Articles tagged as Art Crimes | Smithsonian Magazine

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

February 13, 2018

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

January 4, 2018

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

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

December 29, 2017

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

Updated: December 27, 2017 | Originally Published: November 28, 2017

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

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

December 22, 2017

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

November 3, 2017

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

November 1, 2017

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

October 31, 2017

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

October 16, 2017

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

August 31, 2017

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

August 23, 2017

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

August 22, 2017

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

July 28, 2017

This 1540 painting by Titian has had 11 owners.

Cool Finds

New Website Tracks Paintings Provenance from Brush to Gallery Wall

Mapping Paintings makes it easier to figure out an artwork’s chain of ownership

July 5, 2017

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

June 6, 2017

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

May 31, 2017

Vermeer's "The Concert" was stolen by thieves in the 1990 heist. It is one of just 36 paintings by the artist in existence.

Gardner Museum Offers $10 Million for Information About 1990 Heist

The museum believes that somebody, somewhere can shed light on the whereabouts of 13 missing masterpieces

May 25, 2017

This smart tag contains synthetic DNA and other security measures to help authenticate and track the provenance of canvas.

Cool Finds

Can Giving Paintings Their Own DNA Stop Art Forgery?

Science is leading the charge against copycats

May 17, 2017

Ornate Tiara, Once Worn by a Grand Duchess, Stolen From German Museum

The headpiece is adorned with 367 diamonds and has been valued at $1.31 million

May 11, 2017

This painting by Adriaen Coorte was among art stolen from an East German art collector by the Stasi in the 1980s.

The Nazis weren’t the only group that looted German treasures

April 21, 2017