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Timothy Schmalz’s bronze figure of Jesus stolen from Surrey schoolLife-size bronze of a seated woman stolen from an Essen cemeteryWooden wild boar sculpture stolen from Werl playgroundHelen Denerley’s metal bird sculpture returned to Inverness theatrePortland police seek stolen miniature horse figurines after arrestMax Slevogt’s Paradiesvögel restituted to Eduard Fuchs’s heirs

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

Art crime across time zones

Live clocks

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.

  1. France8,133 objects
  2. Italy7,721 objects
  3. Turkey3,034 objects
  4. Iraq2,786 objects
  5. Belgium2,336 objects
  6. Netherlands1,756 objects

Published analysis ↗Underlying data table ↗About the INTERPOL register ↗

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Thefts around the world

Art Theft Map

128 theft reports · 20 countries

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)
The stories behind the art

Stolen. Sought. Found.

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Edvard Munch, The Scream, the MUNCH painted version dated 1910? in the museum catalogue; stolen with Madonna in 2004.2004
Oslo, 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
Henry Moore, Reclining Figure (1969–70), photographed before its theft from Perry Green.2005
Perry 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
Rembrandt, Self-Portrait (1630), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; the copper painting recovered in 2005.2000
Stockholm, 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
The original Amber Room in 1931, before wartime removal; tinted historical photograph, not the modern reconstruction.Colour reproduction of Raphael’s missing Portrait of a Young Man, published by the Monuments Men and Women Foundation; not a newly discovered original.Scientific reconstruction of La pose enchantée, whose four quarters survive beneath later paintings; not an uncovered original.The three fake heads associated with the 1984 Livorno hoax; they are not sculptures by Amedeo Modigliani.An early copy of the Battle of Anghiari composition at Palazzo Vecchio, not a surviving mural by Leonardo.
Image details · Sources in each story
THE CLUES. THE SHADOWS. THE QUESTIONS.

Art Mysteries

Some artworks keep their secrets.

Explore the 20 stories
HISTORICAL EDITION · 1933–1945

Art, loss & memory

The upper strip shows details of the featured artworks; the lower strip uses World War II archive photographs as historical context.

ArtTraceX · The adventure starts hereJoin the art hunters — near you and around the worldThe next clue could be closer than you think.Start exploring

Art Wanted · Rewards

87 entries · 88 documented offers · terms apply

Newest additions first · up to ten entries in each group.

Rewards page →

Officially advertised offers 59

Official sources checked; terms apply.

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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.

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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.

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Art Forgery Stories

The Masterpieces That Never Were

All forgery stories
The white paint that exposed BeltracchiThe Vermeer the forger had to paint againThe fake Rothko that sold for $8.3 millionThe fakes planted in the Tate archives

Incident archive

Last update · 13 Nov 2026
ArtistsAll artists125

Report counts across the archive. Names include attributed works and reported forgeries.

Browse artist dossiers →

484–504 of 764 reports

Thieves take a decoy after police safeguard a Brueghel Crucifixion
Stolen
Castelnuovo Magra, Italy

Thieves take a decoy after police safeguard a Brueghel Crucifixion

Thieves broke into Santa Maria Maddalena church and stole a copy of The Crucifixion by Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Acting on advance information, police had already moved the original to safety and installed a reproduction and surveillance cameras. The original was not stolen in this incident. Artnet updated its report on 14 March to clarify the substitution.

Art theftJan Brueghel
Read the source · news.artnet.com ↗
Murillo’s Santa Catalina returned to Rosario after recovery in Uruguay — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source.

Murillo’s Santa Catalina returned to Rosario after recovery in Uruguay — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗

Returned
Rosario, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay

Murillo’s Santa Catalina returned to Rosario after recovery in Uruguay

Argentine authorities reported the restitution of Santa Catalina, stolen from Rosario’s Estévez museum in 1983. The painting was recovered in Montevideo in October 2018 and repatriated in December.

Art restitution
Read the source · argentina.gob.ar ↗
Amedeo Modigliani’s La Femme à l’éventail, one of the five paintings stolen in Paris in 2010.
Stolen
Paris, France

The theft of five masterpieces from the Musée d’Art moderne de Paris

On 20 May 2010, Vjeran Tomic stole Picasso’s Le Pigeon aux petits pois, Matisse’s La Pastorale, Braque’s L’Olivier près de l’Estaque, Modigliani’s La Femme à l’éventail and Léger’s Nature morte aux chandeliers from Paris’s modern art museum. The original article incorrectly says April. Corvez testified that he paid €40,000 for the Léger. Birn agreed to pay €80,000 for the Modigliani and store the others. No reliable confirmation of recovery was found in November 2026. Image shows the Modigliani. See the accompanying court report for sentences and the destruction claim.

Art theftPablo PicassoHenri MatisseAmedeo Modigliani
Read the source · mam.paris.fr ↗
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony — Christie’s.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony — Christie’s. Image source ↗

Returned
New York, United States / Netherlands

Lucas Cranach the Elder portrait returned to Fritz Gutmann heirs

Christie’s documents the return of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Portrait of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony to Fritz Gutmann’s heirs under an agreed settlement with its holders. Missing for nearly 80 years after Nazi persecution and the dispersal of the family collection, it was returned and auctioned in April 2018. This source was published on 11 December 2018.

Art restitutionLucas Cranach
Read the source · christies.com ↗
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Golfe, mer, falaises vertes, 1895. Dorotheum / Roberto Gobbo, via Wikimedia Commons (public-domain reproduction).

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Golfe, mer, falaises vertes, 1895. Dorotheum / Roberto Gobbo, via Wikimedia Commons (public-domain reproduction). Image source ↗

Stolen
Vienna, Austria

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting stolen from Vienna’s Dorotheum auction house

Vienna police reported that three men removed a Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting from its frame at the Dorotheum on 26 November 2018. The auction catalogue identifies it as Golfe, mer, falaises vertes, 1895. This records the original theft stage; the 2019 sentencing report is separate.

Art theftPierre-Auguste Renoir
Read the source · ots.at ↗
The recovered limestone relief of a Persian guard from Persepolis — via The Art Newspaper.

The recovered limestone relief of a Persian guard from Persepolis — via The Art Newspaper. Image source ↗

Returned
New York, United States / Tehran, Iran

Persepolis guard relief returned to Iran following court order

The University of Chicago, whose researchers provided archival evidence for the case, confirmed that a Persepolis guard relief was returned to Iran in 2018 under a New York Supreme Court order. Stolen from Persepolis in 1936 and again from a Montreal museum in 2011, it was recovered, subsequently sold to dealers, and seized at TEFAF New York in 2017. Its official handover took place in September 2018, followed by display in Tehran.

Art restitution
Read the source · news.uchicago.edu ↗
Guggenheim agrees to restitute Kirchner’s Artillerymen — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source.

Guggenheim agrees to restitute Kirchner’s Artillerymen — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗

Returned
New York, United States; Germany

Guggenheim agrees to restitute Kirchner’s Artillerymen

The Guggenheim agreed to return Artillerymen to Alfred Flechtheim’s heirs after provenance research established its persecution-related history. The announcement records a restitution agreement, rather than a newly reported theft.

Art restitution
Read the source · The Art Newspaper ↗
Vaughn Judson’s memory sketch of Ginny; not a photograph of the sculpture. Courtesy of the artist / Seven Days.

Vaughn Judson’s memory sketch of Ginny; not a photograph of the sculpture. Courtesy of the artist / Seven Days. Image source ↗

Stolen
Vermont, United States

Ginny: reward advertised for sculpture stolen in 1980

Vaughn Judson told Seven Days that her concrete sculpture Ginny was stolen from a Jeep in Vermont in winter 1980. She advertised $100 for its return in 2018. The illustration is her memory sketch, not a photograph.

Art theftVaughn Judson
$100 · Historical offer
Read the source · sevendaysvt.com ↗
Renoir’s Two Women in a Garden returned to Weinberger’s heir — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source.

Renoir’s Two Women in a Garden returned to Weinberger’s heir — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗

Returned
New York, United States; Paris, France

Renoir’s Two Women in a Garden returned to Weinberger’s heir

The Renoir was presented to Sylvie Sulitzer, granddaughter of collector Alfred Weinberger, at a New York ceremony. It had been looted from the family’s bank vault in Paris in 1941.

Art restitutionPierre-Auguste Renoir
Read the source · The Art Newspaper ↗
Cathedral regalia: the two crowns at the top and the central orb were stolen; other pictured objects were not part of this theft. Cathedral/Police via Sveriges Radio.

Cathedral regalia: the two crowns at the top and the central orb were stolen; other pictured objects were not part of this theft. Cathedral/Police via Sveriges Radio. Image source ↗

Stolen
Strängnäs, Sweden

Royal funeral crowns and orb stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral

Two gold funeral crowns and an orb associated with King Karl IX and Queen Kristina were stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral on 31 July 2018. The seventeenth-century regalia had been kept in a locked, alarmed display case. Sveriges Radio quoted police during the search. This is the initial theft report; the later return is recorded separately.

Art theft
Read the source · sverigesradio.se ↗
Rembrandt, Self-Portrait (1630), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

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