The definitive record of art crime, law, and controversy.
From antiquity to the present — an interconnected archive of the thefts, forgeries, investigations, artists, institutions, and legal battles that have shaped the history of art.
From the Casebook
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The Stephen Shih Rodin Theft
The armed robbery that exposed how vulnerable museums could be
On Thanksgiving Day 1988, Stephen Shih walked into Philadelphia's Rodin Museum with a handgun, handcuffed three guards, fired a warning shot, and strolled out with Rodin's 'Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose'. It was recovered four months later near a basement furnace.
The Getty Museum Repatriation Cases
How the world's richest museum was forced to give its treasures back
The J. Paul Getty Museum, the wealthiest art institution in the world, was forced to return around 40 looted antiquities to Italy and Greece after investigators traced them to illicit excavations — and to put its own curator on trial.
Switzerland Returns the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria
Colonial loot, a century later, begins the journey home
Looted by a British punitive expedition in 1897 and scattered across Western museums, the Benin Bronzes have become the defining test of colonial-era restitution — with Switzerland and others now returning them to Nigeria.
France Returns Looted Syrian Antiquities
Blood antiquities from a war zone, intercepted and sent home
As Syria's civil war fuelled a flood of looted antiquities onto the market, France intercepted and returned a group of trafficked objects — part of a wider fight against the 'blood antiquities' financing conflict.
The Knoedler Gallery Forgery Scandal
How America's oldest art gallery sold more than $80 million in fake masterpieces
For over 15 years, the venerable Knoedler gallery sold some 40 forged Abstract Expressionist paintings — fake Rothkos, Pollocks, and de Koonings painted in a Queens garage — for around $80 million, before the fraud collapsed the 165-year-old institution.
The Greenhalgh 'Garden Shed' Forgeries
A family that faked 5,000 years of art history from a council house
From a garden shed behind a Bolton council house, Shaun Greenhalgh and his elderly parents forged artworks spanning 5,000 years — most famously the 'Amarna Princess', which Bolton Museum bought for £440,000 as a 3,300-year-old Egyptian masterpiece.
Every case, mapped where it happened.
From the Louvre to Boston, Baghdad to São Paulo — trace the geography of art crime across the archive. Filter by theft, forgery, looting, and more, then open any point to read the dossier.
Essays & Criticism
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Museum Mishaps
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WatchSissi Belle: 9yr old Anti-Establishment "Rebel Girl"
A father defended his daughter's decision to climb onto a multimillion-dollar Donald Judd sculpture as "anti-establishment". The Tate Modern was less impressed.
WatchThe Little Brats and The Large Glass
Artist Shelly Xue embraces the mishap
WatchThe Hug That Cost $132,000
A five-year-old, a glass Aphrodite, and a very expensive embrace
During a wedding reception, a five-year-old boy wrapped his arms around Bill Lyons' six-foot glass sculpture 'Aphrodite di Kansas City'. Seconds later it tipped forward and shattered beyond repair.
Who's Afraid of a Red, Yellow and Boxcutter
The painting vandalized, restored, and then vandalized by its own restoration
Dutch painter Gerard Jan van Bladeren slashed Barnett Newman's monumental 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III' dozens of times — and its controversial restoration was later attacked as more damaging than the knife.