Did the Tate pay a £3.5 million ransom to get back two of its greatest Turner paintings? It was a cloak-and-dagger operation. “A sizeable chunk of the cash they handed to the German authorities went to pay a chain of informers and middlemen for ‘information’ on the paintings, now worth around £50 million. But the Tate insists no ransom was paid nor were criminals rewarded, at least not directly by them or by the two former Metropolitan policemen they employed.”