XCF267426 (detail) The Duke of Wellington, 1812-14 (oil on panel)/ Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes/ National Gallery, London, UK
The National Gallery, London (1961)
In 1961, the oil-rich collector Charles Wrightsman purchased Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington for $392,000, with intentions to bring it to the United States. The painting was restored to the UK and while hanging in the National Gallery in London, was stolen by an unemployed bus driver, Kempton Bunton, who climbed in through a bathroom window. The thief demanded a ransom, with a scheme purporting that he wanted to use it to buy TV licenses for the poor. The painting was recovered four years later and the publicity-hungry thief spent only three months in jail for his offense.
DPG18437 (detail) Jacob III de Gheyn (oil on panel) by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn/ Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK
Rembrandt's Jacob de Gheyn III
Rembrandt's masterpiece, Jacob de Gheyn III, holds the record for the most thefts of a single piece of artwork, earning it's nickname, 'takeaway Rembrandt'. The pocket-sized portrait disappeared from Britain's Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1981 and was recovered months later in the possession of four men in a taxi. Within two years, a burglar shattered the Gallery's skylight and plunged from the roof to steal the painting, which was subsequently found in a British Army train station luggage rack in 1986. To add to the bevy of mysterious disappearances, the painting has also been retrieved from beneath a bench in a graveyard and on a bicycle.
BAL2851 (detail) The Scream, 1893 (oil, tempera & pastel on cardboard) by Edvard Munch/ Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway
National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway (1994)
Thieves exploited the moment during the opening of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics when most of Norway was watching to break into the National Art Museum and cut Edvard Munch's most famous version of The Scream from the wall with wire cutters. It took the thieves just 50 seconds to walk away with the iconic and universal symbol of human anguish. The painting was recovered several months later.
AMO098741 Auvers-sur-Oise (oil on canvas) by Paul Cezanne/ Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (1999)
On December 31, 1999, employing the diversion of fireworks and festivities that accompanied the celebration of the millennium, a thief broke into the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford to steal Cezanne's landscape painting, View of Auvers-sur-Oise. Valued at approximately $5 million, the painting has been described as a pivotal piece demonstrating the transition in Cezanne's prolific body of work, from his early technique to his more mature paintings. More than a decade later, the painting has not been recovered.
XIR379775 (detail) Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (oil on canvas) by Pablo Picasso/ Museu de Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Giraudon/ DACS
Sao Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil (2007)
How long does it take to steal artworks worth $56 million? Three minutes, is the answer. In a 2001 blitz of an invasion, three thieves raided the Sao Paulo Museum of Art and stole Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch and Candido Portinari's O lavrador de cafe. After arresting two of the culprits, the police recovered the paintings and in an escort cushioned by 100 police officers, brought them back to the museum.
XTD68227 Blossoming Chesnut Branches, 1890 (oil on canvas) by Vincent van Gogh/ Buhrle Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Emil Buehrle Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland (2008)
In broad daylight on February 18, 2008 three men wearing ski masks and armed with one pistol, stole four masterworks worth a total of $163 million from the Emil Buehrle Foundation in Zurich. Monet's Poppies near Vetheuil and Van Gogh's Blossoming Chesnut Branches were found shortly after the theft in an unlocked parked car. Edgar Degas' Ludovic Lepic and his Daughters and Cezanne's Boy in the Red Vest remain to be recovered.
PHD494 (detail) The Madonna, 1894/5 (oil on canvas) by Edvard Munch/ Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway
The Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway (2004)
Ten years after the Olympics theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream, two men entered The Munch Museum, kept staff at gunpoint and pilfered another version of Munch's The Scream and The Madonna from the walls. They escaped with the help of at least one more accomplice. Fortunately, the cultural treasures never left Norway and were found in better condition than feared several years later. They returned to display in September of 2006.
And....last but not least, The Louvre (1911)
As audacious art heists go, the theft of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa from The Louvre in 1911 ranks pretty high. The work was stolen after an Italian employee of the museum, Vincenzo Peruggia, while alone in the room in which the work was displayed, simply slipped it under his smock and walked out of the door. Peruggia believed the work should be reclaimed by his country, as the French national collection boasted too many Italian works. Peruggia kept it in his apartment for two years, until he was caught while trying to sell it to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He was jailed for just a few months and was hailed as a hero by the Italian public. The work finally made its way back to The Louvre in 1913.
RVI247369 Mugshot of Vincenzo Peruggia, 25th January, 1914 (b/w photo) by French Photographer, Private Collection/ Roger-Violler, Paris
RVI247370 The return of the Mona Lisa to the Louvre, January 1914 (b/w photo) by French Photographer/ Private Collection, Roger-Violler, Paris