Louvre robbery in Paris: Other high-profile heists from museums
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Members of a forensic team inspecting a window believed to have been used in a robbery at the Louvre Museum where jewellery was stolen, in Paris, France, on Oct 19.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
PARIS - Here are some major thefts from museums, prior to Oct 19’s daylight break-in
August 2023, London
The British Museum said around 2,000 artefacts including gold jewellery and gems had been stolen over a long period in what the museum described as an "inside job".
August 2020, near Utrech
During a Covid-19 pandemic shutdown, thieves broke in via a back door to steal Two Laughing Boys by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals from the Hofje van Mevrouw Van Aerden museum near the Dutch city.
The 1626 work, valued by one expert at €15 million (S$22.7 million), had been stolen twice before.
March 2020, Amsterdam
The Singer Laren Museum, where Spring Garden by Vincent van Gogh was stolen, is seen in Laren, Netherlands, on March 30, 2020.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Earlier during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown, van Gogh's Spring Garden painting was stolen overnight from the Singer Laren Museum, where it had been on loan.
November 2019, Dresden
The breast star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle is pictured, as items recovered from a jewel heist at Gruenes Gewoelbe (Green Vault) museum in 2019 went back on display after their restoration, in Dresden, Germany, on Aug 13, 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Thieves stole pieces that contained more than 4,300 diamonds with an estimated value of over €113 million, by breaking through a grilled window at the Gruenes Gewoelbe (Green Vault) museum in the city in the eastern German state of Saxony.
Most of the jewels were recovered.
May 2015, Madrid
Five paintings by Francis Bacon worth US$25 million (S$32 million) were stolen from a house in Madrid.
Three were recovered two years later.
October 2012, Rotterdam
Images of stolen paintings during a news conference at Romania's National History Museum, in Bucharest, on Aug 8, 2013.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Thieves made off with seven paintings, worth tens of millions of euros, by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others from Rotterdam's Kunsthal museum.
The Picasso was briefly believed to have been recovered, until it was deemed a fake. A Romanian man and several accomplices were convicted of the theft in 2013.
May 2010, Paris
Five paintings worth €120 million were stolen from the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The stolen works included Picasso's Dove with Green Peas and Henri Matisse's Pastorale.
February 2008, Zurich
Buehrle collection director Lukas Gloor showing painting reproductions at a press conference in Zurich, on Feb 11, 2008.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, van Gogh and Claude Monet worth US$164 million were stolen from the Buehrle Collection in Zurich.
The Monet and van Gogh were found soon after, and the Cezanne in 2012 in Serbia.
December 2004, Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo Museum of Art workers hanging Pablo Picasso's oil painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch before the museum reopened to visitors, on Jan 11, 2008.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In Brazil, thieves stole Picasso's 1904 work Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, worth up to US$50 million, and local painter Candido Portinari's 1939 The Coffee Worker, valued at about US$5.5 million, from Sao Paulo's leading art museum.
Both paintings were recovered the following month.
August 2004, Oslo
A museum worker standing next to one of the versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream as a visitor has her picture taken next to it at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, on Jan 21.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Armed robbers stole Edvard Munch's The Scream from the Munch Museum in Oslo, the second time in 10 years that a version of the painting was stolen.
Thieves also took Munch's Madonna. The paintings, from 1893, were recovered in August 2006.
August 2003, Drumlanrig Castle, Scotland
A gallery attendant standing in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna of the Yarnwinder at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, on March 3, 2010.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Thieves stole the Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci. The work, painted in the early 16th century, was valued at about US$53 million.
It was recovered in Scotland four years later.
December 2002, Amsterdam
Two van Gogh oil paintings worth an estimated US$56 million each were snatched by thieves in a daring robbery at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Both paintings were found in Naples in 2016 at the country house of an alleged mafia drug smuggler.
December 2001, Stockholm
Conversation and A Young Parisienne by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a self-portrait by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn were stolen from Stockholm's National Museum.
Conversation was recovered the following April, the Rembrandt portrait in 2005.
November 1993, Stockholm
Eight works by Picasso and French cubist Georges Braque, valued at some US$60 million, were stolen from Stockholm's Modern Museum.
Some were recovered in the following months.
April 1991, Amsterdam
In what was then billed as the world's biggest art robbery, 20 paintings – estimated to be worth US$500 million – were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, including van Gogh's The Potato Eaters.
They were found shortly afterwards in an abandoned car not far away. REUTERS
