“The tendrils of this story reach all around the globe,” journalist Marc Fennell said of his binge-worthy investigative documentary, The Mission.
SBS has announced a brand new documentary series set to resurface Australia’s strangest art heist. Titled The Mission, the three-part series will follow award-winning journalist Marc Fennell as he investigates the decades-old case of dozens of stolen European artworks from a gallery in Western Australia in the 1980s.
The historic case left detectives baffled after million-dollar masterpieces were taken from the walls of a monastery in New Norcia in the West Australian wheat belt.
The Mission will see Fennell piece together the questions left in the wake of the heist, from the bizarre location of the gallery to the identity of the thief and the plot to smuggle the artworks out of the country.
Fennell’s investigation will trace him from the dusty WA outback to the bustling streets of New York and London, with a pit-stop reserved for a presidential palace.
Along the way, Fennell will unearth unseen documents and evidence relating to the heist, as well as interviewing some of those involved in it.
The docuseries will blend archival footage with dramatised reenactments, with the first episode set to premiere at 8:30pm on SBS on October 24. The remaining episodes will air weekly, with SBS on Demand viewers able to binge The Mission in full on October 24.
“The Mission is the epicentre of multiple crimes committed over generations that range from the farcical to the downright evil,” Fennell teased of The Mission in a press statement. “The tendrils of this story reach all around the globe, but their roots lie in some of the darkest chapters of our own nation.”
In addition to The Mission, Fennel has spearheaded fellow investigative documentaries like the Hillsong Church expose The Kingdom, and the art heist series Framed.
Watch a teaser preview of The Mission above, and be sure to catch the series when it premieres on SBS on October 24.
