Museum Secrets

Come with us to the world’s finest museums to uncover secrets dark and strange. The newest museums added to the series include the Smithsonian Institution, Madrid’s Palacio Real, the Chateau of Versailles, the Israel Museum, the National Maritime Museum in London, Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, Tunis...

The Smithsonian Institution; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The American Museum of Natural History; and the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: Established in 1846 by a scientist named James Smithson, The Smithsonian is the largest museum and research com...

Berlin's Museum Island, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

BERLIN: On the famed “Museum Island” in the river that winds through Berlin are five world-class museums that display antiquities from prehistory to the mid 20th Century.

VIENNA:...

London's Natural History Museum, National Maritime Museum and Imperial War Museum; Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum.

LONDON'S NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM is a cathedral of nature, housing over 70 million specimens, and visited by more than 4 million people every year. From strange creatures that inha...

Israel Museum in Jerusalem; Bardo Museum in Tunis; National Archaeological Museum in Athens; Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.

ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM: Visited by a million people every year, the Israel Museum features the most extensive collection of biblical and Holy Land archeology in th...

NEW YORK: From dinosaurs to meteorites to the origins of the human species, the American Museum of Natural History boasts 32 million exhibits, and over 4 million annual visitors, along with a stellar research staff that mounts over 100 expeditions every year.

In this episode, we meet an Americ...

TUNIS: Established within a 19th Century palace, the museum features thousands of artifacts from excavations carried out throughout Tunisia, that date from the nation’s Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

In this episode we expose Hollywood myths about Roman Gladiators, then fi...

VERSAILLES: What was once a royal palace is now a museum of French culture and history attracting 3 million visitors every year.

In this episode we take a Musketeer training course to discover the real man behind the fictional D’Artagnan. We find out why Champagne bubbles (and if it’s good fo...

CAIRO: Cairo's Museum of Egyptian Antiquities boasts 120,000 items – the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, including 27 mummies of the Royal Cache and the treasures of King Tutankhamen.

We search for the lost tomb of Ramesses the Great, then, guided by a mummy’s head wounds,...

LONDON, UK: The Imperial War Museum tells the story of Britain at war, from World War One to the present, through a collection of 10 million items – from guns to planes to medals to cyanide pills – at five locations in England visited by over 2 million people every year.

In this episode, we d...

JERUSALEM: Visited by a million people every year, the Israel Museum features the most extensive collection of biblical and Holy Land archeology in the world.

In this episode, we investigate a heel bone with a nail through it that has the power to change the accepted image of Christ’s crucifix...

VIENNA: The Kunsthistorisches Museum is a treasury of antiquities and weaponry collected by the royal family known as the Habsburgs – a dynasty that ruled much of Europe for 500 years.

In this episode, we visit the crypt that entombs many generations of the Habsburg royal family, then meet a g...

PARIS: Once a royal palace, the Louvre is now one of the world's greatest museums boasting 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century, and visited by over 8 million people every year.

In this episode we chase the brazen thief who stole the Mona Lisa to find out how she was recovered an...

NEW YORK: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (known informally as the Met) is one of the world's largest art galleries, boasting over 2 million works from prehistory to the present day in galleries visited by over 5 million people every year. Here we discover tales of tragedy, madness and even murder...

ATHENS: The world’s most important museum dedicated to the history of ancient Greece, the National Archaeological Museum boasts 11,000 exhibits from 7000 BC to the Roman conquest.

In this episode, we accelerate an ancient warship to ramming speed to discover why Athenian democracy beat Persia...

LONDON: The National Maritime Museum collection allows visitors to trace the origins of British sea power, its accomplishments in the age of empire, and its consequences in the world today.

In this episode we fire musket balls at Lord Nelson to discover who really killed him. We join an anti-...

MEXICO CITY: This impressive modern museum, visited by 2 million people every year, tells the story of Mexico from before the Mayan civilization to the Spanish conquest.

In this episode, a chemical engineer and some Mexican athletes help us discover whether the rubber ball used on the ancient ...

LONDON, UK: London's Natural History Museum is a cathedral of nature, housing over 70 million specimens, and visited by more than 4 million people every year. From strange creatures that inhabit the ocean depths, to meteorites from far away worlds, the secrets of the past and discoveries of the f...

MADRID: Both a museum and the official palace of the Spanish royal family, the Palacio Real features armour, artworks and treasures that were once the private possessions of Spain’s kings and queens.

In this episode, we discover that Spain reached its height of glory not through the acquisitio...

BERLIN: On the famed “Museum Island” in the river that winds through Berlin are five world-class museums that display antiquities from prehistory to the mid 20th Century.

In this episode, we pit two skilled warriors against each other to discover why some Viking swords are more deadly than oth...

TORONTO: This eye-popping landmark is a national treasure chest – Canada’s largest museum of culture, archeology and natural history, containing more than 6 million artifacts, and visited by over a million people every year.

We unwrap a tiny mummy to find out how an Egyptian baby died 2000 yea...

WASHINGTON, D.C: Established in 1846 by a scientist named James Smithson, The Smithsonian is the largest museum and research complex in the world, with over 10 million visitors every year, and nearly 137 million specimens and artifacts.

In this episode we take off in a World War Two era Zero t...

ST. PETERSBURG: Founded by Catherine the Great, the Hermitage is one of the world’s oldest and largest museums boasting 3 million treasures of art and antiquity, and visited by over 2 million people every year.

Inside the Hermitage, we shine infra-red light on blackened mummies to reveal the s...

MOSCOW: Moscow’s State Historical Museum tells the story of Russia and her people from the stone age to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In this episode we find out how to win a duel (and how to lose one). We examine the bones of stone age children to reveal what killed them, then ride with Poli...

ISTANBUL: Once the palace of the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Topkapi is a vast treasury of Islamic culture, science and weaponry, visited by over 2 million people every year.

In this episode, at the foot of Istanbul’s ancient walls we discover how a Muslim invader bested Christian defenders...

FLORENCE: Visited by one and half million people every year, the Uffizi is one of the oldest art museums in the western world, boasting paintings and sculpture by the greatest masters of the Renaissance.

In this episode, we re-examine the famous conspiracy against Lorenzo de Medici – godfather...

ROME: At the centre of Rome, within the walls of the Vatican, stand some of the greatest museums in the world, displaying thousands of treasures and artworks from the immense collection of the Catholic Church, to yearly visitors that number over 4 million.

In this episode we climb a scaffold t...