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
337–357 of 764 reports
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.
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver police recover Marie Khouri bronze stolen from children’s hospital
Vancouver police found the sculpture in East Vancouver eleven days after it was stolen from outside B.C. Children’s Hospital. The work is part of Marie Khouri’s Vessels series. The hospital foundation’s photograph, published by Castanet, shows the bronze on its plinth alongside a photo of the empty plinth.
Florence, Italy
Uffizi recover Holy Family painting stolen from a church in 1985
The Uffizi confirmed the return of a sixteenth-century Holy Family with Saint Catherine after the Carabinieri identified it in an auction listing. The painting had been on loan at San Michele in Monteripaldi when it was stolen. Image detail: Uffizi Galleries.
Seven Ernesto Deira paintings return from Chile after fifty years — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile
Seven Ernesto Deira paintings return from Chile after fifty years
Seven paintings from Deira’s Identificaciones series arrived in Argentina following an agreement involving his family and the University of Chile. Cultural authorities and international police cooperation assisted their return.
New York, United States
Christie’s withdraws Nolan amphora and Roman helmet over provenance questions
Christie’s withdrew the Greek vase and Roman cavalry helmet from its April 2022 antiquities sale after a researcher raised possible links to dealers known to have traded illicit antiquities. Photo shows the Nolan amphora.
New York, United States
US appeals court sides with Phillips over canceled Rudolf Stingel sale
A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of JN Contemporary Art’s suit. It held that Phillips could invoke the contract’s force majeure clause to cancel its guaranteed sale of Rudolf Stingel’s Untitled (2009) following pandemic restrictions. Photo shows Phillips in New York.
Naples, Italy
Gennaro Villani painting returned to Naples city hall
Carabinieri recovered Paesaggio con chiesa, which had disappeared in 2010, and returned it to the City of Naples.
Milan, Italy
Milan court upholds authenticity finding on Jeff Koons’s Serpents sculpture
A Milan court upheld a finding that a porcelain Serpents acquired at a lost-property auction was an authorised Jeff Koons work. Koons had maintained that it was a defective prototype and appealed the decision. Photo shows a Serpents sculpture, courtesy of Christie’s.
28 countries
Pandora VI: 9,408 cultural objects seized
The 2021 operation resulted in 52 arrests and over 170 ongoing investigations. This is an aggregate report, rather than an item-level catalogue.
Wassily Kandinsky, Bild mit Häusern, 1909 — public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Image source ↗
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kandinsky painting returned to heirs after Amsterdam settlement
Amsterdam returned Wassily Kandinsky’s Bild mit Häusern (1909) to the Lewenstein family’s heirs on 28 February 2022. After a prolonged dispute and earlier decisions against restitution, the parties agreed a settlement in light of revised restitution guidelines. This was an agreed return, not a new judgment reversing the 2020 ruling.
Trier, Germany
Adam van Breen’s Ice Skating returned to Goudstikker heir
A Dutch winter scene by Adam van Breen, dated 1610, was returned to the heir of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. Hermann Göring acquired the painting during the Nazi era. It later entered the collection of the Stadtmuseum Simeonstift in Trier. Image: Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier.
Richie Culver’s Contemplation stolen from a Berlin auction house — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Berlin, Germany
Richie Culver’s Contemplation stolen from a Berlin auction house
Police sought Culver’s signed acrylic-and-pencil work on paper after its disappearance between 29 November 2021 and 3 January 2022. The appeal asks about sale, exchange or pledge offers; subsequent recovery is not established.
Toulouse, France
A Bernhard Strigel angel panel resurfaces in a Toulouse home
A painted angel panel found in a Toulouse home in July 2021 was identified as the work of the German painter Bernhard Strigel. Specialists proposed that it was the long-separated companion to the Thurifer Angel in the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection.
Pablo Picasso, Weeping woman, 1937. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. © Succession Picasso / Copyright Agency. Image source ↗
Melbourne, Australia
Picasso’s The Weeping Woman: reward and recovery revisited
SBS revisited the 1986 theft of The Weeping Woman from the NGV. Victoria’s government offered A$50,000 for information leading to recovery. The painting was found undamaged that August. This reward belongs to a recovered-artwork case.
Harrington forgery evidence; US Department of Justice / The Art Newspaper Image source ↗
San Diego, United States
Three-year sentence in Richard Hambleton forgery case
Jason Harrington received 36 months in prison after admitting sales of forged art attributed to Richard Hambleton. Sales exceeded $1 million.
The Hague, Netherlands
Competing claims to two landscapes resolved in favour of the Isay heirs
The Dutch committee advised returning NK 3277 and NK 3278 to Alfred Isay’s heirs. It found that Isay, rather than the earlier owner Abraham Adelsberger, most likely owned the paintings when they were lost in 1941. Image: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE).
Paris, France
France’s highest court upholds convictions in Zadkine bronze fraud case
France’s Cour de cassation upheld convictions over a bronze presented as Ossip Zadkine’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. It overturned only one intermediary’s fine and remanded that issue. The image shows a related version in the Musée Zadkine collection, Paris Musées.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Suzor-Coté oil painting stolen from Halifax gallery
An oil painting by Canadian artist Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté was taken from Zwicker’s Art Gallery in Halifax on 29 September 2021. The gallery valued it at C$12,500. Halifax Regional Police provided the artwork image.
Transport of the royal treasures returned to Benin. Photograph published by the Élysée. Image source ↗
Abomey and Cotonou, Benin; Paris, France
Twenty-six royal treasures of Abomey returned to Benin
The French presidency confirmed the return to Benin of 26 works from Abomey’s royal treasures, following the 9 November 2021 ownership transfer. Taken during the 1892 conquest of Dahomey, the group includes royal statues, thrones and doors. This restitution concerns the Republic of Benin, distinct from Benin City in Nigeria.
Valencia, Spain
Valencia police seize paintings in online Goya forgery investigation
Police in Valencia seized 27 paintings offered online for a combined €1.2 million. Investigators identified 18 as forgeries in an operation involving works falsely attributed to Francisco de Goya and other artists.
Berlin, Germany
Berlin returns and repurchases a Pissarro from the Dorville collection
Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie returned Camille Pissarro’s 1867 painting A Square in La Roche-Guyon to Armand Dorville’s heirs and then bought it back. The work had been sold in 1942 at an auction of the Jewish lawyer’s collection under the Vichy regime. Image: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie / Jörg P. Anders.
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