THE ARCHIVE BY COUNTRY
Published reports from our archive, newest first.
A country may refer to the theft, recovery, return or legal proceedings. A case can be linked to more than one country.
79 reports · Page 1 / 4
STV News reported on 11 November that Helen Denerley’s scrap-metal bird, missing since October from a charity exhibition at Eden Court Theatre, had been returned anonymously to the theatre with an apology and a £100 donation. The sculpture was due to be sold to raise funds for the Highlands charity Centred, which confirmed its return and supplied the photograph.
On 30 October 2026, London's Metropolitan Police handed 18 Khmer cultural objects to the Cambodian Embassy, after recovering them in November 2025. The group includes stone sculptures, bronze ritual objects and jewellery fragments. As of the 8 November report, onward transport to Cambodia was still to be arranged. Photo: the handover ceremony and objects, Royal Embassy of Cambodia in London.
Police Scotland updated the investigation into the Lipton Cup’s theft from Riverside Museum in October 2025. A 71-year-old man arrested on 5 November 2026 was released without charge; enquiries continue. The cup remains circulated as stolen. No recovery or finding of guilt is announced.
Reporting on the 5 November ruling says the court ordered restitution of Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne and cancellation of its 2024 London sale. Mondex intends to appeal and Sotheby's is considering joining. Enforcement in the UK requires further proceedings.
Police announced a three-year sentence following a guilty plea relating to theft and other offences at the National Maritime Museum’s Caird Library. Documentary image from the Metropolitan Police case release.
CCTV image released by police in the hedgehog theft investigation Image source ↗
Lincolnshire Police reported a court summons following the August 2025 theft. The summons is a procedural step in the criminal case.
Andrew Crowley was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud by false representation. He had attempted to sell supposed antiquities through Sotheby’s using forged provenance records. Sotheby’s alerted the Metropolitan Police after noticing inconsistencies in the documents. Image: the suspect and the objects, courtesy of the Metropolitan Police.
Gustave Courbet, Mother and Child on a Hammock. Matthiesen Gallery. Image source ↗
Thomas Doyle pleaded guilty to wire fraud over Mother and Child on a Hammock. Prosecutors said he sold the work through a gallery and withheld the owner’s proceeds. At publication, sentencing was scheduled for November 2026; no sentence had yet been imposed.
The original large-format work, depicting two hares nose to nose, was taken from the Cheltenham horse racing festival on 13 March 2026. The appeal cited Gloucestershire Constabulary case 53260014221. Image: the artist with the work in progress, via Punchline Gloucester.
Bronze deer shown in the police appeal / Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. Image source ↗
Hampshire Police appealed for information after a bronze deer statue was reported stolen from outside a property on Gosport Lane, Lyndhurst. The reported theft window was 23:00 on 10 March to 08:05 on 11 March 2026. The appeal includes photographs and seeks footage or information about the statue’s whereabouts.
Michel Draguet proposed that Michelangelo painted the Spirituali Pietà. Art historian David Ekserdjian disputed that attribution, leaving the authorship contested.
Teddy Baldock statue before the theft / Metropolitan Police, media-use image. Image source ↗
The Metropolitan Police appealed after the Teddy Baldock monument was stolen from Langdon Park, Poplar, on 1 February 2026. CCTV showed four masked suspects loosening the bronze from its plinth and carrying it away in a three-wheel cargo bike. The dated appeal reports an investigation, not an arrest or recovery.
Avon and Somerset Police appealed for information after a 25 September 2025 burglary at a store holding the British Empire and Commonwealth collection. The missing items included carved ivory, bronze figurines, jewellery and medals. Image: a stolen ivory elephant, via the Museums Association.
A signed, limited-edition print by Nelson Mandela showing bound hands above the word “imprisonment” was removed from its frame in St George’s Hall on 13 October 2025. Merseyside Police later announced an arrest in January 2026. Image: Merseyside Police.
Brewer Management sued Christie’s over the 2023 London auction of Picasso’s Femme dans un rocking-chair (Jacqueline). The company alleged that the auction house had not disclosed that a former owner was a convicted cocaine trafficker. It sought to unwind its third-party guarantee agreement and recover its initial payment. Image: the Picasso, via Hyperallergic.
The Madonna and Child by Antonio Solario returned to Belluno’s civic museums on 21 July 2025, more than fifty years after the theft. Its last private possessor voluntarily surrendered the painting to Carabinieri at the Italian Embassy in London. The handover photograph was published by Rai News and credited to ANSA.
America by Maurizio Cattelan, pictured in the 2019 AP/ABC7 report. Image source ↗
Following the 2019 theft of Maurizio Cattelan’s America from Blenheim Palace, James Sheen received four years in prison and Michael Jones 27 months. The Crown Prosecution Service also recorded Fred Doe’s earlier suspended sentence. This report concerns sentencing, not recovery of the artwork.
The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol had been unidentified for about 150 years. Cleaning revealed a signature after the work sold for just over £500 in 2024. Specialists attributed the painting to the young J.M.W. Turner, and Sotheby’s offered it in London in July 2025.
Henry Gibbs, Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Burning Troy, T06782 · Tate / Art UK / Wikimedia Commons Image source ↗
The UK panel recommended returning the painting by Henry Gibbs to Samuel Hartveld’s heirs. It found that the work was looted after Hartveld fled Antwerp.
A small oil portrait on copper, missing from view after the 1842 dispersal of Horace Walpole’s collection, resurfaced and returned to Strawberry Hill House for an exhibition. Walpole believed the work was by Bronzino and depicted Bianca Capello. The house now attributes it to Lavinia Fontana and lists the sitter as unidentified.
Suffolk Police reported damage and theft of a black Dalmatian sculpture on 16 January 2025. The investigation was ongoing and witnesses were sought.
