Rogues Gallery

Ten of the most incredible art heists of the modern era

  • By Siobhan Roth
  • Smithsonian.com, May 20, 2008, Subscribe
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Art expert and collector Giuseppe Salzano poses with ten copies of stolen masters. At center a co-py of a Nativity by Caravaggio stolen in Palermo in 1969.
Art expert and collector Giuseppe Salzano poses with ten copies of stolen masters. At center: a co-py of a Nativity by Caravaggio, stolen in Palermo in 1969. (Pizzoli Alberto/Corbis Sygma)

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<strong>Stolen from the Louvre Museum, Paris, France, 1911<br />Status: Recovered</strong><br />Displeased that such a monumental work by the legendary Italian artist hung in a French museum, a Louvre workman from Italy named Vincenzo Perugia hid in the museum after closing one night and cut the masterpiece from its frame. Among the suspects French authorities interviewed regarding the theft was Pablo Picasso. Two years later, Perugia was caught and the painting was recovered when he tried to sell it for $100,000 to the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy.

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Every day a work of art is stolen somewhere in the world. Thieves rip paintings from walls, sever canvases from their frames with razors or even screwdrivers, raid warehouses with assault rifles, saw sculptures from their bases with chainsaws and haul them away in trucks. In February, three masked men raided the E.G. Burhle Collection, a small museum in Zurich, Switzerland. At gunpoint, they forced patrons and museum staffers to the floor and made off with four 19th-century paintings worth about $165 million. Two of the paintings were later found in an unlocked car parked at a psychiatric facility, less than a mile from the museum. The thieves and the other two paintings remain missing. According to the Art Loss Register, a private company that tracks and recovers purloined art, at least 10,500 works of art and antiquities were stolen last year.

Art crime's history is long and bloody, dominated by the plundering of invading armies. Think of the eight Egyptian obelisks that still anchor the piazzas of Rome, spoils of the ancient Roman Empire's conquest of the Nile kingdom. Napoleon famously looted thousands of pieces from Italy. And innumerable works were stolen by the Nazis, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost, during World War II.

More recently, museums and ancient sites in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered massive losses amid armed conflict while countries such as Cambodia, with rich artistic histories but meager resources to protect them, see their treasures smuggled out of the country and lost to history.

Most art crime, however, occurs on a much smaller scale, with about 40 percent of thefts reported to the Art Loss Register coming from private homes or collections and about 15 percent from museums and galleries. Whether it's a dramatic museum heist or opportunistic house-burglary, all of them fuel a lucrative black market. Because most thefts go unreported, the illegal trade in art and antiquities amounts to roughly a $6-billion a year industry. What's stolen changes with the fashion of the times, but unlike the stock market, the market for stolen art and antiquities has never and likely never will collapse.

Click here to view a slideshow of the past 100 years' ten most incredible art heists.


Every day a work of art is stolen somewhere in the world. Thieves rip paintings from walls, sever canvases from their frames with razors or even screwdrivers, raid warehouses with assault rifles, saw sculptures from their bases with chainsaws and haul them away in trucks. In February, three masked men raided the E.G. Burhle Collection, a small museum in Zurich, Switzerland. At gunpoint, they forced patrons and museum staffers to the floor and made off with four 19th-century paintings worth about $165 million. Two of the paintings were later found in an unlocked car parked at a psychiatric facility, less than a mile from the museum. The thieves and the other two paintings remain missing. According to the Art Loss Register, a private company that tracks and recovers purloined art, at least 10,500 works of art and antiquities were stolen last year.

Art crime's history is long and bloody, dominated by the plundering of invading armies. Think of the eight Egyptian obelisks that still anchor the piazzas of Rome, spoils of the ancient Roman Empire's conquest of the Nile kingdom. Napoleon famously looted thousands of pieces from Italy. And innumerable works were stolen by the Nazis, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost, during World War II.

More recently, museums and ancient sites in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered massive losses amid armed conflict while countries such as Cambodia, with rich artistic histories but meager resources to protect them, see their treasures smuggled out of the country and lost to history.

Most art crime, however, occurs on a much smaller scale, with about 40 percent of thefts reported to the Art Loss Register coming from private homes or collections and about 15 percent from museums and galleries. Whether it's a dramatic museum heist or opportunistic house-burglary, all of them fuel a lucrative black market. Because most thefts go unreported, the illegal trade in art and antiquities amounts to roughly a $6-billion a year industry. What's stolen changes with the fashion of the times, but unlike the stock market, the market for stolen art and antiquities has never and likely never will collapse.

Click here to view a slideshow of the past 100 years' ten most incredible art heists.

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Comments (6)

I have to do a science project in school about anything related to science. Do you know if you can think of a topic that i can do that has famous old art tied into it? I really like Norman Rockwell and artists that painted what they thought America should have been like everywhere.

Posted by Laura Klett on September 8,2010 | 07:23 PM

Hello,

Can you please direct me to some good articles relating to the art stolen by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Thank you,

Alicia Coutts

Posted by Alicia Coutts on March 25,2010 | 11:11 PM

Do you know what percentage of art works stolen by the Nazis during WWII has been returned to the owners or their heirs?

Posted by JANE Kolar on June 4,2008 | 10:15 AM

Ver -- according to Huffington's biography of Picasso, it was because Picasso was close friends with people who were related to other museum thefts: there was two bronze statues lifted, IIRC, one of which was in Picasso's possession for no small amount of time. Additionally, Picasso not only was questioned, but disavowed his very close friend and said "I don't know this man" when the very opposite was true.

Posted by Cynthia on June 2,2008 | 08:27 AM

Why would the French Police interview Picasso regarding the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911?

Posted by Ver Asuncion on May 23,2008 | 03:42 PM

Good Show!!!

Posted by B.Allen Weiss on May 22,2008 | 09:26 PM



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