Top 10 Art Heists

'top ten' image by Sam Churchill

This is a list of the top ten art crimes of all time as compiled by the FBI.

 

1. Iraqi Stolen Artifacts

In March-April 2003, Iraqi cultural institutions and archaeological sites suffered major losses of priceless historical artifacts. A number of artifacts stolen from the Iraq National Museum have been returned, but between 7,000-10,000 remain missing.  Among the missing are the diorite statue of Entemena (see above) and almost 5,000 cylinder seals.

2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft

In March 1990, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was robbed by two unknown men.  The thieves removed works of art whose value has been estimated as high as $300 million.  These include pieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Govaert Flinck and Manet.

3. Sweden's National Museum Theft

In December 2000, three men entered the National Museum in Stockholm. One man threatened a guard with a submachine gun while the other two armed thieves removed three paintings, Renoir's Young Parisian and Conversation with a Gardner and a Rembrandt self-portrait, worth $36 million within a few minutes. All three paintings have since been recovered.

4. Theft of Munch's The Scream

On August 30, 2006, two years after the theft, Norwegian police announced the recovery of The Scream and The Madonna by Edvard Munch. The paintings were stolen in August 2004 by two masked theives during a daylight raid of the Munch Museum in Norway.

5. Theft of the Cellini Salt Cellar

In May 2003, a thief used conveniently placed scaffolding to break into the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria through a first-floor window. The thief stole a gold, ebony and enamel salt cellar created by Benvenuto Cellini that has been valued at approximately $55 million. The sculpture was recovered undamaged in 2006.

6. Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity

 

In October 1969, two thieves entered the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Italy and removed the Caravaggio Nativity, valued at $20 million, from its frame.

7. Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius

In October 1995, it was reported that a $3 million Stradivarius violin made in 1727 had been stolen from the New York City apartment of Erica Morini, a noted concert violinist. 

8. Van Gogh Museum Robery

In December 2002, two thieves used a ladder to climb to the roof and break in to the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In just a few minutes the thieves stole two paintings, valued at $30 million. Dutch police convicted two men in December 2003, but did not recover the paintings. 

9. Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise

On December 31, 1999, during the fireworks that accompanied the celebration of the millennium, a thief broke into the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to steal Cezanne's landscape painting View of Auvers-sur-Oise, valued at £3 million.

10. Theft of Da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder

In August 2003, two men dressed as tourists taking a public tour of Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland, overpowered a young tour guide and stole Leonardo Da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder. Considered to be one of Da Vinci's masterpieces, the value of the painting has been estimated at $65 million. 

 

Many thanks to The FBI for the information.

http://www2.fbi.gov/page2/nov05/toptenart111505.htm

'top ten' image by Sam Churchill  , thanks Sam