Canada’s most infamous art and antiquities thief has reportedly died, and his death -- much like his life -- remains shrouded in mystery.

Did this infamous art thief fake his own death?

6 x 1 hour True Crime Factual Series

In Development at Arcadia

A Neo-Nazi criminal mastermind

Russian Ogliarchs

Daring and deeply deceptive capers

A lifetime of heists

A missing treasure trove

A faked death

And a story, lost and hidden, whispering and waiting to be told

In February 2019 rumours started

to spread. Soon investigative news reported that John Tillmann, an epic art and antiquities thief, had mysteriously died on December 28th, 2018... or possibiliy December 23rd... confusion and mystery followed leaving more questions than answers.

Did the final chapter in the saga of John Mark Tillmann play out like the rest of his life -- shrouded in mystery?

Is the man, whose infamous legacy was riddled with secrets, now laid to rest in a quiet churchyard?

How much loot remains unaccounted for?

Has everything been put back to right?

Or did Tillmann disappear underground with unimagined resources and wealth to set the stage for his biggest heists ever?

In a quiet churchyard in a rural area of the Halifax, Canada lies a peaceful cemetery. Near the back, not far from the surrounding orchards and pasture, lies a relatively new grave, laid down just before the new year 2019. It has a year of birth… but no date of death.

The stone, while not overly elaborate, speaks volumes about the man who now supposedly lies there -- a man most of the world came to know through breathless media accounts about six years earlier.

John Mark Tillmann (See Wikipedia Entry) made headlines around the world when media reported that a routine traffic stop in July 2012 led police to a treasure trove of stolen artifacts tucked away in his Fall River, Nova Scotia, home worth millions and records to reveal this was only a tiny fraction of a treasure trove of immeasurable value.

It turned out Tillmann had made a lifetime career of stealing, wheeling, and dealing thousands of items lifted from museums, galleries, universities and private homes.

The eclectic collection of items police found in plain view included a suit of armour, a 7000-year-old Native American stone gouge, oil paintings and watercolors, tapestries, rare books, sculptures, rare documents and a trove of other ancient and old miscellaneous items.

Nothing was off limits. He took paintings, pictures, antiques, gold, jewels, and even letters written by George Washington and Gen. James Wolfe.

The question is, what remains lost and hidden?

In 2013, Tillmann pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property, along with numerous other charges, and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

“I have great support and friends that have been with me since the beginning,” Tillmann said in an interview with CTV News in

2016, just after he had been granted full parole after serving less than three years. Even his prison experience is marked by confusing and unexpected moves and privileges.

The media both accepted the given narrative and marveled in the mystery. Here’s a typical article from McCleans

Maybe the most astonishing part of this mystery is the willingness of the police and major media outlets to simply accept and repeat Tillmann’s telling of the story. His framing always seduced those in authority. Here’s a typical article from Canada’s Globe and Mail where a normal questioning reporter seems to just fall under his storytelling spell and repeat everything Tillmann says. Even the police seem to accept that Tillmann has voluntarily told them everything and returned all he stole simply out of a new-found honesty after a lifetime of lies.

There are many known leads the police never followed up on, like this art gallery owner, still waiting to be interviewed.

Tillmann gave many boastful and bombastic interviews with the media. He said he was addicted to the rush of stealing and the benefits that came with it.

“When someone buys something, it's much like a drug in that type of business, because they get hooked on it, and they want new things constantly,” said Tillmann.

“I was hooked, too. Yeah, to be honest, I was hooked, too. I loved the stuff, and I loved the lifestyle that the stuff brought me as well.”

But Tillmann remained a mysterious figure who was deeply suspicious of others.

In a rambling, seven-page letter to his son, filed as evidence in Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Tillmann urged the young man to keep strangers out of the house.

“After my death, nobody at all, other than yourself, should have access to, or be alone in my former residence,” he wrote. “This is how things go missing after the death of someone.”

Tillmann also left specific instructions on his funeral, insisting it be private.

“At my burial, it is my wish to have again, only immediate family members, including a spouse if applicable,” he wrote.

That spouse turned out to be the daughter of a Russian oligarch with whom he as been implicated in major thefts from the Cairo Museum in Egypt and all over Europe.

Somewhere John Tillmann married this mysterious Slavic woman from Moscow. Her name was Oxana Kuzina, a native of Suzdal, or maybe Katya Anastasia Zhestokova a Russian University Student. Someone is constantly changing the name online and even in Wikipedia. At any rate, he brought his wife to Halifax, then they went back to Moscow and taveled the world.

They acted roles together in museum heists much like a Bonnie and Clyde type couple and later incorporated her brother Vladimir to the team, where they traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, North and South America. He claimed in media interviews he and his Russian wife would sometimes even take time out to have sex during some of their more risky heists.

His team were regarded as criminal specialists, with Kuzina acting as a distraction, her brother Vladimir being an expert in computer hacking and alarms disabling, with Tillmann being the mastermind and main organizer of the countless heists they performed. Tillmann's sister in an interview said, "The guy is a genius, that's the way he's always been, ever since he was a child." In November 2001, Tillmann incorporated a Canadian company called Prussia Import & Export Inc, which authorities believe he used to launder money that he and his wife earned from transactions in black market stolen artwork.

Even though Tillmann had seemingly cooperated with authorities while incarcerated, he steadfastly refused to disclose the identities of his wife and brother in-law and it has been reported that they have not been apprehended by western law enforcement, believed to be still living within the Russian Federation.

Two special prosecutors were tasked with handling the huge and complex legal case, with one of them remarking of Tillmann; "He was clearly intelligent enough to amass a false empire over years...and it's a shame ultimately for him and for society that he didn't use that to different ends."

Rumours of his demise circulated for weeks. Family and close associates would only confirm they had heard the stories, too.

Tillmann's death certificate, registered now with the Vital Statistics Division of Service Nova Scotia, says he died in Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S., just two days before Christmas.

The date, December 23rd, is significant. It is exactly the date of death and birth of Tillmann's Nazi SS hero Kurt Myer. Could this be a sly, hidden in plain sight, message that Tillmann "died" and was born again into a new life of crime?

Kurt Myer's story is bizzare. Captured by Canadian forces in Normandy June 1944, he was brought to Canada and tried for crimes against humanity. Convicted, and as the firing squad loaded their guns in the prison yard, his years of open defiance broke and he pleaded for clemancy. It was granted. The guns were lowered. Imprisoned through the 1950's he was eventually released, returned to Germany and contributed more to reforming and refining the Nazi movement than any other wartime offical.

More bizzare, Tillmann spent his prison sentence in the same Canadian prison where Myer once lived out his sentence.

Tillmann's cause of death is not revealed. In fact, everything about his 'death', which was not even reported until two months after, is a cloud of confusion.

None of this surprises Const. Hector Lloyd, who was the RCMP’s lead investigator who helped put Tillmann behind bars.

“He’s probably the most interesting person that I’ve had the occasion to investigate in my career so far,” said Lloyd, who works for the Edmonton Police Service. “As far as my impression of Tillmann, he was fairly secretive and kept to himself … whatever the narrative behind his passing, that’s for him and his family.”

“All ordinary people can be made to believe the most absurd of situations given the right props, the right confidence, the right look,

the right acting.”

Tillmann referred to his robberies as “missions” as though he were starring in an action-packed heist movie.

That idea isn’t much of a stretch. He was an expert manipulator and planner, often using elaborate disguises – including custom props and accessories – in order to get museum officials to trust him.

On certain occasions, John Tillman even invited family members to join him. I guess he enjoyed the experience of stealing so much that he wanted to share it with the people closest to him. Later on, when he was asked about the theft of a 200-year-old watercolor from the Nova Scotia Legislature, Tillman recalled, quote, “this is one of my more favorite heists because it employed my mother, and it went very well. What we did is we dressed up as maintenance people on that thing with overalls, caps, names on our jackets, and we also had radios clipped on our belts.

So, we had a van parked outside for the occasion and a telescopic ladder type device and we went in and we pretended to be maintenance people.”

He climbed the ladder and took the painting straight from the wall. Incredibly, Tillmann was so convincing that a member of the provincial legislature held the door for him on the way out. Tilmann told CBC, “all ordinary people can be made to believe the most absurd of situations given the right props, the right confidence, the right look, the right acting.”

While he was in prison, Tillmann had an idea.

“I have a book that I took the time while I was in prison to write, and I think that's going to be a pretty good expose, from my perspective of what transpired,” he said in 2016.

And so it might have been.

Originally slated for release, Nimbus Publishing pulled the plug.

“The Tillmann book was canceled last fall. There was no dispute over proceeds; they were always to go to charity", Nimbus Publishing general manager Terrilee Bulger wrote in an e-mail. Could the unpublished book hold clues to Tillmann’s Treasure and the mystery of his death?

Tillmann’s political views, described by some as anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi, and white supremacist, make matters even more complicated. He made no apologies for any of it. In fact, his headstone proudly declares “his ancestors came from Nordic Europe.”

Media began reporting Tillmann as a Neo-Nazi Art Thief.

When asked in 2016 if he would do it again, Tillmann said “no.”

He continued cryptically, “I've had some great memories that I'll take to my grave. I've lived well. I've been in beautiful spots. I've held history in my hands -- priceless objects. I have great memories, and I can live in those now. I don't need to go back out and do anything like that again.”

Now a series of unimaginable heists in Europe have been flagged with the signature methods and style of John Tillmann and his crew with lost treasures valued in the billions.

Did the final chapter in the saga of John Mark Tillmann play out like the rest of his life -- shrouded in mystery? Is the man, whose infamous legacy was riddled with secrets, now laid to rest in a quiet churchyard? How much loot remains unaccounted for? What was robbed from people and institutions so rich or distracted they might still not even known it’s missing? Or did Tillmann disappear underground to set the stage for his biggest heists ever?

Investigator and adventurer John Wesley Chisholm grew up on the other side of the tracks from Tillmann. They lived in the same town together but took very different life paths. Where Tillmann stole and hid history away for profit, John Wesley has dedicated his life to looking for things that are lost and bringing their stories to life – shipwrecks, treasures, Knights Templar, and biblical mysteries, even the famous Woodstock Bus now restored and inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame after the Woodstock 50th anniversary. His work, searching for lost and hidden things, has been seen in TV series and specials around the world on National Geographic, Discovery, and History TV.

John Wesley is returning to his hometown and the biggest international mystery he’s ever taken on. It’s not easy to find a treasure that doesn’t want to be found, or a person with the means and motive to remain hidden, even beyond the grave. And there may be many people who want to keep the secrets of Tillmann’s treasure buried for their own reasons. For the authorities too, they’d like to put this calamity of crime behind them. Tillmann worked not in the shadows but was hidden in plain sight where no one was looking.

For others in Tillmann’s story their greatest fear is that he is not dead. Many terrorized and skeptical people from his past have come out since the reports of his death to share harrowing tales. Ex-lovers, neighbours, family, even officials within the police have stories to tell. Many were terrorized by and terrified of this person whose sister described him as a genuine evil genius.

Now, before the trail goes cold and the people, places, and artifacts are again forgotten, John Wesley is on a global hunt to track Tillmann and his treasure trove of history.

John Wesley will employ a team of investigators and contacts from Russia, Eygpt, Europe and the US. He'll revisit the kids and connections he and Tillmann grew up with from old friends who never left their hometown to an international criminal enforcer now semi-retired in Columbia. Ex-CIA investigators, Canada’s biggest private investigation firm, Money Laundering experts, and even a well-known psychic remote viewer will help with the work.

Along the way he’ll explore how the country's most daring antique thief amassed a fortune through surprising crimes of opportiunity and big showy capers with Hollywood style plots.

Canadian officials are still working to find the rightful owners of much of what they know was left behind.

That was the complex scenario taken on by Canadian authorities who came to New York to recover one of Tillmann’s stangest spoils - an original annotated first edition copy of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”, which was returned to the Canadians through U.S. Customs and Homeland Security Investigations.

Recovering the book was a joint operation by U.S Customs and Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Nova Scotia, who met at the Canadian Consul General’s office for a press conference where the book was formally returned.

Charles Darwin’s fully titled “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life,” was one of three Darwin books taken from a locked glass cabinet in Nova Scotia’s Mount Saint Vincent University Library in 2012. Tillmann sold the book to a Canadian collector who later sold off the book at a Sotheby’s New York auction in June 2012 for $42,500.

The book was only the tip of the iceberg. Even Tillmann’s home museum of stolen goods represtents only a small fraction of Tillmann's Treasure. Tillmann, 51, also stole and sold countless other antiques around Nova Scotia, Canada, and the world, barely leaving a single antique store, museum or library untouched.

Authorities say they began investigating Tillmann after a police officer performing a routine traffic stop noticed a 1750’s letter written by British General James Wolfe sitting conspicuously on the seat of Tillmann’s car. But even that story from police doesn’t add up. Canadian police eventually gained a warrant to search Tillmann’s home for about 12 stolen objects. Again, the warrant poses more questions than answers. Eventually, the investigating team recovered about 10,000 objects there. The investigation itself is a labyrinth of mystery.

“It took us seven days to search that property,” said lead RCMP Investigator Daryl Morgan. ““He was fairly confident and cocky that he was able to get off scot-free.” Tillmann’s spoils ranged in both size, style, and cost — with pieces ranging in estimated values of $500 to upwards of $100,000. Noteworthy items on Tillmann’s laundry list of stolen objects included: a suit of armor, valuable paintings, jewels, and even a letter penned by George Washington.

“His place was like a museum,” said Morgan. Everything was on display. Tillmann was OCD, so he kept labels next to the items that were on display in his house.” Labels often included item names, dates and values for the items, allowing authorities to trace the objects. “That kind of worked against him at the end of the day.” He also made elaborate videos of the stolen goods with narratives of his exploits.

According to Morgan, Tillmann used elaborate plans for his heists from disguises to using his mother as a distraction while casing and stealing objects.

“He would go and have tea with these people and then he would steal their cutlery,” said Morgan.

Tillmann’s house was also featured in a magazine before his arrest — with a large number of the stolen goods plainly visible in the photographs, one even including a suit of armor. Despite this, the publication managed to fly under the radar of Tillmann’s victims and authorities.

Canada’s most infamous art and antiquities thief has reportedly died, and his death -- much like his life -- remains shrouded in mystery.

Only now that Tillmann has disappeared is the real scope and scale of his life’s work becoming clear as those around him – family, neighbours, authorities, and victims - begin to speak out.

Police and others have speculated that Tillmann may have been able to successfully stash away large amounts of cash and artwork that has never been recovered.

He is flagged on worldwide museum security bulletins and is listed on the official website of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

What of Tillmann’s treasures are yet to be found?

How did he get away with it all for so long?

Who are the lifelong accomplices he boasted about?

Where are his Russian accomplice wife and brother-in-law?

Who are the trolls who continue to edit-battle on his Wikipedia Page and what do they know?

Did Tillmann take these secrets to the grave or did he fake his own death and abscond to Russia or some mega-yacht globe-haunting life without a country?

Tracking

Tillmann

Episodes

1. Tracking the story as it appeared in the media and Tracking Tillmann Back to his hometown
2. Tracking beyond the grave - faked death
3. Tracking the family
4. Tracking help from the pros
5. Tracking Ghost Heists and Leads across the Globe
6. Tracking Tillmann's business, properties, connections, and Tillmann's Treasure
   

9 x 1 hour True Crime Factual Series

In Development at Arcadia