Artworks
Stolen, forged, recovered, and disputed objects at the heart of the cases.
Chez Tortoni
Édouard Manet
Mona Lisa
Leonardo's enigmatic portrait, likely of Lisa Gherardini. Its 1911 theft — and the two years it spent missing — turned a well-regarded Renaissance panel into the most recognized painting on earth.
The Concert
One of only around thirty-four surviving Vermeers and among the most valuable stolen objects in the world. Taken from the Gardner in 1990, its whereabouts remain unknown.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Rembrandt's only known seascape, cut from its frame during the 1990 Gardner heist and still missing.
The Scream
An icon of existential dread, Munch produced several versions. The Munch Museum's version was stolen at gunpoint in 2004 and recovered, damaged, two years later.
The Just Judges (Ghent Altarpiece panel)
A lower-left panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 and never recovered — the most sought-after missing artwork in Europe. A painted copy stands in its place.
Madonna
Munch's sensual, radical vision of the Madonna. Taken alongside The Scream in the 2004 armed robbery of the Munch Museum and recovered, damaged, two years later.
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington
Goya's portrait of the Iron Duke, stolen from London's National Gallery in 1961 by Kempton Bunton in protest at the TV licence fee — an episode later dramatised in film. Returned in 1965.
Poppy Flowers (Vase with Viscaria)
A small Van Gogh floral still life, stolen twice from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo — once in 1977, and again in 2010, when it vanished in daylight amid non-functioning alarms and cameras. Still missing.
View of Auvers-sur-Oise
A Cézanne landscape stolen from Oxford's Ashmolean Museum during the millennium fireworks of New Year's Eve 1999. Never recovered.
Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence
Caravaggio's late altarpiece, cut from its frame in a Palermo oratory in 1969 and long linked to the Sicilian Mafia. One of the most-wanted missing paintings in the world.
Portrait of a Young Man
Widely considered the most important painting still missing since the Second World War. Looted by the Nazis from Poland's Czartoryski collection and last seen in 1945. Known today mainly from a pre-war photograph.
Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois
A Cubist Picasso among the five works taken in the 2010 Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris theft. The thief later claimed the paintings were destroyed.
La Pastorale
Henri Matisse
A Fauvist Matisse taken in the 2010 Paris Museum of Modern Art theft, still unaccounted for.
Olive Tree near l'Estaque
A Braque landscape among the five masterpieces lost in the 2010 Paris Modern theft.
Woman with a Fan
Modigliani's elegant portrait, the best-known of the five works stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris in 2010.
Still Life with Chandeliers
A Léger still life, the fifth of the works taken in the 2010 Paris Modern theft.
Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer
A Frans Hals painting so frequently stolen — in 1988, 2011, and 2020 — that it rivals the Dulwich Rembrandt for the title of most-stolen artwork. Recovered each time.
The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring
The early Van Gogh stolen from the Singer Laren museum on the artist's birthday in 2020, during the pandemic closure, and recovered in 2023.
The Painter on the Road to Tarascon
A self-portrait of Van Gogh walking to work, held in Magdeburg and believed destroyed by fire in Germany during the Second World War. Survives only in reproductions.
The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (Ghent Altarpiece)
The monumental van Eyck polyptych — the most stolen artwork in history, coveted by Napoleon and the Nazis alike. Recovered from the Altaussee salt mine in 1945; one panel, the Just Judges, remains missing.
Woman Dressing Her Hair
A wartime Picasso whose ownership and provenance have been the subject of competing claims and legal disputes.
A Summer's Day (Jour d'été)
An Impressionist idyll by Berthe Morisot, among the works swept up in art thefts of the 1970s and later recovered.
Femme Assise
A seated-woman composition by Picasso caught up in wartime displacement and later recovered.
Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III
The small Rembrandt portrait from Dulwich known as 'the Takeaway Rembrandt' — stolen four times and recovered every time, earning it the record for most-frequently-stolen artwork.
The Cellini Salt Cellar (Saliera)
The only surviving gold sculpture by Cellini — the 'Mona Lisa of sculpture' — stolen from Vienna in 2003 and recovered from a forest three years later.
The Taking of Christ
A lost Caravaggio hanging unrecognised for decades in a Dublin Jesuit residence, misattributed to a follower, until its dramatic rediscovery and authentication in 1993.
View of the Sea at Scheveningen
An early Van Gogh seascape stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002 and recovered from a Naples crime family in 2016.
Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen
Painted for Van Gogh's mother, stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002 and recovered in Italy in 2016.
Le Pont d'Argenteuil
A Monet bridge scene associated with thefts from French collections, later recovered.
Impression, Sunrise
The painting that gave Impressionism its name, stolen at gunpoint from the Marmottan in 1985 and recovered in Corsica in 1990.
Charing Cross Bridge
One of Monet's London bridge series, taken in the 2012 Kunsthal Rotterdam heist and feared burned by a suspect's mother.
Waterloo Bridge, London
A companion London bridge canvas taken in the 2012 Kunsthal heist and believed destroyed.
Reading Girl in White and Yellow
A Matisse interior among the seven works taken in the 2012 Kunsthal Rotterdam theft.
The Polish Rider
A Rembrandt (or workshop) equestrian portrait at the Frick Collection — the subject of theft scares and attribution battles, but never successfully stolen.
The Guitar Player
A rare Vermeer at Kenwood House, famously stolen by the IRA in 1974 and recovered — and long a target of theft plots. Now closely guarded.
The Goldfinch
Fabritius's tiny trompe-l'oeil masterpiece, popularised by Donna Tartt's novel of art theft, held safely at the Mauritshuis.
The Blue Boy
Gainsborough's celebrated portrait, whose 1921 sale abroad caused a national outcry in Britain. Now at the Huntington in California.
Program for an Artistic Soirée
One of five Degas works on paper taken in the 1990 Gardner heist and still missing.
Cortège aux Environs de Florence
A Degas drawing among the thirteen works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
Three Mounted Jockeys
A Degas racing scene taken in the Gardner heist and never recovered.
La Sortie de Pesage
Another Degas racecourse study among the Gardner's thirteen missing works.
Self-Portrait (etching)
A postage-stamp-sized Rembrandt self-portrait etching, the smallest of the objects taken in the 1990 Gardner heist.