art heist news stories on Newser

Serbs Recover Stolen $100M Cezanne

Rob Quinn — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:55:05 CDT

Police in Serbia have recovered a masterpiece by Paul Cezanne four years after it was stolen from a Swiss museum in one of Europe's biggest-ever art heists. Four men were arrested as they tried to sell Boy in the Red Vest , which was worth more than $100 million when it...

Stolen Masterpieces 'Crushed by Garbage Truck'

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:31:02 CDT

A Paris watchmaker says he threw out several priceless works of art before being arrested last year, the Telegraph reports. Revealing a 17-month investigation today, police say a Serb nicknamed "Spiderman" stole works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and others from a poorly guarded Paris museum in May 2010. An antiques...

Rembrandt Lifted From LA Hotel

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:19:05 CDT

A small pen-and-ink drawing by Rembrandt was stolen from a California Ritz-Carlton Saturday night in what detectives are calling a "well-thought-out and well-planned theft." The Judgment , an 11-by-6-inch drawing worth more than $250,000, was on display at the Marina del Rey hotel during an exhibit for potential buyers, the...

Recovered $50M Van Gogh Actually ... Still Missing

Evann Gastaldo — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:57:06 CDT

Despite reports of a quick recovery , a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting is still missing from Egypt's Mahmoud Khalil Museum. The minister of culture said police confiscated the artwork, known as Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers , at an airport in Cairo from an Italian couple just hours after...

Cops Quickly Recover Stolen $50M Van Gogh

John Johnson — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:25:00 CDT

A $50 million painting by Vincent van Gogh has gone missing from a museum in Cairo, and it's not the first time. Police in Egypt have put airports and seaports on alert for the artwork, which goes by Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers . It's not clear how thieves got...

Thieves Snag 2nd Picasso in France

Sat, 22 May 2010 08:25:08 CDT

Thugs stole a Picasso lithograph and four paintings from a collector's home yesterday in Marseille, on the heels of the $123 million art heist from Paris' Museum of Modern Art. Judicial police said today that two men managed to get past two security gates yesterday at the home of the...

The 20th Century's Biggest Art Heists

Evann Gastaldo — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:15:00 CDT

Yesterday’s massive theft from the Paris Museum of Modern Art is already being called the “heist of the century,” although we have a few years yet to see how it holds up. The Independent looked over the 20th century and compiled a list of 10 major art thefts. View a...

Why We Love Gutsy Art Heists

Jane Yager — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:46:17 CDT

Sure, it was a tragic loss when a thief made off with a priceless haul of Picasso, Matisse, and Braque paintings yesterday. But it was also a pretty great story, Paul Farhi writes in the Washington Post . Big art heists "aren't like ordinary crimes, which are dreary and depressing," Farhi...

Paris Heist Museum's Alarm Was On the Fritz

John Johnson — Fri, 21 May 2010 05:21:00 CDT

So how does a lone thief manage to steal five masterpieces from a museum? It doesn't help when the alarm isn't working. The mayor of Paris says one of the systems at the Museum of Modern Art had been "partially malfunctioning" since March, reports ABC News of Australia . The investigation...