CAST:
Ann Bell - Natasha
Peter Bowles - Serge
Nadja Regin - Lucille
Geoffrey Bayldon - Marcel Legrand
James Maxwell - Joseph
Philo Hauser - Hans
Richard Shaw - Gunter
Garfield Morgan - Mundt
Bryan Kendrick - Bernard

Directed by Roy Baker; Screenplay by Michael Pertwee

STORY:
In Paris Simon makes the acquaintance of Natasha Ivanova. She is in the possession of three unknown da Vinci paintings. She has contacted Paris' most respected art dealer Marcel Legrand to sell the paintings to him. When Legrand arrives the next day Templar knows that something is wrong: he immediately know that he's an impostor because Simon knows Legrand well. Two parties are after the paintings... Russians and Germans... but are they all criminals?

NOTES:
* Ann Bell also appears in Episode #56 "The Inescapable Word"
* Peter Bowles also appears in Episode #41 "Lida"
* Geoffrey Bayldon also appears in Episode #43 "The Scorpion"
* James Maxwell also appears in Episode #56 "The Inescapable Word"
* Philo Hauser also appears in Episode #48 "The Death Penalty"
* Richard Shaw also appears in Episode #50 "The Hi-Jackers"
*  This column-surrounded doorway can be seen in Episode #75 "The Reluctant Revolution", in Episode #89 "The Art Collectors"
*   The double doors were frequently used as a set item in the colour episodes. In this episode they are shown twice (with different doors).

Leslie Charteris, 5th October 1966: <<What kind of paintings are we talking about that would occupy a crate big enough to hold Roger Moore? And ... why don't they notice that it is 180 lbs. lighter (the Saint having stepped out)?
If the pictures "wrapped in a rug," could lie on the back seat, they obviously couldn't be as huge as indicated above. And who wrapped them? Having been fooled once, wouldn't Serge make damn sure he had the real pictures this time...?>> (Barer, p.143)
Leslie Charteris, 20th October 1966: <<I note that my constructive suggestions were ... stolidly ignored, leaving me with a dream-like feeling that the memo might as well have been addressed to Santa Claus at the North Pole, if indeed it reached you at all. It will certainly make me think twice about wasting my time again trying to contribute anything.
It seems to me that this may all have gone through while you were on holiday and Junkin may have been in sole sway. Which would explain everything.>> (Barer, p.145)

AIRDATE:
UK: 13th January 1967

GERMAN TITLE:
Die Kunstsammler

AVAILABLE ON:
* DVD (NTSC): AAE-70349 (2001)