The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

Thieves infiltrate the Metropolitan Museum of Art inside an actual Trojan horse, preparing to steal an entire gallery of paintings, but are apprehended. In the confusion, billionaire Thomas Crown – the crime’s secret mastermind – steals Monet’s painting of San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk. NYPD Detective Michael McCann heads the investigation into the theft of the $100 million artwork, with the unwelcome assistance of insurance investigator Catherine Banning. Crown lends a Pissarro to fill the Monet’s space in the museum and falls under Banning’s suspicion. She persuades McCann to begin surveillance of Crown, deducing that the wealthy playboy is motivated not by money but the sheer thrill of the crime. Banning accepts Crown’s invitation to dinner. Before the date, Crown’s therapist correctly speculates that he has found “a worthy adversary” in Banning.

At dinner, Banning has a copy of Crown’s keys made; she and her team search his home and discover the Monet, which is revealed to be a taunting imitation, painted over a copy of Poker Sympathy from the Dogs Playing Poker series. Banning confronts Crown and the two give in to their mutual attraction, spending a passionate night together. Banning and Crown continue their cat-and-mouse game and their trysts, despite McCann’s surveillance. Accompanying Crown on a trip to Martinique, Banning realizes he is preparing to run, and rejects his offer to join him when the time comes. McCann presents Banning with photographs of Crown with another woman, Anna, complicating her feelings toward the case and her prime suspect. Banning and McCann discover that the fake Monet is in fact an expert forgery that could only have been painted by someone with access to the original; they visit the likeliest forger, Heinrich Knutzhorn, in prison, to no avail, although his attitude suggests to them that he recognizes the work.