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 ↗
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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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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
274–294 of 764 reports
The three Cham bronzes returned to Cambodian ownership. Photo reproduced with reporting on the restitution. Image source ↗
Canberra, Australia; Cambodia
Ownership of three Cham bronzes returned to Cambodia
Cambodia’s embassy reported a 28 July 2023 handover at the National Gallery of Australia. Ownership of the three Cham bronzes known as Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani with Attendants returned to Cambodia. Under the agreement they remained on loan in Australia for three years; this was not a physical shipment to Cambodia at the source date.
Balthasar Lobo’s stolen original Mutter mit Kind, edition 1/8; Polizei Berlin photograph. Image source ↗
Berlin, Germany
Balthasar Lobo’s Mutter mit Kind stolen in Berlin foundry burglary
Berlin police reported that Balthasar Lobo’s Mutter mit Kind was stolen during a foundry burglary in Altglienicke on 13–14 July 2023. The bronze is number 1 of an edition of eight and bears the Susse Fondeur Paris stamp. Bronze bars, casting remnants and unfinished works were also taken. The appeal reports no recovery or identified offender. Photo: Polizei Berlin, showing the stolen original.
Venice, Italy
Carabinieri hand over Jasper Geeraerts still life taken in Venice
Jasper Geeraerts’s Still Life with Nautilus, Lemons, Ham and Glass was taken from its owner in a fraud in Venice in 1999. It later appeared at an auction house in Germany and was recovered by the Carabinieri after it was offered for sale again in Lombardy in 2021. ANSA reported the handover in July 2023. Image detail: ANSA.
Leiden, Netherlands
Netherlands transfers the Lombok treasure and Singasari statues to Indonesia
The Netherlands signed over 472 cultural objects to Indonesia in Leiden, including the Lombok treasure, four sculptures from Singasari, the kris of Klungkung and paintings from the Pita Maha collection. The four thirteenth-century statues were photographed at the National Museum in Jakarta the following month.
Monumento 9 from Chalcatzingo, the returned Olmec relief. INAH. Image source ↗
Chalcatzingo, Morelos, Mexico; Denver, United States
Monumento 9: Olmec relief returned to Mexico
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History documented the return of Monumento 9 from Chalcatzingo, known as a portal to the underworld and the Earth Monster. The Olmec stone relief was handed over in Denver on 19 May 2023 and arrived in Mexico that evening. The July article describes a completed restitution, not a new theft.
Cologne, Germany
Lempertz plans Pechstein sale after settlement with Walter Blank’s heirs
Lempertz withdrew Max Pechstein’s 1909 Self-Portrait With Pipe from a June 2023 auction after questions arose about its 1936 sale by Jewish physician Walter Blank. In July the auction house said both heirs had signed a new agreement, allowing the picture to be offered again in the autumn.
Italy and France
Lino Frongia arrested amid investigation into suspected Old Master forgeries
Italian painter Lino Frongia was arrested as investigators examined suspected Old Master forgeries sold for millions. The case also involved dealer Giuliano Ruffini, transferred to France and charged in December 2022 with organised fraud and money laundering. At the article's publication, these were allegations under investigation; no conviction of Frongia was reported.
Roland Lindner’s bronze heron before the theft; image published by Polizei Berlin. Image source ↗
Berlin, Germany
Roland Lindner bronze heron stolen from a Berlin-Frohnau garden
Berlin police reported the theft of a bronze grey heron by Roland Lindner from a property in Frohnau overnight on 4–5 June 2023. The approximately 1.5-metre garden sculpture was damaged; only the legs anchored to its pedestal remained. The 13 June appeal sought information on its whereabouts or any offer for sale or exchange, without announcing a recovery or arrest. Image published by Polizei Berlin; source known to police.
Hagen, Germany
Hagen returns and repurchases Renoir seascape
The city of Hagen returned Renoir’s View of the Sea from Haut Cagnes to the heirs of Jewish banker Jakob Goldschmidt. It then repurchased the painting so it could remain in the Osthaus Museum. Image: City of Hagen.
Maastricht, Netherlands
Binding opinion records settlement over Jacques d’Arthois landscape
The Dutch committee recorded a settlement and ruled that the Museum aan het Vrijthof Foundation should return Landscape with a Waterfall to the applicants.
Rotorua, New Zealand
Camille Malfroy bronze recovered and returned
Police recovered the sculpture taken from Government Gardens in February 2023 and returned it to the council. It was damaged. A man was charged with theft, with proceedings unresolved at publication.
Context photograph: U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C. Daderot · Public domain · Resized and cropped for display
Washington, DC, US
US Supreme Court rules on the licensing of Warhol’s Prince portrait
The court held that the first fair-use factor favored photographer Lynn Goldsmith for the Warhol Foundation’s specific 2016 commercial license of Orange Prince to Condé Nast. Image shows Goldsmith’s photograph and Warhol’s adaptation, reproduced in court filings.
Context photograph: Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, New York. Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and cropped for display
United States
Graham v. Prince: a photograph in New Portraits
Richard Prince incorporated an Instagram post containing Donald Graham’s photograph into a printed work. The court denied Prince’s motion for summary judgment on fair use, leaving the claim for further proceedings.
14 countries
Pandora VII: over 11,000 objects recovered
INTERPOL reported 11,049 objects and 60 arrests. Recoveries included stolen books in Italy and a Roman marble bust in Spain.
Tamil Nadu, India and Australia
Stolen Hanuman temple sculpture returned to India
India announced the sculpture’s return from Australia and its April 2023 transfer to the Idol Wing as case property.
Los Angeles and Orlando, United States
Plea agreement in Orlando fake Basquiat case
Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI and admitted in court papers to creating fake works and inventing provenance. The works were seized in Orlando in 2022.
Beirut, Lebanon and Paris, France
Centre Pompidou restores three paintings damaged in the Beirut explosion
The Centre Pompidou treated three paintings damaged in the 2020 Beirut explosion. They included Kees van Dongen’s portrait of Nicolas Sursock, the collector whose former home houses the Sursock Museum.
Gustave Courbet, La Ronde Enfantine · Fitzwilliam Museum / Art UK / Wikimedia Commons Image source ↗
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Courbet’s La Ronde Enfantine and the Robert Bing restitution
The UK panel recommended returning the Courbet seized from Robert Bing’s Paris apartment in 1941. The heirs’ representative records the completed return. The painting likely corresponds to LootedArt’s Forest Scene, whose reported exchange is uncertain.
Detroit, United States
Ownership dispute over Van Gogh’s The Novel Reader settles
The competing parties reached an out-of-court agreement over Van Gogh’s The Novel Reader. An appeals court had previously ordered the Detroit Institute of Arts to retain the loaned canvas while the dispute was pending.
Paris, France
Mexico challenges 83 pre-Columbian objects offered by Millon
Mexico’s culture authorities asked Millon to halt the Paris auction scheduled for April 3, 2023. The National Institute of Anthropology and History identified 83 objects on offer as protected under Mexican law. Millon said the sale would proceed and defended the provenance of the lots.
Vienna, Austria
Ernst Fuchs’s Daphne bronze missing from Vienna exhibition
Austrian authorities sought the bronze statuette Daphne after it disappeared from a museum exhibition in Vienna’s Penzing district.
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