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
421–441 of 764 reports
Van Gogh’s stolen 1884 painting, reproduced in the police appeal. Image source ↗
Laren, Netherlands
Van Gogh painting stolen from Singer Laren
Vincent van Gogh’s Lentetuin, de pastorietuin te Nuenen in het voorjaar (1884) was stolen from Singer Laren at about 03:15 on 30 March 2020. The painting was on loan from the Groninger Museum. A televised police appeal described forced entry through glass doors. This is the theft-stage report; a later recovery is documented separately.
Berlin, Germany
Ghada Amer ceramic sculpture taken from a Berlin gallery
A gallery in Berlin-Mitte reported the theft of Ghada Amer’s Thought # 3 on a Lobster Base between 6 and 17 February 2020. Police described the work as a multicoloured glazed ceramic from 2017 on a red base and released photographs.
Johann Bernard Klombeck and Eugène Verboeckhoven, View in the Woods in the Winter, B59. RCE / Wikimedia Commons · PDM 1.0. Image source ↗
Netherlands
Dutch panel advises against returning View in the Woods in the Winter
The committee found no evidence that the winter landscape by Klombeck and Verboeckhoven belonged to Marcel Wolf. It recommended rejecting the claim.
Pierre Louis Goudreaux, An Amorous Couple / A Loving Glance — the returned painting. Image source ↗
New York, United States / Ukraine
Pierre Louis Goudreaux’s An Amorous Couple returned to Ukraine
Ukraine’s Permanent Mission to the UN confirmed on 20 February 2020 that an official handover of Pierre Louis Goudreaux’s An Amorous Couple took place in New York the previous day, attended by Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko. Looted from Kyiv’s Khanenko Museum during World War II, the painting was found in the United States. This is a restitution update to the civil forfeiture action announced in 2019.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia / Rotterdam, Netherlands
Missing Ethiopian ceremonial crown handed back in Addis Ababa
The Netherlands handed an eighteenth-century Ethiopian ceremonial crown to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 20 February. Missing since 1993, the gilded copper crown, decorated with Christian figures, had resurfaced in Rotterdam in 2019. The photograph shows the handover.
Berlin, Germany
Three convicted in Bode Museum Big Maple Leaf theft
The heritage foundation reported three convictions in the 2017 gold coin theft. At the announcement date, the judgment remained open to appeal.
The affected Stockholm gallery and Salvador Dalí; SVT/TT report image. Image source ↗
Stockholm, Sweden
Dalí sculptures and etchings stolen in Stockholm gallery raid
Thieves smashed the glass doors of Couleur gallery in Stockholm and stole Salvador Dalí bronzes and etchings. About ten works, on loan from Switzerland, were in the exhibition; police did not give an exact stolen-item count in this report. The source reported no recovery at publication.
Context photograph: The Rolls Building, where the Business and Property Courts sit in London today. Muhammad Karns · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and cropped for display
United Kingdom
Response Clothing: a woven wave pattern
A clothing supplier alleged that a retailer commissioned fabric copying its woven wave design. The court treated the fabric as a work of artistic craftsmanship and found infringement.
Berlin, Germany
Three works returned to the Dorville heirs
Germany returned two works by Jean-Louis Forain to the heirs of Jewish lawyer Armand Dorville. Both had been found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s collection. Another member of the Gurlitt family returned a work by Constantin Guys at the same ceremony. Image: Mick Vincenz / Kunstmuseum Bern and Bundeskunsthalle.
Five paintings stolen from Gotha in 1979 return to Friedenstein — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Gotha, Germany
Five paintings stolen from Gotha in 1979 return to Friedenstein
Five Old Master paintings taken from Schloss Friedenstein were returned after forty years. The announcement distinguishes works by or associated with Hals, Brueghel, Lievens, Holbein and Van Dyck, ahead of conservation.
Amsterdam, Netherlands / Oslo, Norway
Van Gogh Museum confirms authorship of the Oslo self-portrait
After more than five years of research, the Van Gogh Museum confirmed the authenticity of an 1889 self-portrait from Norway’s National Museum that had long been questioned. The researchers considered the canvas, pigments, technique and provenance. The portrait went on temporary display in Amsterdam.
Stolen fifteenth-century Divan of Hafez manuscript recovered — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Munich, Germany; Netherlands
Stolen fifteenth-century Divan of Hafez manuscript recovered
Arthur Brand reported recovering a fifteenth-century manuscript missing from the Ghazy collection. The report concerns a particular historic copy of Hafez’s poetry, not the recovery of all items missing from the collection.
Piacenza, Italy
Painting found in gallery wall authenticated as stolen Klimt
Experts confirmed that the painting found in a cavity in the Ricci Oddi gallery wall in December 2019 was Portrait of a Lady, missing since 1997.
Context photograph: Entrance to the French Court of Cassation at the Paris Palais de Justice. Tiraden · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and cropped for display
France
Bauret v. Koons: a photograph adapted into Naked
Jean-François Bauret’s heirs challenged Koons’s use of his photograph Enfants in creating the sculpture Naked. The court upheld the infringement finding and rejected the asserted parody defense.
Police composite of jewels involved in the Green Vault theft; image retained from the existing recovery report. Image source ↗
Dresden, Germany
Police seek witnesses after Dresden’s Green Vault jewel theft
Dresden police and prosecutors appealed for witnesses after the 25 November 2019 theft from the Green Vault. Their 11 December release focused on an Audi A6 believed to have been used by the perpetrators, requesting photographs and information from before the robbery. This card documents the investigation while the jewels were still missing, before the separately reported partial recovery in 2022.
Oscar Wilde friendship ring returns to Magdalen College — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Oxford, United Kingdom
Oscar Wilde friendship ring returns to Magdalen College
Magdalen College confirmed the return of the gold ring given by Oscar Wilde and Reginald Harding to William Ward. It had been stolen in 2002 and recovered through Arthur Brand’s efforts.
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Six paintings from Brampton theft recovered at Ontario auction house
Art Recovery International announced that six paintings traced to an Ontario auction house had been returned to the owner. They were part of a larger group of artworks stolen from a Brampton storage unit in 2017. Image: Art Recovery International.
Joseph Wopfner, Fishing Boats near Frauenchiemsee, no. 12589. Bavarian State Painting Collections / Wikimedia Commons. Image source ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bavaria, Germany
Joseph Wopfner’s Fishing Boats near Frauenchiemsee returned to the Isay heirs
The Bavarian State Painting Collections record the formal restitution of Joseph Wopfner’s painting to Alfred Isay’s heirs in December 2019. A planned handover ceremony was later cancelled.
Compiègne / Senlis, France
Cimabue panel discovered during a house clearance sells in France
The small late-13th-century panel Christ Mocked was identified after it was found hanging in a kitchen near Compiègne. It sold in Senlis in October 2019 for €24.1 million including fees. The Louvre later acquired the work, which France had classified as a national treasure.
San Francisco, USA
Salvador Dalí etching stolen from San Francisco gallery
La Girafe en Feu was taken from Dennis Rae Fine Art in October 2019. Checked against AP reporting. Recovery was not verified in this review.
Polly Rome bronze fox pictured in the theft appeal / Hampshire Police. Image source ↗
Rockbourne, United Kingdom
Two Polly Rome bronze sculptures stolen from a Rockbourne home
Hampshire Police sought two bronzes stolen from a Rockbourne home on 17 October 2019: a running fox signed Polly Rome and a metre-high woman with raised hands by the same artist. They were taken from a porch and garden while the owners were out. This historical appeal does not announce a recovery.
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