Art Crimes

A video posted on social media shows a woman spraying red paint on the portrait, then cutting it with a handheld tool.

Pro-Palestinian Activists Damage Balfour Portrait at Cambridge University

The 1917 Balfour Declaration was a pivotal declaration of British support for a "national home for the Jewish people"

Musician Don Henley leaving the Manhattan court on February 28, 2024

Don Henley of the Eagles Testifies That 'Very Personal' Handwritten Lyrics Were Stolen

The musician learned about the alleged theft when the drafts started appearing at auctions in 2012

Protesters with the activist group Last Generation stand in front of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus at Florence's Uffizi Gallery on February 13. 

Climate Activists Stage Protest in Front of Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus'

Two men taped images of flooding in Tuscany to the Renaissance painting's protective glass

Artist and Shaman Between Two Worlds, Norval Morrisseau, 1980, shows the artist’s signature style: bold colors and a surreal sense of his subjects’ inner lives.

Inside the Biggest Art Fraud in History

A decades-long forgery scheme ensnared Canada’s most famous Indigenous artist, a rock musician turned sleuth and several top museums. Here's how investigators unraveled the incredible scam

Eve, Marc Chagall, 1971

Stolen Chagall Print Recovered Months After Thieves Stuffed It Into a 1996 Honda and Sped Away

Detectives have arrested two suspects involved in the dramatic heist at a New York City gallery

A gold Asante necklace was among the items turned over to British forces in 1874.

Los Angeles Museum Returns Artifacts to Ghana That Were Taken by British Forces in 1874

Museum officials traveled to the city of Kumasi to return the objects on the 150th anniversary of their seizure

The recovered pair of ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz

Thief Who Stole Dorothy's Ruby Slippers Avoids Prison

Terry Martin has been sentenced to one year of supervised release for swiping the iconic "Wizard of Oz" shoes from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005

Measuring 40 by 50 inches, The Schoolmistress (circa 1784) had belonged to physician Earl Leroy Wood. Officials returned it to his son, Francis Wood, on January 11.

Stolen by Mobsters 54 Years Ago, This 18th-Century Painting Was Just Returned to Its Rightful Owners

Authorities presented "The Schoolmistress" to 96-year-old Francis Wood, the owner’s son, last month

Protesters throw soup at the Mona Lisa's protective glass covering at the Louvre on January 28.

Climate Activists Throw Soup at the 'Mona Lisa'

Protected by bulletproof glass, Leonardo da Vinci’s famous masterpiece was not harmed

Pablo Picasso's Tête is one of two paintings involved in a $900,000 art heist.

Picasso and Chagall Paintings Found in Antwerp Basement—14 Years After They Vanished

Police conducted a months-long operation to recover the works, which had been stolen from their owner's home in 2010

Italian junior culture minister and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi faces pressure to resign following accusations.

Italian Minister Accused of Owning Stolen 17th-Century Painting

Vittorio Sgarbi is under investigation for laundering an artwork that vanished from a castle over a decade ago

Camille Pissarro's Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain (1897) hangs at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

Court Rules Against Returning Nazi-Looted Pissarro Painting to Jewish Family

Sold in exchange for exit visas in 1939, the estimated $30 million masterpiece will stay at a Spanish museum

The Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where prosecutors allege suspects stole Andy Warhol’s La Grande Passion and Jackson Pollock’s Springs Winter in 2005

Final Suspect in 20-Year Art Heist Case Turns Himself In

Nicholas Dombek is one of nine individuals accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of artwork, sports memorabilia and cultural artifacts

Sketch after The Tangled Garden, one of the ten works incorrectly attributed to MacDonald

Museum Realizes Ten J.E.H. MacDonald Sketches Are Fakes—and Puts Them on Display

A new exhibition showcases how the Vancouver Art Gallery investigated the artworks' authenticity

This seventh-century Buddha sculpture was among the artifacts.

The Met Will Repatriate 16 Artifacts to Cambodia and Thailand

The looted objects are tied to the notorious art dealer Douglas Latchford

Thieves used a hammer to shatter the front door to the gallery and made off with a Chagall print.

Thieves With Hammer Stole $100,000 Chagall Print From Manhattan Gallery

The whereabouts of the work—and the individuals who conducted the "brazen" heist—remain a mystery

Before it was stolen, the toilet had been installed in a bathroom at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England.

Four Men Charged With 2019 Theft of $6 Million Gold Toilet

Titled "America," the infamous 18-karat loo was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan

The newly re-excavated 2,700-year-old lamassu—a winged bull with a human head—at the site of the ancent city of Dur-Sharrukin in northern Iraq

Stunning 2,700-Year-Old Sculpture Unearthed in Iraq

Archaeologists hope to reunite the 18-ton torso of the Assyrian deity with its head, severed by smugglers decades ago

Vienna-born artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer, who lived between 1700 and 1733, created Landscape of Italian Character along with a companion painting.

Painting Stolen by American Soldier During World War II Returned to Germany

FBI agents and art recovery lawyers helped retrieve the piece by Austrian artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer

Arthur Brand, dubbed the "Indiana Jones" of the art world, has helped recover six stolen historical Dutch artworks from the comfort of his Amsterdam flat.

Mysterious Man Returns Six Stolen Paintings to Art Detective's Doorstep

The puzzling incident comes just weeks after an anonymous tipster delivered a stolen van Gogh to Arthur Brand's flat in Amsterdam

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