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
379–399 of 764 reports
Painting by Gerhard Smit reported stolen during the Pretoria hijacking. Supplied photograph, via Pretoria News/IOL. Image source ↗
Pretoria, South Africa
Reward advertised for paintings stolen in Pretoria hijacking
Pretoria News reported a R10,000 reward after paintings were taken in a 15 April 2021 vehicle hijacking. The terms included recovery and suspect arrests. Current validity is unconfirmed.
31 countries
Pandora V: over 56,000 cultural objects seized
Europol published results of the 2020 operation. Seized items included sculptures, paintings, musical instruments, furniture and antiquities. Authorities arrested 67 people and opened more than 300 investigations.
Case diagram by ArtTraceX · Malvine Stern collection · Rudolf von Alt · Naples. Image source ↗
Germany
Rudolf von Alt’s Naples returned to the Stern heirs
Germany’s federal art administration returned Rudolf von Alt’s Naples to Malvine Stern’s heirs in May 2021. An earlier request to export the work from Austria had been denied after the Anschluss.
Rome, Italy
Stolen Roman statue recovered in Belgium and returned to Italy
Carabinieri located a first-century BC marble statue stolen from a Rome villa about a decade earlier. ANSA reported its February 2021 return following a European investigation order.
Case diagram by ArtTraceX · Heinrich Rieger collection · Schiele watercolour · Cologne. Image source ↗
Cologne, Germany
Cologne restitutes Egon Schiele’s Crouching Female Nude
A collector’s stamp linked Egon Schiele’s watercolour to Heinrich Rieger. Cologne records restitution to his heirs by a council decision of 23 March 2021.
New York, United States
New York court bars gallery from displaying altered image of Pat Lipsky painting
A state court permanently barred Spanierman Gallery from showing a digitally altered image of Pat Lipsky’s Bright Music II. Lipsky brought the case under New York’s Artist Authorship Rights Act.
Context photograph: Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg. FrDr · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and cropped for display
European Union
VG Bild-Kunst: framing images from a digital library
A collecting society sought a licensing condition requiring technical protection against framing. The EU court held that embedding protected works while circumventing effective anti-framing measures can be a communication to the public.
FBI and Dallas Museum of Art representatives with the stele, 2 March 2021. Photo: Dallas Museum of Art. Image source ↗
Dallas and Washington, United States; Nepal
Lakshmi-Narayana stele returned to Nepal
The FBI and Dallas Museum of Art announced the return of the Stele of Lakshmi-Narayana to Nepal. The stone sculpture, on loan from a private collection, was transported to Washington and returned to Nepalese government custody on 5 March 2021 with the lender’s cooperation.
C.F. Goldie, Sleep 'tis a Gentle Thing, in the police recovery announcement. Credit: New Zealand Police. Image source ↗
Hamilton, New Zealand
Goldie painting recovered after Hamilton East burglary
New Zealand Police recovered C.F. Goldie’s Sleep 'tis a Gentle Thing after it was stolen with art and antiques from a Hamilton East home between 27 December 2020 and 3 January 2021. Police said the painting appeared undamaged but still required a thorough examination. Its owners had been informed; the announcement did not confirm physical return.
Paris, France
Christie’s holds Paris pre-Columbian sale despite Mexico’s objections
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History asked Christie’s to withdraw at least 30 objects, asserting cultural patrimony claims and questioning the authenticity of three items. Christie’s proceeded with the auction. Photo shows a Veracruz Cihuateotl figure offered in the sale.
Paris region, France
Counterfeit Blanche Hoschedé Monet painting helps expose forgery network
A reported counterfeit of Pont à Giverny helped investigators uncover a network suspected of selling hundreds of counterfeit paintings. The report describes an investigation.
Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States
A Rembrandt portrait goes on display in Allentown after reattribution
The Allentown Art Museum displayed Portrait of a Young Woman as a work by Rembrandt after conservation and scientific examination. The 1632 portrait had previously been assigned to his studio.
Milan, Italy
Milan court convicts dealer over attempted sale of a fake Josef Albers
A Milan court found dealer Gabriele Seno guilty of trying to sell a counterfeit Study for Homage to the Square for €320,000. He received a suspended sentence and was appealing as of January 2021. The photograph illustrates a different work from Albers’s Homage to the Square series.
Stolen Salvator Mundi copy recovered in a Naples apartment — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Naples, Italy
Stolen Salvator Mundi copy recovered in a Naples apartment
Italian police recovered a sixteenth-century version of Salvator Mundi taken from the San Domenico Maggiore museum. The source describes it as a work associated with Leonardo’s followers, not the painting sold in 2017.
Spain
Spanish scholars propose a new El Greco attribution for a painting of Christ
University researchers in Spain proposed attributing a privately owned painting of Christ carrying the cross to El Greco. A specialist in the artist’s work questioned the proposed attribution.
Rome, Italy
Stolen Leonaert Bramer painting returned to its owner
Italy’s Carabinieri returned Bramer’s nocturnal scene after it resurfaced for sale. It had been stolen in 2006 from a Rome auction house.
Wassily Kandinsky, Bild mit Häusern, 1909 — public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Image source ↗
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Court rejects Kandinsky restitution challenge in 2020
On 16 December 2020, Amsterdam’s court rejected the Lewenstein heirs’ civil challenge to the binding restitution opinion on Wassily Kandinsky’s Bild mit Häusern. The court found no sufficiently serious defects to annul that opinion. This records the procedural stage on the source date; a separate entry covers the agreed restitution in 2022.
Case diagram by ArtTraceX · Max Fischer collection · Erich Heckel · Geschwister. Image source ↗
Karlsruhe, Germany
Erich Heckel’s Geschwister returned to the Fischer heirs
The German advisory commission recommended restitution of Erich Heckel’s painting in December 2020. Baden-Württemberg’s culture ministry confirms that it was returned to Max Fischer’s heirs.
The Hague, Netherlands
Dutch committee backs return of Platzer’s Marriage Feast at Cana
The recommendation concerns Johann Georg Platzer’s painting NK 2216 and the heirs of Alfred and Fanny Mautner. Image: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE).
London, United Kingdom
Appeal rejected in Sotheby's dispute over a portrait attributed to Frans Hals
London's Court of Appeal upheld an order requiring Fairlight Art Ventures to repay Sotheby's about $5.37 million, plus interest and costs, after a private sale of An Unknown Man was rescinded. Sotheby's refunded the buyer after laboratory analysis identified the portrait attributed to Frans Hals as a modern forgery. This was a civil contractual ruling, not a criminal conviction for forgery.
Art Gallery of Ontario returns van Kessel still life to David family — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Toronto, Canada; Belgium; Germany
Art Gallery of Ontario returns van Kessel still life to David family
The AGO restituted Still Life with Flowers, attributed to Jan van Kessel the Elder, to Dagobert and Martha David’s family. Research established a sale under duress during the German occupation of Belgium.
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