Top 10 Most Infamous Art Heists of All Time
#10: Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa”
Of the many marvels created by this Italian painter and inventor, perhaps none is quite so enduring as his smirking lady. Ironically, the portrait’s theft is part of the reason it’s so famous. When its absence was first noticed in 1911, public interest skyrocketed. Parisian police bungled the investigation, questioning Spanish artist Pablo Picasso while letting the actual culprit go. In 1914, Vincenzo Peruggia was caught trying to sell the smiler. The former museum employee claimed to have strolled into the Louvre on a Monday morning with a crowd of workers, removed the painting and then walked back out with it wrapped in his smock. Peruggia said he was motivated by Italian nationalism and served six months behind bars for his crime.
#9: Paul Cézanne’s “View of Auvers-sur-Oise”
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Using the New Year’s Eve celebration on the dawn of a new millennium as cover, a burglar or crew of burglars broke into the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. They climbed onto the roof, smashed a skylight and dropped in a smoke bomb, before using a rope ladder to descend into the gallery. Now surrounded by valuable works of art, they interestingly ignored all but one: Paul Cezanne’s “View of Auvers-sur-Oise.” Like an evil boy scout, they came prepared, using a fan to circulate their smokescreen while cutting the painting free with a scalpel. The museum valued the piece at three million pounds, and it has yet to be recovered.
#8: Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” & “Madonna”
This Norwegian painter created one of modern art’s most iconic images. Known as “The Scream” in English, Munch made different versions of the work in a variety of mediums. His depictions of an almost alien-like figure screeching on a bridge attracted scholars, emo kids and thieves. One version was stolen in 1994 and another was taken a decade later. That latter case saw brazen armed robbers storm into the Munch Museum in Oslo, where they also snatched up Munch’s “Madonna” for good measure. Both works were eventually recovered, and the criminals brought to justice. In addition to prison sentences, the two unlucky plunderers were ordered to pay around 117 million dollars in compensation, which probably left them screaming much like Munch’s haunting figure.
#7: Essential Impressionist Paintings from Musée Marmottan Monet
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Once the hunting lodge for a French nobleman, this Parisian museum saw armed men hunting down very different game on October 27th, 1985. A group of gunslingers rushed into the building, bullying guards and guests alike while absconding with nine precious canvases. Among these were half a dozen paintings by the father of Impressionism, Claude Monet. In fact, the work that inspired the art movement’s name — “Impression, Sunrise” — was one of those taken by the gang of masked bandits. Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot and Seiichi Naruse were also snatched. The vandals made off with twelve million dollars worth of art history, but all the stolen items were eventually recovered.
#6: Caravaggio's “Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence”
He was the art world’s original bad boy, so perhaps it’s no surprise that some of the worst guys around — the Sicilian Mafia — are among his admirers. According to one story, the infamous crime syndicate stole this famous Caravaggio painting in 1969. A mobster claimed to have been involved in the crime 36 years later, though not everyone believes him. Others suspect amateur art burglars are the ones who roughly removed the massive painting from its Sicilian home, the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo. This alternate theory holds that the Cosa Nostra then stole the stolen painting. Whatever the real story is, the still missing masterpiece is estimated to be worth something in the neighborhood of 20 million dollars.
#5: Rare Watches Stolen from the Museum for Islamic Art
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Time is money when it comes to this daring 1983 robbery of an Israeli museum. Over 100 timepieces were among the pilfered goods, including one originally meant for the French Queen, Marie Antoinette. That watch is sometimes referred to by the name of its intended recipient, but whatever you call it, this little mechanism is worth big bucks. Valued at an eye-popping 30 million dollars in 2013, the timepiece is made of precious metals like gold and platinum, as well as expensive gems like sapphires and rubies. The thief — Na'aman Diller — confessed to the crime on his deathbed. Most of his ill-gotten gains have been recovered, including the one meant for Mrs. Let-Them-Eat-Cake.
#4: Pablo Picasso's “Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois”
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On May 10, 2010, a crook broke into Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris through a window. He made off with five paintings whose combined value was estimated to be around 123 million dollars. The bandit’s climbing ability prompted the press to dub him Spider-Man, though this webslinger didn’t keep his identity secret for long. Vjeran Tomic and his accomplices were arrested about a year later. One of these was Jean-Michel Corvez, a purveyor of antiques who actually hired Tomic to take Fernand Léger’s painting “Still Life with Candlestick.” Another accomplice claimed to have burned the paintings, but many people doubt this. In a cinematic nod to the stolen work, a copy of Picasso’s painting was featured in the background of the James Bond movie “Spectre.”
#3: Masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse & Lucian Freud
A crew of Romanian gangsters got tired of pulling petty thefts in 2012, so they decided to join the criminal big leagues. Unfortunately, these wannabes discovered that stealing masterpieces is easier than fencing them. On October 16, they jimmied open a fire exit at Dutch museum the Kunsthal and snatched seven works of art created by the likes of Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and others. The estimated value for these works varies from 14.6 million Euros all the way up to 310 million. Whatever the amount, the thieves soon fled to their home country. An art dealer they contacted reported them to the authorities and the crew was apprehended. Whether burned or stolen, the works have yet to be recovered.
#2: Johannes Vermeer's “The Concert”
Possibly the most valuable object ever pilfered, this work was completed the Dutch painter way back in 1664. Wealthy art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner acquired the painting in 1892, and displayed it in a museum bearing her name. Ninety-eight years later, robbers dressed as cops and wearing fake mustaches bluffed their way into the museum. They nabbed the Vermeer, along with 12 other incredibly valuable pieces, including Rembrandt van Rijn's “Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” Outside, revelers were still celebrating St. Patty’s Day, helping mask the crooks’ escape. To date, the case has yet to be solved. In 2015, the haul was estimated to be worth roughly 250 million bucks, though some think their true worth today could be closer to twice that. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso & Paul Gauguin In 2003 Burglars Dumped One Million Pounds Worth of Paintings Behind a Public Toilet Jan Van Eyck's “The Just Judges” This Part of a Multi-Panel Altarpiece Was Removed From a Belgian Cathedral in 1934 Georgia O'Keeffe Paintings Three of This Artist’s Paintings Went Missing In 1946, But Were Recovered 34 Years Later Rare Rembrandt Landscape, Other Prized Paintings, Jewels & Artifacts Stolen From the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1972, They Remain Missing
#1: Nazi Art Plundering
Germany’s plunder during Adolf Hitler’s reign dwarves all other art heists by several orders of magnitude. In Poland alone, Nazis are estimated to have appropriated 516,000 pieces of art worth around 20 billion dollars. One such item pilfered from that country was a self-portrait of the Italian Renaissance master Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, more popularly known as Raphael. It was thought to be part of Hitler’s personal art collection and is still at large. However, Poland was merely one of Germany’s victims. The Nazis looted art from all the territories they controlled, particularly targeting the property of Jews. Much of this remains missing, though some items were found and returned to their rightful owners, such as Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloc-Bauer I.”
