‘The Thief Collector’ Blu-Ray Review – Unbelievable Art Heist Documentary Takes A Wrong Turn

In 1985, Willem de Kooning’s “Woman-Ochre,” one of the most valuable paintings of the 20th century, was cut from its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. 32 years later, the painting was found hanging in a New Mexico home.

For thoughts on The Thief Collector, please check out my colleague Mike Vaughn’s review from its original theatrical release here.

 Video Quality

The Thief Collector comes to Blu-Ray in its original aspect ratio from a great high definition master. The film is a mixture of new interviews and reenactments with excerpts from archival footage and news reports interspersed for context. The footage of the old videotape material seems to be the strongest version of it that would be possible, but VHS quality can only get you so far on the quality scale. The new interview footage looks sleek and detailed in high definition. The transfer appears to have plenty of room to breathe and there are no issues with compression artifacts, banding or other such digital nuisances. The colors on display are natural and vibrant as they liven up the screen. Interview segments look crisp and clear depending on the filming conditions with natural skin tones and distinct facial features. Black levels are  deep and give way to a nice amount of detail in any shadowy areas. It is difficult to see how this disc could have been improved visually. This is unlikely to displease anyone.  

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a great DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that captures the material perfectly well. Dialogue is the most important aspect of the film, and it is balanced well with competing sounds. While some filming locations are more stable than others, the track rarely lacks when it comes to clarity. The occasional peccadillos of the locations they chose to film in provides a nice base texture to the proceedings with ambient sounds placed well in the rear channels. The score is well rendered here as it flows through the room with flawless fidelity. The audio track is not kicked into high gear with this content, but it delivers the information clearly enough to provide a terrific time. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided on this disc. 

Special Features

• Photo Gallery: A collection of images from the film are provided here. 

• Extended Interviews: A lengthy selection of unused interviews are provided here which provide much more depth to the insights from various figures that is well worth a watch for anyone who liked the movie. 

• • Extended Interviews #1 (29:10)

• • Extended Interviews #2 (23:15)

• Trailer: The minute-and-a-half long trailer is provided here. 

Final Thoughts

The Thief Collector is a very compelling documentary which does a fine job of presenting this incredible story to a point, but there are certain creative liberties taken near the end which causes the experience to turn towards the frustrating. The intention to shock the audience robs the film of its honesty as we and the filmmakers know it, and not even the hilarity of the reenactments can completely make up for this fact. The film gets more right than it does not, but there are lessons to be learned here by the filmmaker when wrestling with subjectivity in the future. FilmRise has released a new Blu-Ray that features a very strong A/V presentation and even some extensive supplemental features. If you are a documentary fan, there is enough here to recommend a viewing to make up your own mind on the approach. 

The Thief Collector will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD on August 15, 2023. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: FilmRise and MVD Entertainment have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.