The Thief Collector

Wednesday, Prime Video Allison Otto’s deliciously speculative documentary tells the peculiar story of Jerry and Rita Alter. A firm clearing the couple’s New Mexico house after their deaths found a Willem de Kooning painting stolen 30 years earlier. So who were the globetrotting music teacher and his speech therapist wife? The truth remains tantalisingly out of reach, but with reconstructions played for laughs and excerpts from Jerry’s possibly autobiographical crime fiction, it’s an entertaining thread to follow.