Art Theft: Most Famous Cases in History

 

Art theft is an ancient and complicated crime. When you look at some of the most famous cases of art thefts in history, you see thoroughly planned operations that involve art dealers, art fakers, mobsters, ransoms, and millions of dollars. Here you can read about some of the most famous cases of art theft in history. 

The First Theft
In 1473, the Dutch painter Hans Memling's altarpiece of the Last Judgment had two panels stolen, marking the first documented case of art theft. Pirates attacked the ship carrying the triptych from the Netherlands to Florence and took it to the Gdansk cathedral in Poland. Nowadays, the piece is shown at the National Museum in Gdansk, where it was recently moved from the Basilica of the Assumption. 

The most famous theft:
The most famous art theft story involves one of the world's most famous paintings and implicates one of the most famous artists in history as a suspect. The Louver witnessed the theft of the Mona Lisa on the night of August 21, 1911. Soon after, the police arrested and questioned Pablo Picasso, but swiftly released him.

The Parisian police took about two years to solve the mystery. Vincenzo Peruggia, a museum employee, took the 30x21-inch painting and simply carried it under his coat. Nevertheless, Peruggia did not work alone. An art faker, who intended to make copies and sell them as the original painting, sent Eduardo de Valfierno, a notorious con man, to carefully conduct the crime.

Yves Chaudron, the art faker, was busy creating copies of the famous masterpiece while the Mona Lisa remained hidden in Peruggia's apartment. After two years in which Peruggia did not hear from Chaudron, he tried to make the best out of his stolen goods. Eventually, the police caught Peruggia as he attempted to sell the painting to an art dealer from Florence, Italy. In 1913, the Louver received the Mona Lisa back.

The biggest theft in the USA:
The biggest art theft in the United States took place at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A group of thieves wearing police uniforms broke into the museum on the night of March 18, 1990, taking thirteen paintings with a collective estimated value of around 300 million dollars. The thieves took two paintings and one print by Rembrandt and works of Vermeer, Manet, Degas, and Govaert Flinck, as well as a French and a Chinese artifact.

The case remains unsolved as of yet, with no paintings found. Recent rumors suggest that the FBI is probing potential connections between the crime and the Boston Mob and French art dealers.

The Scream:
The painting by Edvard Munchs, The Scream, is probably the most sought-after painting by art thieves in history. The thieves have stolen it twice and only recently recovered it. Two thieves stole The Scream from an Oslo gallery during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. They broke through an open window, set off the alarm, and left a note saying, "Thanks for the poor security."

Three months later, the holders of the painting approached the Norwegian government with an offer: 1 million dollars in ransom for Edvard Munch's The Scream. The government turned down the offer, but the Norwegian police collaborated with the British Police and the Getty Museum to organize a sting operation that brought the painting back to where it belongs. 

Ten years later, the Munch Museum once again fell victim to theft of The Scream. This time, the robbers used a gun and took another of Munch's paintings with them. Rumors circulated that the thieves burned both paintings to conceal evidence, while museum officials waited for them to request ransom money. The Norwegian police eventually found the two paintings on August 31, 2006, but the details of their recovery remain unknown.

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