construe the trust. >> underscore "might," says ken kossoff, an l.a. lawyer specializing in pet inheritances. he says it's telling simon apparently did not set up a trust fund to pay for columbo's care, which is allowed under california law. >> you want your trust or any other document to be very clear that who was ever in charge of
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the money needs to support the pet. >> case in point -- ken's client in palmdale, california, a widow who wanted to provide for her faithful companions when she was gone. hi, yvonne. i'm jamie. >> jamie, hi. how are you? >> nice to meet you. i heard you're the bird lady. >> i am that. would you like to meet my kids? >> i would like to meet your kids. >> come on. >> oh, thank you. look at all these guys. oh, hello there. who's that? >> he says, "i'm bogie bird." and he says, "i'm the senior bird here." >> bogie is a 34 year-old double yellow-head amazon parrot. while he's older than yvonne's two cockatiels, he's still a youngin' among the parrot breed, who can easily live for 60 years. when yvonne first adopts bogie from a bird sanctuary, in 2013, she worries about making a commitment to a pet that could very well outlive her. >> at my age, i thought, "how am
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i gonna make this work out? these guys can live to be 60 years old. i'm not rich." >> so, will bogie become a strange inheritance? yvonne is worried that her cherished parrot will get discarded, like columbo. and what about columbo? >> it must be costing you a fortune. >> columbo's not cheap, and we never, ever, ever, in a million years, thought we'd be here. >> and? >> how can the kilmers get the funds they say they need for his care? >> good boy! you know, i agreed to take sam simon's dog. i didn't agree to take on a billion-dollar estate. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our we all depend on trucks. chevy, chevy, chevy trucks. we think it's because chevrolets are the most dependable dependable dependable trucks. built to last a long long time.
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outlive her. will bogie get the special care he needs when she's gone? she turns to ken kossoff, who's been creating trusts in los angeles for over 30 years. >> a lot of pet owners do not know that they could plan their estate to include their pets. >> yvonne doesn't just want to make sure her pets always have a caring home. she wants to make sure they have her home. >> the trust provides, immediately, for a caregiver to come in, and this is someone who is familiar with my birds. they will live here in the house, basically rent-free, and they'd take care of the birds. i will take care of the utilities and all on the house. >> that could theoretically last for decades. you understand people will watch this and they'll say, "okay, you're 'the bird lady.'" >> yeah. >> "and you've left this beautiful home to birds." >> yes. i don't care how whacky they think i am. i just want to protect these guys. >> apparently, sam simon wasn't
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so clear or emphatic about columbo, and so the executors of "simpsons" co-developer sam simon's billion-dollar trust reportedly have no intention of providing a penny for his care. where does that leave animal trainer tyson kilmer, to whom sam bequeathed the 140-pound mastiff? >> i've never had much interest in anything outside of just seeing columbo cared for. i really don't want to be in court over the next five, six years. i'd far rather raise funds for him and just move on with my life. >> sam was his mentor and hero. and, sometimes, you don't write the script on how it's gonna come out, but we're doing the best we can and we're gonna handle it. >> i wanted to put a call into you to see if i could rely on some support from you guys. >> today, tyson hopes to raise enough funds through a network of friends and supporters to finance columbo's care.
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you made a promise. >> absolutely. yeah. >> that's a big promise. >> i'm gonna keep that promise. you know, sam was one of -- he was a mentor to me. he was one of my best friends. i'm gonna honor my word to my friend. >> bogie or columbo can only dream of the fortune of the so-called world's richest pet, a german shepherd who's really rolling in the dough. turns out that when a german countess named carlotta liebenstein died, in 1992, she left a $124 million trust for her trusty pooch, gunther iii. well, when gunther iii met an untimely death, carlotta's riches passed to gunther's son, gunther iv, and by then, the trust was worth $372 million and included a villa in the bahamas and a mansion once owned by madonna. and, at that rate, gunther v could be the first canine billionaire. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance."
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thanks so much for watching. and remember, you can't take it with you. >> one family's secret history buried in old boxes. >> i needed to know who i was, where our family came from. >> a fortune in precious art looted by the nazis. >> renoir, degas, botticelli... >> i'm sorry, the degas, the renoir? >> oh, yeah. we didn't know until we started to read through these documents and discover what he'd been looking for all his life. >> two sons vow to keep their father's search alive. >> it's about vindicating my father and my grandfather. >> we said, "you can't sell this painting. it's ours. it's stolen." [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]
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>> i'm jamie colby in los angeles, on my way to see two brothers and their surprise inheritance, works by some of the world's greatest artists. the nazis stole these masterpieces, and the heirs' fight to get them back uncovered something more -- their family's hidden history. >> my name is simon goodman, and this is my brother, nick. when our father died, we got some old cardboard boxes in the mail. >> hi, simon. i'm jamie. >> simon goodman. delighted to meet you, jamie. >> simon invites me into his beverly hills home. >> jamie, these are two pieces that i'm very proud of, a drawing and an engraving by renoir. >> renoir? >> yes, yes, the man himself, the great impressionist. >> you must have quite the collecting family. >> this is really just the beginning of a big story. >> it starts in london after world war ii.
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from an early age, simon and nick regard their dad as an often gloomy man of mystery. what did dad do for a living? >> not really sure. he was a manufacturer's agent, whatever that meant, but it allowed him to go to europe all the time. >> did he ever take you on these trips? >> yes, especially in the summer, but we would get parked on a beach, usually with our mother or a nanny, and dad would disappear somewhere. >> the boys learn that questions about their father's past are off limits. because, if you did, what would happen? >> he sunk into an even worse funk. there was something fuming in there, and it was all bottled up. >> the brothers know next to nothing about their dad's family. simon remembers having all sorts of questions about his grandparents. what were you told? >> they died. >> that's it? >> that's really it. they died during the war. i questioned my mother about it, and she said, "i strongly recommend you not bring it up." >> his father does explain
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one thing, the reason that he, as a young immigrant from holland, changed his name on the eve of world war ii. your dad is gutmann. >> yes. >> you're goodman. how'd that happen? >> he thought being called berhard eugen friedrich gutmann sounded a little too german, so he changed his name to bernard eugene goodman. >> did you ever ask your parents if you were jewish? >> yes, because my brother and i -- this is interesting -- have different experiences here because he's he's blond and blue-eyed. i'm olive-skinned. my name is simon goodman. everybody assumed i was jewish. >> did you practice judaism growing up? >> no, my mother had had me christened in the church of england. >> did that seem odd? >> it did seem odd. as usual, my mother interceded. she said, "well, yes, some of your family had been jewish originally." and that's about as much as i knew. >> in the early '70s, simon and nick, now in their 20s, both moved to los angeles to pursue careers
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in the music business. the distance between father and sons grows ever greater, especially after their parents divorce in 1973. >> as we got older, he actually shut down more, so it became harder and harder to get any information out of him. >> i grew up with this mostly silent father. he could talk to me about cricket and innocuous subjects. i needed to know who i was, where our family came from. >> bernard goodman dies in 1994 at age 80 without providing an answer. but three months after their father's death, the brothers receive a mysterious shipment of boxes filled with old papers that reveal their father's secret history. >> my grandparents were murdered in concentration camps. >> the nazis took everything, not just the famous artworks, but everything. >> but first, our "strange inheritance"
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quiz question. which allied leader during world war ii was an accomplished painter? winston churchill, franklin roosevelt, or josef stalin? the answer after the break. ♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ can i kick it? ♪ yes you can ♪ well i'm gone when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.
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for $3 million. >> in los angeles, brothers simon and nick goodman are sorting through boxes that came in the mail from the estate of their late father, bernard. >> all these old letters, and many more, were in those original boxes my brother and i received, yes, and these passports, old diaries. >> they uncover a secret family history tracing back to their grandfather, fritz gutmann, who was born in germany in 1886 into a jewish banking dynasty. they learn that fritz was a passionate art collector. >> extraordinary works of art by some of the great masters. >> for example? >> well, guardi, botticelli, degas. >> are you thinking this is unbelievable? >> this suddenly appeared as the tip of the iceberg. >> they find this photo of a 30-room mansion
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near amsterdam, where their father grew up along with his little sister, lily. then they uncover the horrifying facts that their father had kept from them. in 1940, bernard is 26 and serving in the british army after graduating from cambridge university. in april that year, hitler invades norway and denmark. bernard fears the nazis will soon head west into holland, where his parents are still living. >> he sent a few cables back to holland, saying, "please come to england." >> bernard's sister, lily, takes refuge in italy with her italian husband, but their parents refuse to leave. >> my grandfather was rather stubborn, and he had built a beautiful home full of wonderful things. he didn't just want to up and leave it and run. >> the german armies then swept over holland. >> in may 1940, the nazis cross the border into holland.
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as part of their conquest, they begin targeting jewish art collectors, including grandpa fritz. >> this is the last nazi inventory, room by room, of my grandparents' home in holland. >> oh, my goodness! >> so this lists everything. >> so i see chippendale tables and paintings and -- >> yes, yes, yes. >> the nazis loot more than 1,200 items -- paintings, silver, jewelry, and antiques such as this rare 16th-century clock given to fritz by his late father, eugen. >> the nazis took everything, not just the famous artworks, but everything. >> nick and simon find records showing the nazis forced their grandfather to sell the items recorded on the list, worth many millions of dollars, for pennies. >> the germans, in their meticulousness, had paid my grandfather for the contents of the house. they didn't want to just take it. they want your signature
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on a piece of paper that says you sold it to them. [ dramatic music plays ] >> the nazis begin deporting dutch jews to concentration camps in the summer of 1942. in may 1943, ss agents arrive at the gutmann estate, arrest fritz and his wife, louise, and place them on a train bound for berlin. there, fritz is brought before nazi officials, who order him to sign over the gutmann family's massive silver collection. he refuses. >> so, after he refuses to sign, the train from berlin heads south, and they're let out in the concentration camp of theresienstadt. my grandfather refused one last time to sign over the silver. he's, by one eyewitness account, beaten to death by the wall outside the small fortress at the edge of the camp. >> what happened to your grandmother? >> sadly, a month or two after
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my grandfather was murdered, she was put on a transport train to auschwitz, where i learned she was murdered the day she arrived. >> the brothers learn that, when the war in europe ends in may 1945, their dad returns to his childhood home in holland. >> he went to the house. everything was gone. >> he grew up thinking he was going to inherit this fabulous estate, and the war comes along. he loses everything. his parents are murdered. >> and now i understand. it became his task in life to try and piece together what might be left of the family estate. >> the documents in those boxes show that in 1946, their father begins filing claims with various european governments, including the netherlands, to reclaim his family's stolen art. he also reaches out to the allies' art recovery team,
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called the monuments men, whose story was told in the 2014 film starring george clooney and matt damon. nick and simon discover that their father had direct correspondence with a french woman named rose valland, the inspiration for cate blanchett's character in the film. >> what is all this? >> people's lives. >> she helped keep track of all the looted paintings that the nazis were stealing from the various collections, and at night, she would go and photograph all the paintings and make surreptitious lists of everything. >> this photo from the gutmann estate in holland shows a painting by swiss-french artist jean-etienne liotard. bernard and rose track it down to austrian salt mines, where hitler stored stolen art. bernard recovers this painting and others, but then sells them to fund his ongoing operation. how devoted to the quest
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do you think he was, now that you know what you know? >> it was his lifetime mission. this is what he was all about, trying to find his family heritage. >> bernard goodman continues the search until his death in 1994. he never tells his sons what he was doing. >> never. >> why not? >> because, if he'd really felt that he'd achieved what he set out to achieve, he could've told us and been proud about it. instead, i think, he felt defeated. >> as the brothers discover where their father's quest ended, they come across an envelope containing three crinkled photo negatives. >> this is an unusual landscape by edgar degas. >> the degas? >> the degas. >> next thing they know, they're following in their father's footsteps on the trail of another masterpiece. >> everybody just closed the doors in our faces all the time.
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nobody knew anything about nazi looted art. nobody wanted to know anything about it. >> was it the money? >> no, it's justice. it's about vindicating my father and my grandfather. >> here's another quiz question for you. a young adolf hitler failed the entrance exam at the vienna academy of fine arts. why? he was color-blind? he failed at drawing the human form? or his drawings were too violent? the answer when we return.
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left to them by their father, brothers simon and nick goodman are piecing together a secret family history. among their father's papers, they find a list of paintings, looted by the nazis, that he was still searching for, along with three tattered photo negatives. >> i'm afraid they're a bit wrinkled. they've been around since world war ii. >> why would that be in the file? >> it was an envelope of negatives, and there was a letter nearby that explained that rose valland had taken these photos during the nazi occupation of paris. >> one of them shows a painting listed as "paysage," meaning landscape in french. it appears to be the work of edward degas, the 19th-century impressionist master best known for depicting ballet dancers. what is is like looking at a negative of a degas... >> mm-hmm. >> ...and knowing
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that it belonged to your family? >> well, it was huge, and then it became clear we had to do our homework. >> to find a match to that timeworn negative, the brothers pore through art books and auction catalogs. >> after, well, a month or two, i finally hit pay dirt. >> what'd you find? >> i found this "degas landscapes," and, lo and behold... >> it's in the book? >> ...there it is, in color. i nearly fell off my chair when i found this. >> simon discovers that the painting had been on loan to the art institute of chicago. >> it listed who the current owner was. >> who was it? >> it says here, mr. and mrs. daniel searle. >> records show that in 1987, daniel searle, a chicago pharmaceuticals magnate, bought the painting from a private collector for 850 grand, so the brothers inform searle that they want
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their family's painting back. >> they said, "well, go away," you know, "who are you? we bought this fair and square." >> searle's lawyers point out that simon and nick's grandfather's name, fritz gutmann, is absent from the painting's chain of custody. true, but the list of owners does include a german art dealer, hans wendland, who did business with the nazis. >> the degas was taken from my grandfather's storage unit in paris and smuggled to switzerland because the strange thing was, the nazis didn't like impressionist paintings, so what they would do is they'd send those to switzerland, and they'd either get old masters in return or actually hard currency. >> in 1998, facing a costly legal battle, the brothers settle out of court for about $250,000. as part of the deal, daniel searle donates the degas to the art institute of chicago.
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>> the art institute of chicago today lists it clearly as "donated by daniel searle," but from the collection of fritz and louise gutmann. my grandfather didn't just die for nothing. he didn't just disappear. >> it's a landmark case, the first dispute over nazi-looted art settled in the us. >> the case renewed hope to families who might not have recovered property after world war ii, that indeed they could recover property. >> and as you're about to see, the goodman brothers' first victory makes them all the more eager to complete their father's quest. >> we went, "oh, my god! there's, like, at least two dozen paintings, some serious pieces of art." i thought, "this belongs to us. we'll find it." >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. you know who likes to be
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♪ >> now, back to "strange inheritance." >> brothers nick and simon goodman are on a mission to recover their family's valuable art collection looted by the nazis. after reclaiming one of their grandfather's most sought-after paintings, this degas landscape, they're on the hunt for more. >> my did didn't give up for 40 or 50 years, so we were just carrying on the family tradition. >> their next target, a painting by the italian renaissance master sandro botticelli, listed in their father's records with the title "portrait of a young man." as luck would have it, the botticelli almost appears out of thin air. >> we get a call from a friend who just said, "i saw your botticelli. it's in a sotheby's catalog coming up for sale in a couple of weeks." >> where? >> in new york. they actually had my grandfather's name in the provenance, listed on the catalog.
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we said, "you can't sell this painting. it's ours. it's stolen." >> after some negotiation, the seller agrees to pay the goodmans a little over $100,000, about one-sixth the painting's value at the time. while not ideal, the settlement avoids a costly legal battle. the painting itself ends up at the denver art museum. >> do you do it for the money, or to right a wrong? >> oh, to right a wrong. i mean, money's great, but it's our family heritage. >> then, in 2002, after decades of dispute, the dutch government finally returns more than 250 artworks and antiques to the goodmans that have been tangled up in red tape since world war ii. the heirlooms are stockpiled in a warehouse, where simon, nick, and their 83-year-old aunt, lily, who escaped to italy during the war, are invited to visit. >> they'd arranged our furniture as it might have been in a home. i led her to this old
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chaise longue. she said, "oh, look! i remember this!" and i said, "well, it's ours again." >> oh! >> "sit. relax for a minute." i helped her sit in her mother's chaise longue. >> we picked things out that we wanted, so simon has things in his house. i have things in my house, and lily and her family have stuff in italy. >> in 2003, the more than 160 remaining items from the collection go up for sale at christie's in london and amsterdam. this flemish tapestry hammers in at $85,000. a silver gilt double cup goes for 600,000, and this 17th-century silver gilt pitcher -- just over a million. the total, more than $4 million. is there more, simon? >> there's probably at least 12 important paintings
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and about 300 or more antiques. >> and, clearly, you won't quit. >> no, i'm very grateful that i'm able to uncover my real roots. through this art, i get to know what my family was like, and i can touch something they touched. >> and remember this 16th-century table clock looted by the nazis from the gutmann estate in holland? after simon tracked it down to a german museum, the museum agreed to pay his family about a million dollars for it, and simon got something else that you can't put a price tag on -- an apology. "we regret what happened to your family," the museum director told simon. "we are grateful, however, for the opportunity to set at least this matter straight." i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching
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"strange inheritance." and remember, you can't take it with you. show show. >> abby: have a good saturday everybody. >> i spent a great deal of time on this, a better part of a year our position hasn't changed since day one and i think we are seeing new that if there was any collusion with russia it was between the dnc and the clintons and certainly not our campaign. >> dagen: after months of investigations there's still no proof the trump campaign colluded with russia, but what did we learn this week? an explosive report out of the washington post showing hillary clinton's campaign and the dnc helped to fund that russian anti -trump dossier. collusion, no collusion, john layfield says enough stop this nonsense on both sides and get working for the american people. hi everybody i'm dagen
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