01 HISTORICAL DOSSIERS
Still Missing
The artworks still sought. The families still searching.
Explore the cases
Global Archive of Art Theft, Forgery & Restitution
Explore documented cases of stolen art, art forgery, recovery and restitution worldwide, along with related court disputes. Every report links to its source.
Six countries · a global watch
Live clocksArt crime across time zones
Clocks show the time now. Below each clock: the latest documented case in that country from our archive.
Red mark: source-reported theft time. An arc shows a reported time window on the outer 24-hour scale. Only shown where timing is documented.
“Published” is the report date, not the theft date. Cases may cover thefts, recoveries or returns. Click a clock for the case details and source.
Why these six countries? · Data published in 2023
These are the six leading countries in an INTERPOL register snapshot published by a Cornell Data Journal team on 16 December 2023. Counts refer to objects registered as stolen, not theft incidents. This historical snapshot is not a current, comprehensive worldwide ranking.
- France8,133 objects
- Italy7,721 objects
- Turkey3,034 objects
- Iraq2,786 objects
- Belgium2,336 objects
- Netherlands1,756 objects
Published analysis ↗Underlying data table ↗About the INTERPOL register ↗
Explore by country
All countriesThefts around the world
Art Theft Map
Explore reported theft locations in the archive. Pins are approximate; dates refer to source reports. A historical theft report does not mean the artwork is still missing.
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Choose a pin to see the story and artwork.
Drag to pan; use + / − to zoom. This map shows reports in this archive, not all art thefts worldwide.
Browse the reports on this map (128)
- ArgentinaBronze elements stolen from Güemes monument
- AustraliaStolen Ermenegildo Zegna trophy remains missing despite reward
- AustraliaSparkly Bear sculpture stolen with a truck and crane in Brunswick
- AustraliaSir Joseph Banks memorial sculpture stolen from Canberra gardens
- AustriaPolice investigate disappearance of more than 200 Mozart figures in Salzburg
- AustriaErnst Fuchs Museum increases reward for stolen painting
- AustriaErnst Fuchs’s Daphne bronze missing from Vienna exhibition
- AustriaPierre-Auguste Renoir painting stolen from Vienna’s Dorotheum auction house
- BelgiumRenaissance Madonna stolen from a church in Zele
- BelgiumEnsor, Van Dongen and other works stolen from Van Buuren Museum
- BrazilMatisse and Portinari works stolen from library
- BrazilDalí, Matisse, Monet and Picasso works stolen from Rio museum
- CanadaTimothy Schmalz’s bronze figure of Jesus stolen from Surrey school
- CanadaBronze sculpture valued at about C$175,000 stolen in central Waterloo
- CanadaSecwépemc landmark sculpture stolen from Tappen Bluffs
- CanadaThree Maud Lewis painted Christmas cards reported stolen in Halifax
- CanadaBronze statue of St. Teresa of Avila stolen from Ancaster cemetery
- CanadaRichard Forbes bronze horse head stolen from Vancouver gallery
- CanadaJellyfish sculpture stolen from Calgary’s Beakerhead festival
- CanadaJohn Greer’s bronze Feather stolen from Guelph sculpture park
- CanadaSuzor-Coté oil painting stolen from Halifax gallery
- CanadaGolden egg stolen from Salvador Dalí’s Space Venus
- CanadaA.Y. Jackson landscape stolen from Toronto home
- CanadaBanksy’s Trolley Hunters stolen from Toronto exhibition
- CyprusFilippos Giapanis’s Balance stolen from Cyprus sculpture park
- CyprusBronze sparrow stolen again from Yiota Ioannidou’s Paphos sculpture
- EgyptVan Gogh’s Poppy Flowers stolen in Egypt
- FranceSalvador Dalí bronze book cover stolen
- FranceLouvre jewels added to INTERPOL stolen art database
- FranceThe theft of five masterpieces from the Musée d’Art moderne de Paris
- FranceFernando Botero's Maternity stolen from a Paris gallery
- FranceChinese and Thai artworks stolen from Fontainebleau palace
- FranceA red Picasso sketchbook disappears from the Paris museum
- FrancePicasso paintings stolen from granddaughter’s home
- GermanyLife-size bronze of a seated woman stolen from an Essen cemetery
- GermanyWooden wild boar sculpture stolen from Werl playground
- GermanyHans Arp bronze reported stolen at Art Cologne
- GermanyPolice seek Ernst Sauer’s stolen bronze Der Liegende
- GermanyLife-size bronze woman stolen from a Duisburg family grave
- GermanyPolice seek untitled Elfi Frauendorf work stolen in Berlin
- GermanyPainting of golfers stolen in Berlin burglary
- GermanyIris Ulbricht’s Murmel stolen from Berlin exhibition
- GermanyBronze Pine figure reported stolen in Pirna
- GermanyOil painting stolen from an office in Berlin-Steglitz
- GermanyTwo de Belsunce portraits stolen in Berlin
- GermanyBronze angel sculpture stolen from Rostock cemetery
- GermanyLunita July Dorn painting stolen during Berlin opening
- GermanyRuthild Hahne bronze head stolen in Berlin
- GermanySeven Jean-Noel Schramm watercolours stolen from Berlin hospital
- GermanyNine Itamar Zion Yehiel embroideries stolen in Berlin
- GermanyOil painting of a monk with a jug stolen in Berlin
- GermanyHeinrich Martens bronze girl stolen from Monheim civic centre
- GermanyNeureuther’s 1827 view of Munich stolen from storage
- GermanyCharles Fazzino porcelain apple stolen from a Hamburg gallery
- GermanyErik van Lieshout and Andy Hope 1930 paintings stolen in Berlin
- GermanyBalthasar Lobo’s Mutter mit Kind stolen in Berlin foundry burglary
- GermanyRoland Lindner bronze heron stolen from a Berlin-Frohnau garden
- GermanyTwo Dave the Chimp drawings stolen from Berlin exhibition
- GermanyFrau am Fluss bronze stolen from Duisburg’s Goerdeler Park
- GermanySix sculptures stolen from Bochum’s Stadtpark
- GermanyReinhold Böltzig’s Reifenwerferin stolen from former embassy grounds
- GermanyElena Panknin bronze sculpture stolen during Berlin exhibition opening
- GermanyHeavy bronze seal sculpture stolen from Wilhelmshaven storage yard
- GermanyRichie Culver’s Contemplation stolen from a Berlin auction house
- GermanyLore Plietzsch’s flute-playing children bronze stolen in Berlin
- GermanyPaul van Hoeydonck’s Man in Space stolen from Berlin gallery
- GermanyWilliam N. Copley work stolen from Berlin-Mitte gallery
- GermanyTwo Bruno Bielefeld paintings sought after Berlin residential theft
- GermanyGhada Amer ceramic sculpture taken from a Berlin gallery
- GermanyPolice seek witnesses after Dresden’s Green Vault jewel theft
- GermanyReward campaign seeks Lucian Freud’s stolen Francis Bacon portrait
- Israel27 artworks stolen from the Wilfrid Israel Museum
- IsraelRodin bronze stolen from the Israel Museum
- ItalyFour Renaissance artworks stolen from museum in Messina
- ItalyRenoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings stolen from private museum
- ItalyThieves take a decoy after police safeguard a Brueghel Crucifixion
- JapanTwo bronze statues stolen from a Tokyo public park
- NetherlandsTwo Andy Warhol prints stolen from gallery
- NetherlandsFrans Hals’s Two Laughing Boys stolen again
- NetherlandsVan Gogh painting stolen from Singer Laren
- NetherlandsSeven works stolen from Kunsthal Rotterdam
- New ZealandKarin de Beer's Tiori Toru stolen from Whangārei's Hundertwasser Art Centre
- New ZealandPrivate reward offered after Harawene dog sculpture theft
- New ZealandTwo Gottfried Lindauer portraits stolen in Auckland gallery ram raid
- South AfricaReward advertised for paintings stolen in Pretoria hijacking
- SwedenDalí sculptures and etchings stolen in Stockholm gallery raid
- SwedenRoyal funeral crowns and orb stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral
- SwitzerlandUp to €1 million advertised for paintings stolen in Valais
- SwitzerlandInsurers consider reward for stolen Lausanne-Vidy museum coins
- United KingdomLipton Cup still missing; arrested man released without charge
- United KingdomCourt summons issued after hedgehog statue theft
- United KingdomClare Haggas’s Making Amends stolen at Cheltenham Festival
- United KingdomBronze deer stolen from outside a Lyndhurst property
- United KingdomTeddy Baldock bronze statue stolen from Langdon Park
- United KingdomMore than 600 objects stolen from Bristol Museums storage
- United KingdomNelson Mandela print stolen from Liverpool’s St George’s Hall
- United KingdomBronze Dalmatian sculpture stolen in Sudbury
- United KingdomAnne Curry bronze sculpture stolen from her garden
- United KingdomDorset Police seek paintings stolen from Lyme Regis art studio
- United KingdomHenry the bronze stag stolen from Alison Cork’s London home
- United KingdomLeaping-woman statue stolen from The Grove Hotel grounds
- United KingdomJapanese bronze hawk incense burner stolen from Alton auction house
- United KingdomSarah Księska’s Präparat stolen during London Frieze week
- United KingdomGrayson Perry’s Alien Baby stolen from Bristol’s Hidden Gallery
- United KingdomTwenty lead statues stolen from a Moreton-in-Marsh estate
- United KingdomBronze lion stolen from Born Free outdoor exhibition in Bristol
- United KingdomChrist Church theft: Van Dyck, Carracci and Rosa
- United KingdomTwo Polly Rome bronze sculptures stolen from a Rockbourne home
- United KingdomMaurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet stolen from Blenheim Palace
- United KingdomBronze hare statues stolen from a Goodworth Clatford garden
- United KingdomHenry Moore bronze stolen from Glenkiln Sculpture Park
- United KingdomReward advertised after Barbara Hepworth sculpture theft
- United KingdomOver 100 gold boxes and precious objects stolen from Waddesdon Manor
- United StatesPortland police seek stolen miniature horse figurines after arrest
- United StatesKwan Wu’s bronze figure of an Osage woman stolen in Kansas City
- United StatesJeffrey Laudenslager offers reward after kinetic sculpture theft
- United StatesSix paintings stolen in Dallas during transport
- United StatesSalvador Dalí etching stolen from San Francisco gallery
- United StatesThree Kieron Williamson paintings stolen in Arizona
- United StatesVivienne Scholl photograph stolen from Madrone Art Bar
- United StatesChez Tortoni and the works stolen from the Gardner Museum
- United StatesAnn Pibal’s CBLT taken from New York’s Team Gallery
- United StatesGinny: reward advertised for sculpture stolen in 1980
- United StatesSam Tufnell’s Electric Blueberry gnome stolen from Florida museum
- United StatesSeven Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup I prints stolen from Springfield Art Museum
- United StatesReward doubled for Mother and Child sculpture stolen in Eau Claire
- United StatesFBI appeals for Renoir stolen in Houston armed robbery
- United StatesEleven Warhol portraits stolen from a Los Angeles home
The stories behind the art
Explore all stories Stolen. Sought. Found.
2004Oslo, Norway · Recovered in 2006
Daylight, guns and another Scream
This time there was no ladder and no taunting postcard. Armed men entered an open museum while visitors were inside.
Read the story 3 min
2005Perry Green, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom · Missing; police believed it destroyed
Two tonnes vanished. The metal was the danger.
The bronze seemed too heavy to steal. A crane made its weight manageable, and its artistic value may not have mattered to the thieves.
Read the story 3 min
2000Stockholm, Sweden → Copenhagen, Denmark · Recovered and returned
A speedboat, a hotel room and a very small Rembrandt
An armed robbery emptied three spaces in Stockholm. The return took years, several countries and an undercover operation.
Read the story 3 min
HISTORICAL EDITION · 1933–1945
Art, loss & memory
02 HISTORICAL DOSSIERS
Looting & Restitution
Dispossession, long battles and the paths to restitution.
Explore the casesThe upper strip shows details of the featured artworks; the lower strip uses World War II archive photographs as historical context.
Art Wanted · Rewards
87 entries · 88 documented offers · terms apply
Newest additions first · up to ten entries in each group.
Officially advertised offers 59
Official sources checked; terms apply.
Jan Brueghel the Elder · A Garland of Flowers Surrounding a Picture of FloraUp to$15,000Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Jan Brueghel the Elder · Still Life with FlowersUp to$7,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Canaletto · The Riva degli Schiavoni in VeniceUp to$7,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Caravaggio · Portrait of a Young Woman (Fillide Melandroni)Up to$20,000Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Annibale Carracci · Self-PortraitUp to$2,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Cima da Conegliano · Virgin and ChildUp to$2,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Lovis Corinth · Tyrolean with CatUp to$2,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Gustave Courbet · The WaveUp to$15,000Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Lucas Cranach the Elder · Saint GeorgeUp to$7,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
Aelbert Cuyp · Spring Landscape with PoolUp to$2,500Monuments Men and Women FoundationEnds: 2026-12-31
10 of 59 entries · see the full list for the rest.
Published offers · current validity unconfirmed 18
Amounts reported by the cited sources, without confirmation that the offers remain valid.
Heinrich Martens’s bronze girl with a ballUp to€5,000Validity unconfirmed
LeRoy Neiman — Oscar de la Hoya – Shane MosleyAdvertised reward$5,000Centaur Art GalleriesValidity unconfirmed
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts — 1972 theftAdvertised rewardAmount not publishedInsurers, according to Radio Canada InternationalValidity unconfirmed
Giapanis · BalanceAdvertised reward€5,000Validity unconfirmed
Zegna · Gold sheep trophyAdvertised rewardA$15,000Validity unconfirmed
Valais · Chalet theftUp to€1,000,000Validity unconfirmed
Lausanne · Gold coinsUp to€200,000Validity unconfirmed
Ernst Fuchs · ViennaAdvertised reward€30,000Validity unconfirmed
Harawene · RotoruaAdvertised rewardNZ$5,000Validity unconfirmed
Henry · LondonAdvertised reward£1,000Validity unconfirmed
10 of 18 entries · see the full list for the rest.
Archive · recovered works or documented outcomes 10
Historical reward offers; reported returns, recoveries or destruction.
Llew Summers · FlightAdvertised rewardNZ$4,000Archive · see outcome
Amelia Earhart · ReturnedAdvertised rewardCA$25,000Archive · see outcome
Titian · RecoveredAdvertised reward£100,000Archive · see outcome
Picasso · RecoveredAdvertised rewardA$50,000Archive · see outcome
Unkrey · The HammerAdvertised reward$1,000Archive · see outcome
Van Gogh · Two paintingsAdvertised reward€100,000Archive · see outcome
Bührle · RecoveredAdvertised rewardCHF 100,000Archive · see outcome
Goya · Children with a CartUp to$50,000Archive · see outcome
Munch · Two paintingsUp toNOK 2,000,000Archive · see outcome
Cellini · SalieraAdvertised reward€70,000Archive · see outcome
ArtistsAll artists125
43–63 of 109 reports
New York, United States
Art Fin. Partners pursues refunds from Christie’s after a cancelled auction transaction
Entities controlled by Andrew Rose sought to recover payments connected to a 2005 Christie’s auction. The appellate court upheld the refusal to dismiss Christie’s counterclaims or award summary judgment on the refund request. Image: Christie’s New York saleroom, via Wikimedia Commons.
Beijing, China
Beijing court rejects buyer’s claim over disputed Wu Guanzhong attribution
A buyer who paid 2.3 million yuan before fees for a painting catalogued as Pond by Wu Guanzhong asked to rescind the sale. Beijing’s First Intermediate People’s Court rejected his claim against the consignor and Beijing Hanhai. Contextual portrait of Wu Guanzhong by Chua Soo Bin, via Tsinghua University Art Museum.
New York, United States
Christie’s litigates the cancellation of a Picasso sculpture sale
A consignor and Christie’s disputed the auction house’s decision to rescind the sale of Tête Cubiste (Tête de Fernande), a bronze attributed to Picasso after the buyer questioned its authenticity. Claude Picasso later supplied a certificate. The New York court declined to dispose of the core contract dispute on summary judgment. Image: a separate museum cast of Picasso’s Head of a Woman (Fernande), Musée national Picasso-Paris.
New York, United States
Christie’s contests a lawsuit over a disputed Basquiat
The Tony Shafrazi Gallery and collector Guido Orsi sued over the 1990 auction of Untitled (1982), attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat. The artist’s estate authentication committee later rejected the attribution. Christie’s disputed liability and argued the claims fell outside the terms and timing of its warranty. Image: Christie’s New York saleroom, via Wikimedia Commons.
New York, United States
Collector challenges Sotheby’s assessment of a purported Renoir pastel
Collector Robert Kitchen argued that an image Sotheby’s classified as a print was a pastel study by Pierre-Auguste Renoir for The Bathers. The New York court dismissed his claim and declined to set that decision aside. Image: Renoir’s completed The Great Bathers, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
London, United Kingdom
Iran challenges a Christie’s sale of an Achaemenid relief
Iran obtained an injunction in 2005 to stop Christie’s from selling a limestone relief it said had been unlawfully removed from the country. The High Court dismissed Iran’s restitution claim in February 2007. The relief was auctioned in London that October.
Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Diadema, Brazil
Brazilian police execute search warrants in stolen cultural property inquiry
Brazil's Federal Police announced five court-authorised searches in Operation Página Oculta on 10 November 2026. The inquiry concerns the suspected handling, concealment and sale of stolen rare books, religious sculptures and other cultural property. The release did not confirm the recovery of any specific work. Documentary photo of the operation: Polícia Federal.
Compensation agreement keeps Kirchner’s chess scene at Brücke-Museum — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Berlin, Germany
Compensation agreement keeps Kirchner’s chess scene at Brücke-Museum
Victor Wallerstein’s heirs and Berlin reached a fair-and-just settlement concerning Erich Heckel and Otto Mueller Playing Chess. Compensation allowed the painting to remain at the Brücke-Museum, recognising a persecution-related forced sale.
Inigo Philbrick sentenced to seven years in art-finance fraud — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
New York and Miami, United States; London, United Kingdom
Inigo Philbrick sentenced to seven years in art-finance fraud
Federal prosecutors announced an eighty-four-month sentence in a fraud involving more than $86 million. The case concerned false ownership and financing representations involving artworks by Basquiat, Wool and Stingel, not forged paintings.
Timothy Sammons sentenced for defrauding art clients — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
New York, United States; London, United Kingdom
Timothy Sammons sentenced for defrauding art clients
Sammons was sentenced to four to twelve years after pleading guilty to grand larceny and scheming to defraud. The case concerned misuse of clients’ artworks and sale proceeds, rather than an authenticity determination.
Swiss prosecutors seize disputed Modigliani after Panama Papers revelations — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Geneva, Switzerland; France
Swiss prosecutors seize disputed Modigliani after Panama Papers revelations
Swiss prosecutors secured a disputed Modigliani in a Geneva freeport amid a Nazi-looting ownership claim. The source reports a seizure and investigation, not a completed restitution or a final ownership ruling.
Ba, Fiji
Ba court remands suspect in alleged temple-statue thefts
Ba Magistrates Court remanded a man accused of stealing religious statues from three temples. He faces sacrilege and suspended-sentence breach charges. The statues were recovered damaged. The report concerns pretrial detention, not a conviction. Photo: Ganesh statue at the affected Rarawai temple before its destruction; Munen Lingam / fijivillage.
Documentary image: U.S. Department of Justice. Image source ↗
Miramar Beach, United States
Federal forfeiture of antiquities seized in Florida
U.S. prosecutors announced the forfeiture of antiquities following an investigation into shipments to a Florida recipient. The Department of Justice published a collage showing examples of the seized material.
Wingen-sur-Moder and Montans, France
Four placed under formal investigation in Lalique and Montans thefts
On 6 November 2026, the specialised court in Nancy announced that four people had been placed under formal investigation over two July thefts: 27 pieces of jewellery from the Musée Lalique and 37 Gallo-Roman gold coins from the Montans archaeological centre. Two suspects were remanded in custody and two placed under judicial supervision. The photo shows René Lalique’s stolen Femme Libellule ailes ouvertes pendant (Musée Lalique).
Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City judge orders proceedings in alleged fraud over paintings attributed to Kahlo and Siqueiros
N+ reports that a judge ordered criminal proceedings against Ricardo N on 3 November over an alleged 25-million-peso art-sale fraud. Prosecutors say false property documents secured the unpaid purchase of two paintings attributed to Frida Kahlo and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The defendant remains in pretrial detention, with one month allowed for further investigation. No conviction, recovery or determination that the paintings are forged is reported.
France and United Kingdom
French court orders restitution of Pissarro to Salomon Flavian heirs
Reporting on the 5 November ruling says the court ordered restitution of Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne and cancellation of its 2024 London sale. Mondex intends to appeal and Sotheby's is considering joining. Enforcement in the UK requires further proceedings.
London, United Kingdom
Man sentenced for theft of antique map from Greenwich museum
Police announced a three-year sentence following a guilty plea relating to theft and other offences at the National Maritime Museum’s Caird Library. Documentary image from the Metropolitan Police case release.
France
La Tricoteuse: Court of Cassation rejects Bauer heirs’ restitution claim
Le Journal des Arts reported that the Court of Cassation rejected the Simon Bauer heirs’ claim on 23 September 2026 because they had not established that the painting sought was the looted work. The 15 October report describes the decision and the burden of proving the artwork’s identity.
Gustave Courbet, Mother and Child on a Hammock. Matthiesen Gallery. Image source ↗
New York, United States; London, United Kingdom
Thomas Doyle pleads guilty in Gustave Courbet painting fraud
Thomas Doyle pleaded guilty to wire fraud over Mother and Child on a Hammock. Prosecutors said he sold the work through a gallery and withheld the owner’s proceeds. At publication, sentencing was scheduled for November 2026; no sentence had yet been imposed.
Old Kingdom limestone funerary statue. Image: U.S. Department of Justice. Image source ↗
Baltimore, United States; Egypt
Federal court orders forfeiture of 14 Egyptian antiquities
A default judgment in Maryland completed the forfeiture of 14 illegally imported Egyptian artifacts. They included an Old Kingdom limestone funerary statue and smaller objects intercepted in shipments.
Chicago, United States
US appeals court upholds sanctions in Peter Doig attribution case
An appellate court upheld a $2.5 million sanctions award in litigation over a landscape signed Pete Doige that a court had found was not painted by Peter Doig. Image of the disputed painting from court documents, via The Art Newspaper.
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