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
358–378 of 764 reports
Untitled (It was the Moment…), alleged Pettibon forgery illustrated in the indictment announcement. US Department of Justice. Image source ↗
New York and Los Angeles, United States
Christian Rosa indicted over alleged Raymond Pettibon forgeries
A federal indictment accused Christian Rosa Weinberger of selling purported Raymond Pettibon Wave Series paintings with fake authenticity certificates. He remained at large at publication. These were allegations in an indictment, not a finding of guilt.
Lehmbruck Museum restitutes Emil Nolde’s Buchsbaumgarten — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Duisburg, Germany
Lehmbruck Museum restitutes Emil Nolde’s Buchsbaumgarten
The Lehmbruck Museum restituted Nolde’s garden painting to Ismar Littmann’s heirs. Research linked its forced sale to Nazi persecution of the family; the release also announced a subsequent auction.
Berlin, Germany
Lore Plietzsch’s flute-playing children bronze stolen in Berlin
Berlin Police sought Lore Plietzsch’s Flötenspielende Kinder, a public bronze depicting two children, after it was taken in Marzahn overnight on 23–24 September 2021. The flutes had already been removed in an earlier theft. Image: Berlin Police.
Two Laughing Boys by Frans Hals, one of the two paintings in the conviction. Image source ↗
Lelystad, Netherlands
Eight-year sentence for the Van Gogh and Frans Hals thefts
The Midden-Nederland District Court sentenced a 59-year-old man from Baarn to eight years in prison for stealing a Van Gogh from Singer Laren in March 2020 and Frans Hals’s Two Laughing Boys from Leerdam in August 2020, alongside other offences. This was a first-instance judgment; both paintings remained missing at that date.
The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet; AP / The Guardian Image source ↗
Iraq and United States
Gilgamesh Dream Tablet returned to Iraq
The US Justice Department announced the return of the cuneiform tablet, which entered the US unlawfully and was marketed using false provenance.
Denver transfers ownership of Uma-Maheshvaramurti to Nepal — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Denver, United States; Nepal
Denver transfers ownership of Uma-Maheshvaramurti to Nepal
Denver Art Museum transferred ownership of the tenth-century stone sculpture to Nepalese representatives. The museum described discussions with Nepal and preparations for the work’s journey home, rather than a new theft.
Portugal
Portuguese police seize 35 suspected Malangatana forgeries
Portugal’s Judicial Police arrested three people and seized 35 paintings falsely attributed to Mozambican artist Malangatana Ngwenya. Investigators alleged works had been offered through online auctions since at least 2016. Case photograph by Tiago Petinga, Lusa.
Francisco Goya, The Duke of Wellington, detail — The National Gallery, London. Image source ↗
London, United Kingdom
Goya’s Wellington theft revisited as archive documents are released
On 19 August 2021, ITV reported that the National Gallery had released ransom notes and notices concerning the 1961 theft of Francisco Goya’s The Duke of Wellington. The painting was returned in 1965 and was back on museum display. This is historical coverage accompanying an archive release, not a new theft. Cross-checked with the National Gallery.
New York, United States
Sotheby’s sues consignors over suspected Diego Giacometti fakes
Sotheby’s sued a Miami couple over furniture they consigned as works by Diego Giacometti. The auction house alleged multiple pieces were inauthentic and sought to recover money it had paid or refunded. Photo shows Sotheby’s in New York.
Berlin, Germany
Paul van Hoeydonck’s Man in Space stolen from Berlin gallery
Berlin police sought a numbered example of Paul van Hoeydonck’s Man in Space (Fallen Astronaut), taken from a gallery in Berlin-Mitte on 31 July 2021. The work is an aluminium figure set in blue acrylic. Image: Berlin Police.
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Kwan Wu’s bronze figure of an Osage woman stolen in Kansas City
A seven-foot bronze by Kwan Wu depicting an Osage woman was taken from the François Chouteau and Native American Heritage Fountain site. The work had been installed in 2020 as part of a group about the city’s early history. Image: the foundation responsible for the memorial.
New York, United States
New York court dismisses gallery suit against Italy over Alexander bust
A federal court dismissed the Safani Gallery’s suit against Italy after New York authorities seized an ancient bust of Alexander the Great in 2018. The dismissal concerned sovereign immunity and left ownership unresolved at that stage.
National Gallery of Australia announces return of fourteen works to India — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Canberra, Australia; India
National Gallery of Australia announces return of fourteen works to India
The gallery announced that fourteen works would be removed from its Asian collection and repatriated after provenance review. The group included sculptures, a processional standard, a painted scroll and photographs; transport was prospective.
Lovis Corinth, Portrait of Alfred Kerr (1907) · Zeno.org / Wikimedia Commons Image source ↗
Berlin, Germany
German panel declines to recommend return of Lovis Corinth’s Portrait of Alfred Kerr
The German advisory commission declined to recommend returning Lovis Corinth’s portrait. It found the evidence insufficient to establish persecution-related loss of this particular painting from Robert Graetz’s collection.
Angel Pereda charged over purported Basquiat and Haring forgeries — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
New York, United States; Mexico
Angel Pereda charged over purported Basquiat and Haring forgeries
Federal prosecutors announced Pereda’s arrest over alleged offers of forged artworks and false provenance records. This July 2021 release records accusations, not a conviction; it includes photographs of the disputed objects.
Paris, France
France restitutes a Max Pechstein painting found in a museum basement
Nudes in a Landscape was returned to the heirs of Hugo and Gertrud Simon. The painting was found in the basement of the Palais de Tokyo in 1966. Provenance researchers linked it to Hugo Simon, a German Jewish collector, but could not establish the entire route it took. Image: Centre Pompidou.
Case diagram by ArtTraceX · Europa (1931) · Copy identified in Germany’s federal archive. Image source ↗
Berlin, Germany
Lost avant-garde film Europa restored to the Themerson estate
A nitrate copy of Stefan and Franciszka Themerson’s avant-garde film was identified in Germany’s federal archive. The BFI records its return to the UK in July 2021 and subsequent restoration in Warsaw.
Athens, Greece
Greek police recover Picasso and Mondrian paintings
Picasso’s Woman’s Head and Mondrian’s Mill were recovered nine years after their January 2012 theft from the National Gallery in Athens.
Paris, France
Consignor withdraws five Nepalese figures from Bonhams sale
Five gilded bronze figures were withdrawn from a Bonhams Paris sale after researchers identified them as figures removed from the gate of a temple in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. Photo shows the frieze above the golden gateway at Patan Durbar Square.
Milan, Italy / Munich, Germany
Seventeenth-century Penitent Mary Magdalene recovered in Munich
Carabinieri recovered a seventeenth-century oil on panel in Munich after identifying it in a Bavarian auction catalogue in 2016. The painting was stolen from a Milan home in August 1975. Milan judicial authorities ordered its return to the heirs of the person who reported the theft. Image of the recovered work published by la Repubblica.
The stolen kinetic sculpture by Jeffrey Laudenslager. Photo courtesy of the artist / The Coast News. Image source ↗
Encinitas, California, United States
Jeffrey Laudenslager offers reward after kinetic sculpture theft
Artist Jeffrey Laudenslager offered $1,000 for information leading to recovery of a titanium and stainless-steel kinetic sculpture stolen from his driveway on 16 May 2021. He reported the theft to the sheriff’s department. Current reward validity is unconfirmed.
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