What is the most famous art theft in history?

Empty frames, cut alarms and case files that stayed open for decades. A few of these were solved; several never were.

1

The Mona Lisa theft

Vincenzo Peruggia walked the painting out of the Louvre on 21 August 1911 and kept it for two years.

2

Isabella Stewart Gardner heist

Two men in police uniforms took 13 works from the Boston museum on 18 March 1990; none have been recovered.

3

The Ghent Altarpiece panel

Van Eyck's Just Judges panel vanished in 1934 and has never been found.

4

The Scream, Oslo 1994

Thieves took Munch's painting from the National Gallery during the Lillehammer Olympics and left a thank-you note.

5

The Scream, Munch Museum 2004

Armed men seized The Scream and Madonna in daylight in front of visitors.

6

The Louvre jewel heist

Thieves cut into the Galerie d'Apollon in October 2025 and were out in minutes with crown jewels.

7

The Dresden Green Vault raid

A 2019 break-in stripped Saxon royal jewels from one of Europe's oldest treasure chambers.

8

The Kunsthal Rotterdam raid

Seven paintings taken in 2012; a suspect's mother said she burned them in a stove.

9

Van Gogh Museum burglary

Two Van Goghs stolen in 2002 turned up in 2016 in a Naples farmhouse belonging to the Camorra.

10

The theft of the Duke of Wellington

Goya's portrait vanished from the National Gallery in 1961 and later appeared in a James Bond film set.

11

The Antwerp Diamond Centre job

A vault holding more than 100 million dollars in stones was emptied in 2003 without an alarm sounding.

12

The Stockholm National Museum raid

A 2000 armed robbery took a Rembrandt self-portrait and two Renoirs, with car bombs as a diversion.