The most famous painting abductions October 22nd, 2012

On Tuesday night, 7 masterpieces were stolen from the Kunstel Museum in Rotterdam, including paintings by Picasso, Mastissa, Monet and Gauguin.

This robbery was the largest robbery that took place in Holland in the last 20 years. One of the paintings is famous "Waterloo Bridge" Claude Monet. Thieves sometimes use the most incredible ways to commit their crimes. Learn about the most famous painting thefts.

1) Abduction "Mona Lisa" Leonardo da Vinci

More than a hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "Mona Lisa" became the most famous painting in the world after it was stolen from a museum Louvre in Paris on August 21, 1911.

Stolen by a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed to have fallen in love with the Mona Lisa as soon as he looked into her eyes, the painting sat in his kitchen for two years. "La Gioconda", another name for this unique painting, became a worldwide sensation. The notoriety was helpful in finding the painting, as it was impossible to sell it to any collector willing to shell out.

Peruggia, a Parisian worker who once worked at the Louvre, simply pulled the painting off the wall the day the museum closed and left the building, hiding the masterpiece under his clothes. Although the thief claimed he stole the painting for patriotic reasons, the prospect of making a ton of money from the sale of the painting was the true motive behind the theft. The Italians, of course, never forgot about the origin of the painting, so they actively advocated returning the painting to Florence. This heist became one of the most famous painting thefts in history.

2) The Most Successful Picture Thief

Stefan Breitwieser is arguably the most successful art thief in history, at least it could be called until he was caught.

A waiter, self-taught art historian and traveler, Brightwieser stole a total of 239 pieces between 1995 and 2001, worth $1.4 billion.

He was caught in November 2001 right at the scene of a crime in Lucerne, Switzerland. According to the press, after Breitviser's arrest, his mother burned more than 60 stolen masterpieces.

For his crimes, Brightviser received 3 years, but served only 26 months in prison, and his mother was convicted as an accomplice and spent 18 months in prison.

3) The largest robbery of the American Museum of Art

On March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as police officers entered Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest robbery in US history, which has not yet been solved. The thieves handcuffed the night watchmen of the museum under the pretext that they had a warrant for their arrest.

Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. According to some estimates, the value of one of the stolen paintings was $200 million. This "Concert" Jan Vermeer, written in the second half of the 17th century.

Also among the 13 stolen masterpieces was a painting by Rembrandt "Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee". The cost of all the stolen paintings was estimated at 300 million dollars, however, some experts argued that these paintings could be worth much more.

Many of the paintings were cut out of their frames, which led investigators to assume that the perpetrators did not really understand something about art.

4) Robbery of the Munch Museum in Oslo

On 22 August 2004, masked armed men entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch "Scream" And "Madonna". The masterpieces were found by the police in 2006, and each of the paintings showed signs of damage, so it took another 2 years for their restoration before they returned to their place in the museum.

"Scream" - the most famous picture artist and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its cost is 82 million dollars, according to the publication The Telegraph.

5) Robbery of a museum in Zurich

In February 2008, armed men broke into the museum Collection of the Emil Bührle Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland and stole 4 masterpieces worth $140 million. This is the largest theft of works of art in Swiss history.

Painting "Poppy field near Vetheuil" Claude Monet was one of the stolen paintings (pictured). Also, the criminals took away such masterpieces as Ludovic Lepic and his daughters Edgar Degas, "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" Vincent van Gogh and "The Boy in the Red Vest" Paul Cezanne.. Paintings by Van Gogh and Monet were quickly discovered by the police and returned to the museum, the rest disappeared without a trace.

6) Robbery of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam

On May 21, 1988, thieves smashed the first floor window of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam, Holland and stole 3 paintings worth $52 million, according to the Associated Press. Today, the cost of these paintings is $ 100 million, adjusted for inflation.

This robbery was the largest Dutch history, but fortunately, the paintings were discovered after 2 weeks, when the criminals made an attempt to sell the booty.

One of the most famous and recognizable paintings of the Van Gogh series "Sunflowers"(second version, 1889) was one of the stolen works.

7) Museum robbery in Rio de Janeiro

"Luxembourg Garden" Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from the Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, when the whole city was resting during the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and fled with the works of such famous artists like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

The paintings have yet to be found, and their value has never been determined, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

8) The Abduction of the "Madonna with a Spindle" by Leonardo da Vinci

"Mona Lisa"- not the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which was once laid eyes on the robbers. In August 2003, criminals disguised as ordinary tourists visited Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland and took the painting with them. "Madonna with a spindle", hiding in a Volkswagen Golf car. The castle museum contains famous paintings such artists as da Vinci, Rembrandt and Hans Holbein, with a total cost of about 650 million dollars.

The canvas of Leonardo, written by the famous artist 500 years ago, is estimated at 65 million dollars. Fortunately, it was discovered 4 years later in Glasgow. 4 people were arrested and convicted for involvement in the crime.

9) Robbery of the National Museum in Stockholm

December 22, 2000 from National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir disappeared "Young Parisian" And "Conversation with the gardener" as well as Rembrandt's self-portrait. Three men, one of whom threatened the guard with a machine gun, managed to escape with the famous canvases in just a few minutes.

According to reports BBC News, the police suspect that the robbers were assisted in the commission of this crime. At a time when a crime was being committed in the museum, the police were distracted by a call about a car on fire, and just at the moment when the alarm went off in the museum.

"Conversation with the gardener" was unexpectedly discovered during a roundup of drug dealers, and two other paintings were found in 2005. According to the FBI, the total cost of these three paintings is $30 million.

10) Robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

Robbery Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Holland) in April 1991, which resulted in the theft of as many as 20 canvases, can be called the fastest discovered theft of paintings in history. All works were found 35 minutes later in the kidnappers' car, the paper said. New York Times.

The robbers committed the crime after they hid in the museum after it closed. At around 3:00 a.m., they emerged from their hiding place wearing stocking masks with cutouts for the eyes to hide their identities.

Among the stolen paintings was a painting "Potato Eaters" Van Gogh from his early creativity. The total value of all stolen paintings is about $500 million. Unfortunately, almost all the paintings were damaged, especially three of them.

Sometimes the crime scene itself betrays the attacker. Or rather, the evidence left on it, the presence of unwitting witnesses and the extraordinary behavior of thieves.

For example, in 2000 in the National Museum in Stockholm there was a daring theft of three paintings of two famous artists: Renoir and Rembrandt. The kidnapping was planned by a criminal group of people who knew a lot about. After all, the total value of the paintings is at least $ 30 million. Their craving for adventure betrayed them. They boarded a motorboat and left the scene, leaving behind a crowd of onlookers. As a result, about six months later, the kidnapping case was solved.

An almost comical incident occurred in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The thieves of the two paintings worked very energetically and even managed to escape from the police. This time, the thieves were summed up by banal haste, because the “blunders” left their hats at the place of the theft. And, of course, they had hair. Thanks to the obtained DNA samples, the villains were immediately subjected to a righteous judgment.

There were cases when the canvases in art galleries calmly carried away in broad daylight, despite the vigilant attention of many guards. The Scottish castle of Drumlanriga still remembers how robbers in 2003 pretended to be police officers and told their tour group that they were conducting exercises so that people would not panic when they began to take away the painting “Madonna with a spindle” by Leonardo da Vinci. And one of the most grandiose robberies took place at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. There, by deception, 13 paintings were taken out with a total value of $ 500 million.

At times, paintings are searched for in places where thieves try to sell them. These can be websites and colorfully designed auction catalogs with photos of works of art posted in them. Masterpieces can easily be found in the private homes of the unsuspecting owners who bought them. It is natural that in order to search for the loss, it is often necessary to conduct a carefully planned operation with the participation of special services.

In addition, there are many interesting facts about the theft of paintings. For example, sometimes innocent people fall under suspicion, that is, talented artists who make copies of popular paintings. It is interesting that in the entire history of mankind, paintings by the artist Picasso were most often stolen. It also turned out that most of the kidnappers that they managed to expose hid their acquisitions in cemeteries and in storage rooms. It is noteworthy that legendary painting Rembrandt because of its rather small size (29.99 / 24.99 cm) managed to steal as many as 4 times.

The motivation of thieves may defy any logic. For example, paintings were sometimes stolen not for the purpose of profit and resale, but because of the love of art. A connoisseur of beauty and antiquity, Stefan Breitwieser, in just 7 years of traveling around Europe, stole over 200 different antiques, including paintings. All this he collected exclusively for his house.

The goals of the kidnappers may even deserve respect. For example, the Italian Vincenzo Perugia, who worked in art gallery Louvre, was a patriot of his country. And for this reason, I decided to take masterpieces home Italian painting. It is natural that public opinion he was fully supported, and he escaped punishment.

From all of the above, we can conclude that the fate of the stolen paintings can be very difficult to trace. That is why it takes many years to find them.

The owner of the estate - Baronet Sir Alfred Bate, one of the owners of the De Beers diamond firm, owns one of the world's best private collections of paintings by old masters.
The first theft - April 1974. An armed Irish Republican Army gang of five men broke into Bate's home. The gang was led by Bridget-Rose Dugdale, the daughter of the director of the Lloyd Insurance Company and a friend of the Bate family. The raiders tied the Bate couple and all the servants, and then placed 19 paintings in the truck, including the most valuable - "Lady with a servant, writing a letter"Wermeer. A few months later, Dugdale was taken along with the paintings in an abandoned cottage. Upon arrest, she offered armed resistance and received nine years in prison. After imprisonment, she changed her name and now works as a teacher.
The second theft - May 1986. At two o'clock in the morning the alarm went off. The watchman called the police, they went around the building from all sides, but did not notice anything. Only the next morning they discovered the loss of 18 paintings: including again Vermeer, Goya, two Rubens and Gainsborough. The robbery was carried out by the gang of Martin Cahill, nicknamed The General. The criminals deliberately set off the alarm. Then they watched the police search the building, and broke into the house in the short time between the end of the search and the next activation of the alarm. Police soon found 7 paintings along with an abandoned car, the remaining 11 went into the "mirror" of the underworld and were found many years later.
The third theft - June 2001. At 12:40 a.m., a Jeep rammed the front door of Russboro. Three robbers in black masks broke into the house. There they stole a painting by Bellotto and for the third time Gainsborough's "Portrait of Madame Bacelli". The whole operation took three minutes. The paintings were found in Dublin a year later. The fourth theft - September 2002. At 5 am the siren wailed. The criminals knocked out a window from the back facade of the house. 5 paintings were stolen, including a painting by Rubens "Dominican Monk". The plan worked thanks to the incredible efficiency: changing cars several times, the criminals broke away from the police who came to the rescue. Three months later, detectives seized all the paintings from dealers in Dublin. With the General's light hand, the Russboro robbery became something of a rite of passage for every new leader of the Irish mob. The Bate family decided not to tempt fate and donated most of the paintings National Museum in Dublin.

The cultural heritage of humanity is greatest works that have been worked on the best masters. Someone put their soul into paintings, and someone created ideal curves in the form of sculptures. Today, the best works of art are kept under protection in museums, and their value at auctions reaches tens of millions of dollars.

But sometimes there is a temptation to steal a masterpiece. Attackers do not always demand a ransom for it or sell it to private collectors. It happens that the creations of geniuses simply disappear. The police, collectors, bounty hunters are after them, but they can't find them. Here is a list of the most famous stolen works of art that remain lost.

Stradivarius violin by Davidoff-Morini. Possession of a Stradivarius violin for a musician is like possession of the Holy Grail. It is believed that this instrument has a high-quality and rich sound. Stradivari created an instrument that, even after centuries of use, has not lost its unique qualities. You just need to take care of these unique violins. It is believed that up to today only about 650 original musical instruments from a medieval master. By the way, these are not only violins, but also violas, cellos, harps, guitars and mandolins. All museums consider it an honor to have at their disposal the creation of Stradivarius. There are his works not only in private collections, but in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Stradivarius Museum in Cremona, Italy. And in October 1995, a unique creation of the master, dated 1727, was stolen from the apartment of the violinist Erica Morini in New York. The approximate cost of the rarity was three million dollars. The mistress herself died shortly after the robbery, unable to bear the bitterness of loss. However, at that time she was already 91 years old. And that theft is still on the FBI's list of the top 10 art crimes. The unique violin is listed as lost and no one knows where it is now.

Painting by Won Gogh "View of the sea at Scheveningen". On December 7 at about 8 am, a pair of unknown robbers climbed onto the roof of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. From there, the thieves were able to get inside the premises. Out of all the variety of paintings, the attackers took only two: “View of the sea at Scheveningen” and “The flock leaving the reformist church in Neunen.” Van Gogh painted both works between 1882 and 1884. It is believed that at this time the artist created his best masterpieces. And the total cost of the paintings is about 30 million dollars. The museum's official website states that Van Gogh painted this picture while on beach resort Scheveningen near The Hague. The poor artist had to literally fight the weather - there was a strong gusty wind that lifted grains of sand into the air and made them stick to the paint. And although Van Gogh cleaned the sand from the paint, its remains can be found in some layers on the canvas. In 2004, two people were arrested on charges of theft. They were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, but the paintings were never found. The museum announced a reward of 100,000 euros to those who give some information about the whereabouts of art objects.

Painting by Pablo Picasso "Dove with green peas". This theft turned out to be rather strange. The incident took place on May 20, 2010 in Paris, at about 7 am. From the local museum contemporary art five paintings were stolen with a total value of 100 million euros. One of them was Picasso's masterpiece "Dove with Green Peas", created in 1911. To get into the museum, the thief simply broke the window and broke the lock. The criminal turned out to be so dexterous that he managed not to cut out the paintings with a knife, but quickly and carefully pull them out of the frames. The surveillance camera showed that one single thief was operating, and not a whole gang. The police found someone who could be him. The thief was convicted in 2011. But he said that after the theft, he panicked and simply threw the paintings into the trash. The history is in doubt, and the paintings are still considered missing.

Painting by Paul Gauguin "Girl at the open window". This Gauguin masterpiece was created by him in 1888, and it was stolen relatively recently - in October 2012. The crime was committed at the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, Holland. Along with the painting by Gauguin, six more paintings by such famous artists as Picasso, Monet, Matisse and Lucian Freud were missing. The thieves entered the museum at about 3 am. In just three minutes, they rushed through the museum, took seven paintings and left. The police who arrived at the scene just shrugged. The approximate value of the stolen masterpieces is 18 million euros. But already in November, the first suspect, Radu Dogaru, was arrested. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. On December 6, a second intruder, Adrian Prokop, was also arrested in Berlin. But the paintings were never found.

Painting by Jan Vermeer "Concert". One of the most famous masters of the 17th century is the Dutchman Jan Vermeer. Today, almost all of his paintings are in museums or the Royal Collection in London. One of the most famous paintings by Vermeer was the "Concert", created by him in 1664. The canvas depicts a couple of women and a man playing music in a dimly lit living room. As early as 1892, the Parisian art historian Theophile Thor sold the painting at auction on his estate to the famous philanthropist Isabella Gardner. So the "Concert" ended up in her personal museum, where it has been exhibited since 1903. And on March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves dressed as Boston police officers showed up at the museum, ostensibly on a call. Inside the museum, robbers stole 13 paintings, including a masterpiece by Vermeer, as well as paintings by Flinck, Degas and Rembrandt. These creations were never found, and the "Concert" is generally considered the most expensive lost painting in the world - its price is about $ 200 million.

Painting by Jan van Eyck "Fair Judges". This crime is dated April 10, 1934. Then at the exhibition, held in the Cathedral of St. Bavo in Belgian Ghent, Jan van Eyck's painting "Fair Judges" was stolen. This canvas itself was only a part of the altar painting "The Adoration of the Lamb", created back in 1426-1432. They stole only one part of 12 panels, while the robbers left a note. It was written in French that the painting had been taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. And then an interesting correspondence began. For seven whole months, the Belgian government communicated through letters with a certain person who claimed that he had the painting and demanded a ransom. The thief was identified on November 25, it turned out to be the local eccentric politician Arsene Godertier. Already dying, he declared that only he knew where the picture was, but he would take this secret with him to the grave. Since then, there have been many versions about the whereabouts of the picture. And although many are inclined to believe that it was destroyed, it is still officially on the list of missing works of art.

Rembrandt's painting Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee. Together with the “Concert” by Jan Vermeer, this canvas also disappeared from the Boston Museum of Isabella Gardner. The painting is remarkable in that it was the only seascape drawn by Rembrandt. "Storm" depicted the miracle of Christ when he calmed the Sea of ​​Galilee. These events were described in the Gospel of Mark. The robbery itself was the largest in the art world, committed in America. In March 2013, the FBI called a special press conference where it was announced that the names of the perpetrators would be revealed. Criminal analysis showed that the whole organized organization stole the paintings, and not local loners, as previously thought. True, the authorities said that the investigation of the case is still ongoing, so it is too early to name names. Since then, no new data on the fate of the paintings have been received. And although more than 23 years have passed since the crime, the investigation is still ongoing. Authorities are offering a $5 million reward for information on the whereabouts of the paintings.

Painting by Claude Monet "Charing Cross Bridge, London". Between 1899 and 1904, the famous Impressionist Claude Monet painted a whole series of paintings dedicated to London's Charing Cross Bridge. They demonstrate the object at different times of the day, for which the artist used a wide color palette. The painting, created in 1901, was in Rotterdam and was stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in October 2012. One of the captured intruders claimed that he burned the Monet painting, like other stolen paintings, in his mother's oven. So the thief tried to hide the evidence. And although some pigments were indeed found in the furnace, there is no strong evidence of the words of the criminal and the destruction of the painting. Therefore, art historians are still hoping to find and return Monet's masterpiece.

Eight Imperial Faberge Eggs. Today, the Russian tsars are more often remembered in connection with the art objects that belonged to them. In particular, the collection of Imperial Faberge Eggs, created by him for Alexander III and Nicholas II, are highly valued. The representative of the House, Peter Karl Gustavovich Faberge, made the eggs real masterpieces of art, decorating them with precious stones. This work was carried out by the jeweler between 1885 and 1917. In total, the collection included 52 imperial eggs known to experts, along with which were exquisite jewelry, exquisite metal parts and complex gears, and screws for winding mechanisms. And in 1918, the new Bolshevik government allowed the looting of the House of Faberge and royal palace in St. Petersburg. The eggs were confiscated and sent to the Kremlin. Over time, some of them ended up in the hands of private collectors, while others ended up in various museums around the world. The fate of eight such products has remained unknown since 1918, they were simply stolen. Today, each Faberge egg is valued at about a million dollars. Rumors connected the lost rarities either with Europe, or with the States, or even with South America.

Painting by Vincent van Gogh "The Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV". On October 21, 1888, the artist wrote a letter to his brother Theo about his latest work. In a vague sketch, the artist depicted a row of green cypress trees against a pinking sky, while the moon was drawn in the form of a pale lemon crescent. On the foreground canvases - vague soil, sand and a few thistles. The picture also depicts a couple of lovers - a pale blue man in a yellow hat and a woman in a black skirt and pink corsage. In the same 1888, the picture was completed. But in the late 1930s, on the orders of Hitler, many "corrupted" works of art were seized from many private collections and museums. Among them was Van Gogh's painting "The Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV". In fact, Hitler wanted to create his own art collection, the largest in the world. For her, those very “perverted” works were intended. The Americans created a special military group, "Monuments Men", which was designed to find in war-torn Europe and save cultural values. However, after the end of World War II, Van Gogh's masterpiece was never found.