It's not always banks and jewelers that get targeted by thieves endeavoring to steal millions worth of goods. Very often the targets are, in fact, museums and art galleries, and the thieves often have their bullseye set on specific targets. Famous paintings and expensive artworks often become their primary objective. Hence, many famous stolen paintings have fallen victim to the hands of burglars. And although some stolen paintings have been returned to their owners' hands, many's whereabouts remain a mystery.
Arguably the biggest art theft in history, dubbed the Gardner heist or the 1990 theft, in which 13 works of art were stolen, remains a mystery even 30 years later. Among the famous stolen paintings still missing are works by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and many other masterminds who probably never imagined their artworks would ever be worth millions and sought after by federal agencies all over the world. However, the pitfall for both the investigators and the burglars is that stolen artwork is often "too famous to fence." This implies that the criminals are stuck with something they can't sell, which, to a certain degree, complicates the process of tracking down the lost paintings. However, not all hope is lost since the search for the stolen paintings has never ceased, and numerous famous paintings have already made it safely to their rightful owners.
If the history of art theft is something you want to learn more about, below, we've compiled a list of stolen paintings with some background information on how they were stolen. Other than that, we've made it clear to indicate which of the stolen paintings were recovered and which ones are still missing. As always, upvote your favorite pieces and let us know if you know any more details regarding any of the theft cases! And although we do our best to fact-check the information we provide, we would highly appreciate you letting us know if you spot any errors and inaccuracies. And now, on to investigating!
#1 The Scream By Edvard Munch
Stolen in 2004 | Retrieved in 2006
The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, were stolen in 2004. The artworks were reportedly stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo by two armed robbers when the museum was crowded with tourists. It was only two years later, in 2006, that the Oslo police found the artworks. The paintings were mainly undamaged, despite some minor damage. And although the thieves' motivations are still a mystery to art aficionados, it is believed that they probably had nothing to do with the paintings' monetary value.
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#2 The White Duck By Jean-Baptiste Oudry
Stolen in 1992 | Still missing
The White Duck was stolen from Houghton Hall, England, in 1992; it has been regarded as missing ever since. A burglar stole this painting by creating a smokescreen to foil surveillance cameras. After activating a smoke canister, the robber used a small fan to disperse the smoke and block the view of the closed-circuit cameras in the gallery before removing the artwork from its frame and fleeing.
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#3 Mona Lisa By Leonardo Da Vinci
Stolen in 1911 | Retrieved in 1913
It's believed that the Mona Lisa's theft from the Louvre in 1911 contributed to its status as one of the most famous works of art across the whole globe. Apparently, a handyman at the Louvre who was creating glass cases for artworks was the one who took it. He waited until dusk to sneak out with the picture by hiding in a closet. The painting was retrieved in 1913 after the burglar contacted an art dealer and a gallery and said he intended to return it to Italy.
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#4 Impression, Sunrise By Claude Monet
Stolen in 1985 | Retrieved in 1990
The painting and eight other Impressionist works were stolen from Marmottan Museum in Paris in 1985 by a group of seven (other sources claim that five) armed robbers who stole the artworks while forcing a guard and visitors to lie on the floor. All nine were retrieved from a villa on the French island of Corsica in 1990. According to The New York Times and the curator of the Marmottan Museum, Arnaud d'Hauterives, Monet's painting suffered no damage "except that of being shut up in a cubbyhole for five years."
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#5 Beach In Pourville By Claude Monet
Stolen in 2000 | Retrieved in 2010
In 2000, the painting was stolen from the Pozna National Museum in Poland. It was removed from its frame and swapped out for a replica that had been painted on cardboard. Police were looking for a man seen sketching paintings in a museum two days prior. The artwork was found in 2010, after more than 9 years of searching, when police officers showed up at the home of Olkusz bricklayer Robert Z. They searched the house and found it hidden behind a closet wall and, thankfully, in good shape.
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#6 Poppy Flowers By Vincent Van Gogh
Stolen in 2010 | Still missing
Known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase With Flowers, the first time the renowned painting by this Dutch painter got stolen was in 1887 from Cairo's Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Egypt. It was recovered in an undisclosed location in Kuwait after a decade-long search, only to go missing again in August 2010. According to Reuters, Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian billionaire, has pledged a $175,300 reward for information that leads to recovering a stolen Van Gogh artwork.
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#7 The Potato Eaters By Vincent Van Gogh
Stolen in 1988 | Retrieved 35 minutes after
The Potato Eaters has become a target of theft twice. The first time was in 1988 when the thieves stole it from the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. However, the police recovered it soon enough, in 1989. The second robbery attempt occurred in 1991, when 20 famous artworks, including the finished version of The Potato Eaters, were stolen from the Vincent van Gogh National Museum in the Netherlands. Their getaway vehicle, however, had a flat tire, forcing the robbers to leave and abandon the artworks. Thus, the paintings were found 35 minutes after the heist.
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#8 A Lady And Gentleman In Black By Rembrandt
Stolen in 1990 | Still missing
Before being stolen in 1990, Rembrandt's A Lady and Gentleman in Black hung in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts. The 1990 theft saw a total of thirteen works of art being stolen. Apparently, two individuals who posed as police officers were let in by the guards and robbed the museum while the guards were bound over the following hour. No arrests have been made, and the case remains unsolved. The works, which have a collective worth of $500 million, have never been recovered.
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#9 Nativity With St. Francis And St. Lawrence By Caravaggio
Stolen in 1969 | Still missing
Allegedly, two thieves stole the picture from its location at Palermo chapel in Sicily's capital in October 1969. They removed the painting from its frame and grabbed a carpet that, according to the authorities, was used to roll up the artwork. Although speculations suggest that the Sicilian mafia was responsible for the crime, no one is certain who took the outstanding work of art. And even though its value has skyrocketed ever since, the artwork was never retrieved.
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#10 Blossoming Chestnut Branches By Vincent Van Gogh
Stolen in 2008 | Retrieved 9 days later
In February 2008, a high-profile robbery from a private gallery in Zürich, Switzerland, resulted in the disappearance of four artworks, Blossoming Chestnut Branches being one of them. The other three works were Paul Cezanne's Boy in the Red Waistcoat, Claude Monet's Poppies near Vétheuil, and Edgar Degas' Count Lepic and His Daughters. Together with Monet's piece, Van Gogh's painting was discovered nine days later in a parked car in Zürich and delivered undamaged back to the gallery.
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#11 The Concert By Johannes Vermeer
Stolen in 1990 | Still missing
The Concert is another one of the 13 paintings stolen on March 18, 1990, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, all of which remain missing. According to some experts, Vermeer's masterpiece could be the world's most expensive object ever stolen. In 2015, it was valued at $250 million.
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#12 Portrait Of A Young Man By Raphael
Stolen in 1945 | Still missing
The painting was last seen at Wawel Royal Castle, Poland, in 1945. In 2012, it was reported to have been found, but the claims were false. Hence the artwork's whereabouts and the details of how it went missing remain unknown. The painting's original empty frame is currently displayed in the Krakow National Museum. The museum is offering a reward of 100 million dollars for its recovery.
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#13 View Of Auvers-Sur-Oise By Paul Cézanne
Stolen in 1999 | Still missing
As part of the worldwide millennium celebrations, as expected, fireworks were let off in Oxford, England, at midnight on December 31, 1999. Allegedly, a burglar used the noise and distraction to break into the Ashmolean Museum and steal Cezanne’s landscape painting View of Auvers-sur-Oise, valued at £3 million at the time. Cézanne's painting seemed to be the only target of the burglar, who only appeared to enter the room where the artwork was hanging. The painting was never retrieved.
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#14 Light And Colour By Joseph Mallord William Turner
Stolen in 1994 | Retrieved in 2002
Light and Colour was among three paintings stolen in Frankfurt art theft in 1994. Another work of his, Shade and Darkness, was also stolen. According to BBC, although it's believed the mastermind behind the robbery was a member of Frankfurt's Balkan mafia, only the two known thieves and a handler were ever found guilty. This case of art theft stands out because of how two stolen artworks were recovered. Allegedly, the two artworks were recovered by purchasing them back from the thieves after the Tate had paid a reputable middleman several million pounds.
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#15 The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee By Rembrandt
Stolen in 1990 | Still missing
The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee also fell victim to the massive art theft that happened on the morning of March 18, 1990, when two men posing as police officers broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and took 13 paintings. To this day, this theft is considered the biggest art theft in U.S. history and remains unsolved. Hence, this and other famous paintings' whereabouts have remained unknown since 1990.
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#16 Allegory Of The Earth By Jan Brueghel The Elder
Stolen in 2007 | Retrieved in 2008
Jan Brueghel the Elder created a series of paintings titled Allegory of the Earth. One of these paintings, with three others, was stolen from an art museum in Nice, France, in 2007. A year later, in 2008, four stolen artworks were found undamaged in a car near the city of Marseille, France. Apparently, the masked gunmen who were holding staff members and visitors hostage took the artworks. According to The New York Times, more than ten people, as reported by police, were detained in relation to the incident.
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#17 Beach At Scheveningen In Stormy Weather By Vincent Van Gogh
Stolen in 2002 | Retrieved in 2016
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam owned Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather from 1989 until 2002, when it was stolen with another work of the Dutch painter. It was reported missing for more than 13 years until Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather and other stolen works were found in 2016, close to Naples, Italy, by the Italian police. It was found without its original frame under the kitchen floor of a home linked to Camorra gang leader Raffaele Imperiale. After some restoration, it was returned back to the Van Gogh Museum and put back on display in 2017.
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#18 The Guitar Player By Johannes Vermeer
Stolen in 1974 | Retrieved in 1974
In 1974, a museum guard at Kenwood House in London heard a loud crash, followed by the sound of broken glass. When the guard got there, he saw that someone had used a sledgehammer to break down the museum's shutters and steel-barred ground-floor window, took the artwork off the wall, and fled. Soon after, a half-mile from the Kenwood House, the frame of The Guitar Player was found. Because the glass had been cracked and the frame had sustained damage to one corner, police thought the artwork was also destroyed. But fortunately, that wasn't the case. That same year, after the police received an anonymous tip, the painting was found in a London cemetery. The artwork was damp but other than that, it remained undamaged.
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#19 Saint Jerome Writing By Caravaggio
Stolen in 1984 | Retrieved in 1986
In December 1984, the painting, with the canvas cut out of the frame, was stolen from the St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta. There was just one guide on duty because it was the holiday season. Two years later, the artwork was finally retrieved after numerous telephone negotiations between the thieves and the then Director of Museums in Malta and Gozo, Fr. Marius J. Zerafa. The masterpiece was returned damaged and hence needed restoration before it was put on display again. Allegedly, the thieves were never arrested or imprisoned. Because the case dragged on for years, nobody was left to bring charges against because one burglar passed away after a possible accidental overdose, and the other passed away while the legal process still continued.
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#20 The Crowning Of Saint Catherine By Peter Paul Rubens
Stolen in 1933 | Retrieved in 1945
Allegedly, The Crowning Of Saint Catherine was stolen by one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, Hermann Göring, from Leopold Koppel's, a German art collector’s, private collection. It was found by American soldiers in a salt mine at the end of World War II. Leopold's son Albert eventually recovered it and sold it to the current owner in 1950, along with several other works.
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