The four painting together are worth approximately $ 163 million , making it one of the biggest art larceny ever in Europe – and Europe has take in its share of art theft [ source : Associated Press ] . Two weeks before the Bürle heist , two Picassos were stolen from another museum nearby . Thieves grabbed 20 paintings from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 1991 and a couple more in 2002 . The Louvre in Paris lost the " Mona Lisa " in 1911 . And " The Scream " was taken from Oslo museum doubly in 10 years . Despite the threat ofjail timeand the unmistakable ( read : unsellable ) renown of the steal commodity , prowess theft has become more common in the last couple of decades , perhaps due to a combination of underfunded security and rising graphics prices .
The 2008 Bürle robbery proves that security does n’t mean much when stealer are unforced to use force play . Art heists are increasingly conduct at point – a brute means of ensuring that they get what they come for . But the most telling art heists are the one in which the criminals bank on something more than forcible threats . We ’ll look at 10 of those in this clause , starting with one that begs the years - onetime motion : How many thieves does it take to delve a tunnel into a museum ?
10: The National Fine Arts Museum in Paraguay, 2002
In July 2002 , Paraguay host the most valuableart exhibitionin its story . Then a group of crook broke in and stole five painting .
The thieves leave with more than a million one dollar bill ' worth of nontextual matter . The stolen works included " Self Portrait " by Esteban Murillo , " The Virgin Mary and Jesus " by Gustave Coubert and Adolphe Piot ’s " Landscape . " As of other 2012 , the paintings were still missing [ source : Associated Press ] .
The next armed robbery on our list has an equally telling program but a happy ending .
9: The Swedish National Museum, 2000
The gang who robbed the National Museum in Sweden in December 2000 knew their stuff : Amachine gunwill get you the catch , a bomb will distract police , and railroad car withflat tirescan’t respond to analarm .
Their distraction tactics were superb . While three gentleman’s gentleman were inside the museum , accomplices set off two machine bombs on the opposite ends of townsfolk . Local police scatter . At the same sentence , other accomplice were put down spike on the roadstead around the museum . While one man stood inside the museum with a gun , two others situate the point painting .
They were in an out in a half hour , leaving with two Renoirs , " Young Parisian " and " Conversation with the Erle Stanley Gardner , " and a ego - portrait by Rembrandt . The house painting were valued at $ 30 million combine . The getaway fomite was a speedboat ( the museum is on the waterfront ) .
Despite the slickness of the heist , less than two weeks later law had arrested eight men , all of whom were convict and served slammer time . One of the accomplices was a criminal lawyer make for in to negotiate the ransom .
However , the works did n’t start reappear until several years afterwards . During a drug raid in 2001 , Swedish narcotics police hit upon " Conversation with the Gardener " [ source : BBC ] . In 2005 , Danish police recovered the Rembrandt ego - portrayal during an essay sale in Copenhagen [ source : BBC ] . The FBI list " Young Parisian " as also having been regain [ source : FBI ] .
Clearly , any thievery is made easy when the thief are armed . But what about thieves who use costume - workshop props ?
8: The Isabella Gardner Museum, 1990
With the supporter of goofy fake mustaches , two serviceman handle to slip between $ 200 million and $ 300 million in painting from Boston ’s Isabella Gardner Museum . At around 1:30 a.m. on March 18 , 1990 , thieves knocked on the museum ’s door . The museum guard on responsibility looked out and saw what seem to be two law officers – both with big black mustache that they would after recall as being laughable . The mustached officers said they were there to agree out a reported noise . The guards allow them in to look around .
Within minutes , the guards found themselves stick to , and the thieves spent the next hour or so pull together three Rembrandts , five Degas sketch , a Vermeer , a Manet and a bronze bird of Jove that exceed a framed Napoleon - era streamer . Analarmwent off while they were displume one of the Rembrandts from its systema skeletale , but they located the source and nail it silent . The police never showed up because it was simply an internal alarm mean to tell safety when mass were convey too close to the art [ informant : Kurkjian ] . Finally , the thieves told the guard that the museum would be " try from " them , presumably with a ransom money need , and loaded their pickup car in two trip [ source : Bell ] .
But the museum never receive a ransom money demand . As of 2012 , the thieves are still at heavy , none of the works have been recovered and theFBIcontinues to investigate the offense . The dominion attorney of Boston has even promise not to prosecute whoever devolve the oeuvre [ source : Kurkjian ] . The museum has offer a $ 5 million payoff [ source : Associated Press ] . On March 18 , 2013 , the FBI announced major developments in the case , include identification of the perpetrators , and launched a public campaign to search for information about the missing art .
While the Gardener Museum is the site of the biggest heist in history , it was n’t the heist of the braggart work of art .
7: The Henry Moore Foundation, 2005
If it ’s about 12 foot ( 3.6 meters ) long , 6 human foot ( 1.8 meter ) tall , 6 feet ( 1.8 meters ) astray and weighs over 2 gross ton ( 1,814 kilograms ) , is it deserving the problem to steal ? That ’s a question that three men must have take themselves after targeting a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore , " Reclining Figure , " for a possible armed robbery . Of course , thieving ask such monumental dimensions would require the use of aconstruction honcho ’s cock . Armed with a crane - outfit Mercedes flatbed truck and a Mini Cooper , these crooks had the tools for the take [ root : BBC ] .
In December 2005 , the two fomite range into the Henry Moore Foundation courtyard at night , loaded the hippopotamus - sized sculpture onto the flatbed motortruck and drove forth . The full chore took 10 minutes [ author : Telegraph ] .
Thought to be worth about $ 4.6 million , it is probable that the sculpture was cut up , shipped afield and thaw down for only about $ 2,300 Charles Frederick Worth of bit metal [ germ : Francis Everett Townsend and Davies ] . Charles Hill , presently a private art investigator in Scotland , consider the bronze piece was steal by a group of traveling outlaw . It ’s likely that the metal was shipped to Rotterdam and then to China to be used for electrical parts . No catch have been made .
On the next page , we ’ll share the narration of a masterly stickup in which nothing of note value was stolen but 15 thieves were convicted .
6: A New York Art Warehouse, 1987
Sometimes it ’s hard to sell fakeartwork , so a London art dealer and a Manhattan antique dealer came up with a plan to steal from themselves and still get paid . The antique dealer , Nedjatollah Sakhai , hired a gang to rob a Queens warehouse filled with excogitate goods . The art dealer , Houshang Mahboubian , owned the warehouse and all of the tacky " treasures " at heart . Afterward , Mahboubian planned to file a title and pull in $ 18 million from his insurers [ germ : Johnson ] .
But , like Mahboubian ’s give out attempts to deal the forge graphics in the first spot , the plan robbery was a bust . After take in a tip , police staked out the storage warehouse and waited for the would - be burglars to get .
Although convicted of confederacy , burglary and attempt grand larceny , Sakhai and Mahboubian maintained their innocence . afterward , the case file grew as 13 other defendant pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the case .
In demarcation , the next holdup on our list involved just one lone stealer .
5: The Paris Museum of Modern Art, 2010
It read like it ’s call for from a television episode or built for a blockbuster : On a Wednesday evening , a Paris museum was hook of several priceless deeds by one thief without a singlealarmbeing sounded . It may sound like fiction , but this really fall out in May 2010 .
A thief abbreviate through a gate padlock and broke a window , then robbed the Paris Museum of Modern Art of five paintings without setting off the alarms ( which , as it turns out , were n’t officiate at the time ) or alert the guard . The works , all regard invaluable , included " Pastoral " by Henri Matisse , " Olive Tree near Estaque " by Georges Braque , " Woman with a Fan " by Amedeo Modigliani , " Still lifespan with Chandeliers " by Fernand Leger , and " Le pigeon aux petits - pois " by Pablo Picasso [ rootage : Iverson ] .
For the whole kit by Picasso and Matisse , it ’s just another quotidian switching of men . The Art Loss Register lists 660 Picassos and 121 Matisses as having been reported stolen – more than the work of any other artists [ origin : Haq ] .
From one standpoint , it ’s challenging that the most placeable creative person represent the most pocketed paintings . The works ' resale is nearly inconceivable , given the creative person ' fame and distinctive styles . Regardless , this finical heist remains unsolved , go forth the stealer to admire his or her eye - catch spoils .
The thieves creditworthy for the next rip-off were n’t so favorable . Read on to learn why appropriate appurtenance are as of import in robbery as in any other social outcome .
4: The Van Gogh Museum, 2002
On the aurora of Dec. 7 , 2002 , two men , one of whom was an international art thief hump as " The Monkey " for his ability to put off police , mount a ladder to get at a window of theVanGoghMuseum in Amsterdam . Although they did wear hats to disguise themselves , the thieves used petty more than agility to steal two illustrious works .
In manifest prospect of a busy park , they climbed the ladder to a windowpane , broke the meth with their towel - enwrap elbow joint and , after only a few minutes , exited by sliding down a roofy . They carry with them " perspective of the Sea at Scheveningen " and " faithful Leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen , " which are worth about $ 10 million apiece .
" The Monkey , " Dutch - suffer Octave Durham , lived up to his nickname . Although the two thief were catch on the museum’ssecurity camera , they avoided capture for two years . In 2004 , constabulary arrested Durham in Spain and his confederate in Amsterdam , and later convicted them using deoxyribonucleic acid grounds from the hats found at the scene .
Neither house painting has been recovered , and experts inquire whether the perpetrator behind the heist are chic enough to take advantage of an outdated Dutch law concede graphics stealer ownership of steal items 20 or 30 years after the crime [ informant : Bell ] .
On the next page , larn about a $ 19 - million heist that may have only been a cover - up for another crime .
3: The Munch Museum, 2004
They arrived with a .357 - bore Magnum pistol in script and leave with a pair of a dandy Norwegian creative person ’s masterpiece . But the thieves who jerk Edvard Munch ’s " The Scream " and " Madonna " off the walls of the Munch Museum in Norway had to ask where to go to find what was on their inclination . As nobody argued with their self - checkout firepower , they were pointed to the painting and left the museum with an estimated $ 19 - million haul [ author : BBC ] .
Oddly , the two paintings spent about a calendar month conceal in a racing spell double-decker . Thomas Nataas , a Europeandrag racer , live in the bus topology during race tours . An acquaintance necessitate him if he could store something on the bus , and although Nataas reject at first , under duress he agree to secret away the two keep study . Later , the thieves transferred the paintings to another fomite [ reservoir : Jones ] .
Iver Stensrud , a veteran police detective leading the Munch investigation , believed the museum heist was organized to draw attention away from another looting investigation , one that had lead to the decease of a senior police officer . In 2006 , shortly after a strong belief was made for this other robbery , the police received a hint . " The Scream " and " Madonna " were institute , somewhat damage but inviolate , in the back of a van .
The series of robberies hash out on the next page do n’t light strictly under the definition of heists , but they appoint by far the big thieving of artworks in the past hundred .
2: Nazi Art Thefts and the Monuments Men
Although it was more pillaging and plundering than sophisticated thievery , the German army confiscated and stored countless treasures as they fought through Europe during WWII . The theft went beyond the cases of occupiers looting enamor cities : Adolf Hitler and Herman Goering , his 2nd in command , would chooseartworksand ethnic gem for their collections and then just take them [ source : Braver ] .
A group of specialist soldier from the United States military were assigned to lookup , safeguard and eventually return the nontextual matter and other artifacts to their true owners . Called Monuments Men , they saved all sort of stolen item from opprobrious marketplace sale or unintentional destruction . Although some work , like Raphael ’s " Portrait of a Young Man , " have eluded the Monuments Men and may never be recovered , there have been a number of major success . In April 1949 , for instance , they proudly packed $ 80 million Charles Frederick Worth of house painting by Botticelli , Rubens , Rembrandt and many others into cargo ships crate and returned the works to Wiesbaden [ source : Bailey ] .
In November 2007 , a pair of photo record album catalogue the invaluable good stolen from Paris art dealers during the war was reveal in Washington . earlier found at Hitler ’s Bavarian mountain shelter and later forgotten in an attic with other wartime keepsakes by an American soldier , the leather - bound relics , numbered 6 and 8 , were part of a Nazi catalogue of stolen art . Specialists who extend the work of the Monuments Men are hopeful that these albums will help in the continued hunt for stolen token [ source : MacAskill ] .
The final armed robbery on our list was much small – just one 30 - by-21 - column inch ( 77 - by-53 - centimeter ) painting – but the audacity of it made outside newspaper headline and changed the way the public looks at artistic creation .
1: The Louvre, 1911
In 1911 , da Vinci ’s " Mona Lisa " was steal from the Louvre museum in Paris in a theft that offend the world and bring the picture to fame . On August 20 , Vincenzo Perugia , a jack of all trades in the museum , land up his teddy and obscure inside an art provision closet with two comrade , Vincenzo and Michele Lancelotti . After the museum close , they carefully lift the 200 - pound , framed and glass - enclosed painting from the bulwark , undress da Vinci ’s " Mona Lisa " out , blot out the painting under a blanket and scurried off to catch a train out of Paris . The masterpiece disappeared for two twelvemonth .
Museum stave did n’t know the " Mona Lisa " was missing until the next day . When they saw the empty blank space on the paries , they assume the painting had been removed as part of a projection to shoot the Louvre ’s stocktaking . After a frequent patron asked a guard to question the photographer for their timeline , the museum staff gain the theft and call the police , but there were no clues at the scene [ root : NPR ] .
Perugia was catch two class afterward . He claim the theft was a patriotic endeavour to return the painting to Italy , da Vinci ’s homeland . But he was caught try out to betray the painting to a trader , who at once called the constabulary when he realized Perugia was indeed in possession of the highly publicized stolen painting , which had been known as a masterpiece only in choice circles of the art world before its theft .
For more information on art heists and relate topics , including how some thief betray steal oeuvre , look over the links below .
