Thefts That Are Works of Art

Artworks are among the most coveted items by thieves, and their methods to acquire them bring them closer to their creators: they are only matched by criminal artists, capable of turning their object of desire into a challenge. This is increasingly true as surveillance systems improve, thus raising the logistical challenge.

Some of the most spectacular thefts have occurred in the 21st century. However, if the value of the items stolen in Dresden is confirmed, one would have to go back to 1990 to find something similar. On March 18 of that year, the disappearance of 13 paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (USA) was discovered, valued at about 500 million dollars (approximately 450 million euros). Two men posed as police officers, subdued two guards, and took jewels by artists such as Edgar Degas (5), Rembrandt (3), Manet, and Vermeer. The American FBI still ranks it as the top art theft on their list.

In 2010, five works by Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, and Fernand Léger were taken from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Their value could approach 200 million euros. Two years earlier, the Zurich Museum (Switzerland) was targeted, with four works by Cézanne, Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas stolen. The four were valued at over 112 million, although two were recovered. A similar amount was catalogued for the seven paintings by Monet, Picasso, Gauguin, and Matisse stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam (Netherlands) in 2012.

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch is a particularly cursed painting. It was stolen in 1994 in Oslo in broad daylight. It disappeared again ten years later and was recovered by the Norwegian police.

Not even "The Mona Lisa," Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work, escaped the greed of others. It was taken from the Paris Louvre in 1911. It reappeared two years later when the thief tried to claim a ransom of 500,000 pounds of the time. Sometimes the objective was not financial. In 1961, a British pensioner took the portrait Francisco de Goya made of the Duke of Wellington. In return, he only wanted the fees pensioners pay to watch television to be reduced.