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
547–567 of 764 reports
Verzijl’s Young Man as Bacchus returned to Max Stern’s heirs — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
New York, United States; Düsseldorf, Germany
Verzijl’s Young Man as Bacchus returned to Max Stern’s heirs
The FBI returned the painting after identifying it at a New York art fair. It had been sold during Galerie Stern’s forced liquidation under Nazi persecution; the holding gallery waived its ownership claim.
North East England, United Kingdom
Fraudster jailed in fake Norman Cornish paintings case
ITV reported a prison sentence in a fraud case involving paintings falsely presented as works by the North East artist Norman Cornish. Image of works passed off as Cornish paintings: Northumbria Police, via ITV.
Artist portrait: Lee U-fan at a 2016 press briefing; Yonhap Image source ↗
Seoul, South Korea
Prison terms in Lee U-fan forgery case
A Seoul court convicted a gallery operator and dealer over works attributed to Lee U-fan. The artist maintained the works were authentic, but the court found evidence of counterfeiting.
New York, United States
Sotheby’s declares disputed Saint Jerome a forgery
Sotheby’s refunded the buyer after concluding that the Saint Jerome sold as a work from the circle of Parmigianino was a forgery. The finding is attributed to the auction house.
Case diagram by ArtTraceX · Max Rüdenberg collection · Schmidt-Rottluff · watercolour. Image source ↗
Hanover, Germany
German panel backs return of Schmidt-Rottluff’s Marsh Landscape with Red Windmill
Sprengel Museum records linked Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s watercolour to Max Rüdenberg. The German commission concluded that it had been sold under duress in 1939 and recommended its return.
Verona, Italy and Ukraine
17 works from Castelvecchio robbery returned to Italy
The Culture Ministry confirmed the return of works stolen in Verona in November 2015 and recovered in Ukraine in 2016.
Illuminated manuscript fragment returned in the same ceremony as the Carelli painting. Image source ↗
Washington, United States; Naples, Italy
Carelli painting and illuminated manuscript material returned to Italy
Italy’s foreign ministry reported a handover of a nineteenth-century Carelli painting and fourteenth-century illuminated manuscript material. The painting had been stolen in Naples in 2001 and traced through a Pennsylvania auction.
Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse, Manhattan. GSA photograph used for institutional context; not an artwork or evidence from this case. Image source ↗
New York, United States
Leon Zinder charged over sale of stolen African and Native American art
Federal prosecutors charged Leon Zinder with selling 13 African and Native American artworks stolen from a private collection. Authorities said most had been recovered. These were allegations at publication, not a conviction.
Torlonia Peplophoros. Photo: Manuelarosi, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); resized and converted to WebP. Image source ↗
New York, United States; Rome, Italy
Torlonia Peplophoros statue returned to Italy after thirty-three years
The FBI presented the Roman marble statue to Italian officials after forfeiture proceedings. It had been stolen from Villa Torlonia in Rome in November 1983 and later surfaced in New York.
Berlin, Germany
Berlin restitutes Reinhold Begas’s marble Susanna
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation returned Reinhold Begas’s marble Susanna to the heirs of Felicia Lachmann-Mosse. Research traced the sculpture to the Mosse collection and determined it had been lost as a result of Nazi persecution. It initially remained on loan to Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie. Image: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Andres Kilger.
Paris, France
Leonardo’s Saint John the Baptist returns to the Louvre galleries after conservation
The Louvre brought the painting back on view after ten months of conservation at France’s museum research and restoration centre. Conservators removed yellowed varnish and earlier overpaint, making details in the saint’s hair and animal-skin garment easier to see.
Vincent van Gogh, View of the Sea at Scheveningen, one of the two recovered paintings. Image source ↗
Castellammare di Stabia, Italy
Two Van Gogh Museum paintings recovered near Naples
Italian police recovered View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002. Their return date was not yet settled at publication. The 2019 return to display is covered separately.
Worshippers of the Buddha, one of the two works returned to India. AAP / SBS. Image source ↗
Canberra, Australia; India
Australia returns two ancient sculptures to India
The National Gallery of Australia returned Worshippers of the Buddha and Goddess Pratyangira to India after provenance investigations raised concerns about illicit export and trade. These are separate works from the Shiva returned in 2014.
Hoorn, Netherlands and Ukraine
Five Westfries Museum paintings returned from Ukraine
Five of the 24 paintings stolen in 2005 were returned. Other paintings remained missing at the report date.
Paris, France
US court authorizes seizure of Acoma ceremonial shield offered by EVE
EVE withdrew a sacred Acoma Pueblo shield from a May 2016 sale in Paris. US prosecutors sought forfeiture, and a federal judge authorized seizure. The US, the Pueblo and the consignor later agreed on a return in 2019. Photo shows Acoma Pueblo Governor Kurt Riley at a meeting about the sale.
Paris, France
Paris court sentences Hôtel Drouot porters in auction theft case
A Paris court sentenced porters in a case involving artworks and other objects taken while being handled for sale at Hôtel Drouot. A tip about a missing Courbet helped prompt the police investigation. Photo shows a sales room at Drouot.
Netherlands
Dalí and Tamara de Lempicka works stolen in 2009 recovered
Adolescence and La Musicienne were recovered through Arthur Brand’s work after the 2009 armed theft from the Scheringa Museum.
Authenticity dispute surrounds seventeen works at Ho Chi Minh City museum — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Authenticity dispute surrounds seventeen works at Ho Chi Minh City museum
Museum officials and experts questioned the authenticity and signatures of seventeen exhibited paintings. The collector disputed their findings; the source records the controversy and proposed investigation, rather than a final court judgment.
Context photograph: The Ninth Circuit’s Browning Courthouse, San Francisco. Blackhorsemedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Resized and cropped for display
United States
Cheffins: a ship built over a school bus
Artists turned a bus into a mobile replica of a Spanish galleon and sued after it was destroyed. The court held that La Contessa was an applied-art object excluded from the federal moral-rights statute.
Delray Beach, Florida, United States
Sam Tufnell’s Electric Blueberry gnome stolen from Florida museum
Sam Tufnell’s resin sculpture Power Gnome: Electric Blueberry was removed from an outdoor installation at the Cornell Art Museum in Delray Beach. It was part of the group exhibition Lit. The image is the artist’s missing-work poster.
The Toledo Museum of Art’s Ganesha bronze returned to India. Photograph: Toledo Museum of Art. Image source ↗
Toledo, United States; India
Toledo Museum’s Ganesha bronze returned to India
US authorities announced the return to India of a roughly thousand-year-old bronze Ganesha. The Toledo Museum of Art, which had acquired it from Subhash Kapoor, voluntarily surrendered the sculpture after evidence established its theft and illicit export.
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