About The Art of Crime
The Art of Crime, known in France as L'Art du crime, is a French crime procedural that premiered on France 2 in 2017. Each season pairs cases drawn from the world of fine art and the lives of famous artists with a self-contained investigation, splitting its episodes into two-part stories that each revolve around a particular painter, sculptor, or cultural treasure. The series is produced for France's public broadcaster and has become a steady fixture of the channel's prime-time lineup, returning for new seasons across several years.
At the centre of the show is an odd-couple partnership. Antoine Verlay is a brash, impatient police investigator reassigned to the OCBC, the unit that handles thefts and crimes connected to cultural property. To navigate a world he barely understands, he is paired with Florence Chassagne, a brilliant but anxious art-history researcher whose encyclopaedic knowledge of artists and their eras becomes essential to cracking each case. Their contrasting temperaments, his bluntness against her erudition and nerves, supply much of the series' warmth and humour.
A recurring stylistic signature is Florence's vivid imaginings of long-dead artists, who appear to her as she works through the historical puzzle behind a modern crime. These sequences let the show stage moments from art history while keeping the tone light and accessible rather than graphic. Across its run the series balances a cosy, character-driven procedural rhythm with a genuine affection for museums, masterpieces, and the stories behind them, making it a comfortable watch for fans of European mystery television.
