Top Ten Biggest Art Heists

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

A picture's worth a lot more than a thousand words

Despite their frequency in movies, art heists are actually fairly rare. Art is hard to move, hard to keep, and hard to sell. And, art thieves aren't always the most educated about what pieces are worth. But, there have been a few high profile (and high cost) capers since the infamous theft of the Mona Lisa. The biggest of all time happened right across town from the Infoplease offices at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  Here are the ten biggest art heists and the high-value paintings that were stolen. These pieces remain at large.

 

Rank Location Painting and value Total value of theft Date
1. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Johannes Vermeer, The Concert, $200 million $500 million March 18, 1990
2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Mass. Rembrandt Van Rijn, Storm of the Sea of Galilee $3.4 million $500 million March 18, 1990
3. Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris, France Pablo Picasso, Le Pigeon Aux Petits Pois or The Pigeon With Green Peas, $30 million $140 million May 20, 2010
4. Czartoryski Museum, Poland Raphael, Portrait of a Young Man, $100 million more than $100 million 1939
5. Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo, Egypt Vincent Van Gogh, Poppy Flowers, $55 million $55 million 2010
6. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Rembrandt Van Rijn, View of the Sea at Scheveningenand Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, $30 million $30 million December 7, 2002
7. Kunsthal Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Seven masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, and Lucian Freud, $24 million $24 million October, 2012
8. Oratory of San Lorenzo, Sicily Caravaggio, Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence , $20 million $20 million October, 1969
9. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England Paul Cezzane, View of Auvers-sur-Oise, $4.5 million $4.5 million December 31, 1999
10. Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium Jan Van Eyck, The Just Judges, 1 million Belgian francs 1 million Belgian francs April 10, 1934
 
Source: financesonline.com.
.com/world/art/top-art-heists.html
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