Art Crimes

To make it easier for those in the U.S. and in Germany to trace the history of World War II-era artworks, the Smithsonian and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation created the German/American Provenance Research Exchange Program for Museum Professionals (PREP).

How U.S. and German Art Experts Are Teaming Up to Solve Nazi-Era Mysteries

Specialists in WWII art loss and restitution discuss provenance research

"Les Choristes"

Stolen Degas Found in Luggage Compartment of French Bus

No one claimed the suitcase containing "Les Choristes" stolen from a Marseille Museum in 2009

Gustav Klimt, Two Reclining Female Nudes, about 1916/17

‘Lost’ Klimt Drawing Found in Cupboard of Museum Personal Assistant

The recovered work is now on view at Austria's Lentos Museum in a show marking the centenary of the deaths of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and ​Koloman Moser

What to Know About 5Pointz Graffiti Collective's Big Win at Court

A federal judged ruled Monday on the whitewashing of the internationally known graffiti site by a New York developer

The Louvre museum has opened two showrooms with 31 paintings on display which can be claimed by their legitimate owners.

The Louvre Puts Nazi-Looted Art in Public Eye in Effort to Find Rightful Heirs

The museum hopes the initiative will help connect the works to their legitimate owners. But critics say the move is too little, too late

Some jewels are on display at the 'Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajahs' exibithion, at Venice's Doge's Palace, in Venice, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018.

Indian Jewels Swiped From Venice Museum in “Movie-Worthy" Heist

The thieves reportedly deactivated the alarm system and walked off with the goods in broad daylight

“Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by Rembrandt, one of 13 works stolen during the 1990 theft.

Speak Now: Reward for Biggest Art Heist in History Gets Cut in Half on New Year's

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hoped the $10 million reward would shake loose new clues in the 27-year-old crime

After Heavy Criticism, German City's Exhibition on Jewish Art Dealer Is Back On

Officials said the previously cancelled show will be put on view in a “more complete and revised form” at a later date

Pictured (from left to right): Torso E1912; the Bull’s Head; and the Calf Bearer.

Manhattan DA Launches First Antiquities Trafficking Unit

The unit will investigate the uptick in looted artifacts flooding the antiquities market

Most Antiquities Sold Online Are Fake or Illegal

Social media and ISIS have combined to flood the web with thousands of questionable artifacts

Claude Monet's "Waterloo Bridge" is one of the roughly 1,500 works in Gurlitt's collection

The Public Can Finally See Works From the Infamous Nazi-Looted Art Trove

Two exhibitions are exploring the treasures and context behind the cache of "degenerate" art uncovered in a Munich apartment in 2012

Two millennia after it served as a floor on a Roman emperor's ship and decades after it disappeared mysteriously, this mosaic returns to Italy

Roman Mosaic, Long Used as a Coffee Table, Returned To Italy

The mosaic hails from a “pleasure ship” built by the notorious emperor Caligula

Three-Room Dwelling (detail) by Frances Glessner Lee, about 1944-46

Home Is Where the Corpse Is—at Least in These Dollhouse Crime Scenes

Frances Glessner Lee's "Nutshell Studies" exemplify the intersection of forensic science and craft

Some of the hundreds of brass plaques taken from Benin City in 1897 now held by the British Museum

European Summit to Discuss the Return of Looted West African Art

Treasures taken by a British invasion in 1897 could return to Nigeria as a permanent exhibition

Prittlewell Priory in Essex, Britain.

PSA: Do Not Place Your Child in an 800-Year-Old Coffin

A sarcophagus on display at the Prittlewell Priory Museum in England was damaged when visitors did just that

Munch's painting 'The Scream' is one of Western art's most familiar images.

The Mysterious Motives Behind the Theft of ‘The Scream’

Two versions of ‘The Scream’ have been stolen and recovered in Norway

American soldiers sift through art looted by the Nazis at Neuschwanstein Castle in 1945

Legal Fight Over Nazi-Looted Painting Ends After 26 Years

The heirs to the Paul Klee masterpiece, which was seized 80 years ago as "degenerate art," have finally reached a settlement with the city of Munich

This 1540 painting by Titian has had 11 owners.

New Website Tracks Paintings Provenance from Brush to Gallery Wall

<i>Mapping Paintings</i> makes it easier to figure out an artwork’s chain of ownership

The recovered artwork.

Professor Helps Bust Italian Art Theft Ring

The professor noticed that a rare manuscript had been stamped with the seal of the Royal Library of Turin, leading him to believe that it had been stolen

Joseph Goebbels viewing the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition.

Why It’s So Hard to Find the Original Owners of Nazi-Looted Art

International experts recently gathered at Smithsonian to discuss the state of international provenance research

Page 12 of 15