Art Crimes

The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg looted books across occupied Europe. Pictured here is a room full of stolen texts in Riga, Latvia.

New Digital Project Details 150 Belgian Libraries Looted by the Nazis

During WWII, a special ideological unit stole some 250,000 to 300,000 books for research and propaganda purposes

The online exhibition "Missing Masterpieces" highlights 12 works of art that have been stolen or gone missing over the years. Pictured here: Vincent van Gogh's The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884), which was stolen from a museum in the Netherlands in March at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Virtual Museum of Lost Art Asks Visitors to Help Track Down Missing Masterpieces

A new online exhibition revisits the fate of stolen or vanished paintings by the likes of van Gogh, Monet and Cézanne

Artist's rendering of the Edo Museum of West African Art's exterior

A New Museum of West African Art Will Incorporate the Ruins of Benin City

Designed by architect David Adjaye, the museum will reunite looted artifacts currently housed in Western institutions

A police barrier tape hangs in front of Dresden's Royal Palace, which houses the Green Vault.

Authorities Arrest Three Suspects in $1 Billion Dresden Jewel Heist

Investigators linked the November 2019 burglary to an organized crime syndicate

The original sculpture (left) and the "restored" version (right)

Botched Art Restoration in Spain Renders Smiling Statue Unrecognizable

A disfigured carving in Palencia is the latest in a growing list of bungled conservation attempts by amateurs

The Sistine Hall, originally constructed as part of the Vatican Library

Vatican Library Enlists Artificial Intelligence to Protect Its Digitized Treasures

The archive employs A.I. modeled on the human immune system to guard offerings including a rare manuscript of the "Aeneid"

This month's book picks include A Demon-Haunted Land, South to Freedom and The Light Ages.

The Heiress Who Stole a Vermeer, Witchcraft in Post-WWII Germany and Other New Books to Read

These five November releases may have been lost in the news cycle

Installation view of "Russian Avant-Garde at the Museum Ludwig: Original and Fake, Questions, Research, Explanations"

Why a German Museum Is Displaying Fake Paintings From Its Collections

A taboo-breaking exhibition at Cologne's Museum Ludwig spotlights misattributed Russian avant-garde works

The stolen items' owner estimates their value at around $645 million.

A Stolen Mao Zedong Scroll Was Found Cut in Half

Prior to the defacement, the nine-foot-long calligraphy work was valued at an estimated $300 million

European authorities recovered 200 rare books, including valuable first editions of works by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, last week.

Stolen First Editions by Galileo, Newton Discovered Beneath Floor in Romania

Authorities have recovered 200 rare books pilfered in a 2017 London heist

“It’s not a banana, it’s a concept,” artist David Datuna told reporters after plucking the $120,000 fruit off the wall and eating it. “I just ate the concept of the artist.”

The Infamous Art Basel Banana Is Headed to the Guggenheim

Maurizio Cattelan's 2019 artwork will join the collections of one of the world's preeminent cultural institutions

The vast trench dug by treasure hunters is visible at the center of this image.

Treasure Hunters Destroy 2,000-Year-Old Heritage Site in Sudan

Illegal gold diggers dug an enormous trench at Jabal Maragha in the eastern Sahara Desert

Speaking with BBC News, Frans Hals specialist Anna Tummers described the painting as a "wonderful example of his loose painting style. ... It was very playful, daring and loose."

Thieves Steal 17th-Century Masterpiece for Third Time in 32 Years

Frans Hals' "Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer" was previously purloined in 1988 and 2011

More than $8 million worth of books from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh were stolen or destroyed.

The Inside Story of the 25-Year, $8 Million Heist From the Carnegie Library

Precious maps, books and artworks vanished from the Pittsburgh archive, and the caper’s final chapter was just written

A tourist visiting the Museo Antonio Canova sat on the base of this sculpture and inadvertently broke off several of its toes.

In Pursuit of the Perfect Photo, Tourist Accidentally Breaks Sculpture's Toes

Authorities have identified the inadvertent vandal as an Austrian man who was in northern Italy on a birthday celebration trip

The Ghent Altarpiece's Adoration of the Lamb panel

New Research on the Ghent Altarpiece Validates Restorers' Rendering of the Mystic Lamb's Alarmingly Humanoid Face

The animal's soul-penetrating gaze was painted over by a second set of artists in 1550 and spent the next five centuries under wraps

Police discovered a total of 13 Roman amphorae and an 18th-century anchor inside a frozen seafood shop in Alicante, Spain.

Police Confiscate Roman Amphorae Found Stashed in Spanish Seafood Shop

The store owner's son allegedly discovered the 13 clay vessels on fishing trips and brought them back as decorations

Coming Home, a 1947 painting purportedly by Gertrude Abercrombie, is one of the works now suspected to be a forgery.

FBI Raids Northern Michigan Home Linked to Suspected Art Forgery Ring

Paintings formerly attributed to Gertrude Abercrombie, Ralston Crawford and George Ault are now thought to be fakes

Frida Kahlo, circa 1950

Why Scholars Are Skeptical of Claimed Rediscovery of Lost Frida Kahlo Masterpiece

"The Wounded Table," a 1940 work by the Mexican painter, disappeared 65 years ago

The "restored" painting may be a copy of this 17th-century work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

Botched Art Restoration Renders Virgin Mary Unrecognizable

The failed makeover—one of several to surface in Spain in recent years—has prompted calls for stricter regulation of the field

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