How stolen paintings are found. The most famous painting thefts The largest robbery of the American art museum

In mid-February, two paintings stolen from a Marseille museum in 2009 were found in France. On the black market for works of art, where works were lost for nine years famous impressionist, billions of dollars are spinning. However, in order to get to this money, it is not enough to steal a masterpiece. You need to know what to do with it next. I found out how thieves get rid of stolen paintings.

Events unfolded like in a Hollywood action movie. First, two cars caught fire in the center of Stockholm. While the police were figuring out what was happening, a robber with a machine gun burst in. By that time, his accomplices were already hiding among the visitors. At a signal, they pointed their pistols at the guards. Five minutes later, the robbers jumped out into the street with two paintings by Renoir and a self-portrait by Rembrandt. A motor boat was waiting for them in the canal near the museum. They jumped into it and were gone.

In 2000, when the robbery occurred, Robert Wittman headed the department for the search for stolen works of art. “The robbers thought of everything,” he recalls. “Excellent work, if we talk only about the theft itself and evading prosecution.” But, he says, this is the simplest part of the crime. It is much more difficult to sell the loot.

Most often, museums are robbed by people who have no idea how the art market works. "They're great thieves, but terrible businessmen," Wittman says. Amateurs do not realize that the painting itself is worth nothing. Proof of authenticity, legality and provenance is required. Criminals don't have all this.

One of the stolen Renoir paintings was found almost immediately. Rembrandt's self-portrait was returned by Wittman himself in 2005. He contacted the robbers under the guise of a dealer who works for the Russian mafia in the USA. They didn’t notice the catch and came to the meeting, where they were caught red-handed. Last picture soon surfaced in Los Angeles.

Connoisseur in sweatpants

In the movies, works of art are stolen by sophisticated professionals in tuxedos. But in reality, museum thieves are more like Radu Dogara, a Romanian criminal who in 2012 stole two Monet drawings and five paintings by Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, and Meyer de Haan from the Rotterdam Kunsthal Museum.

Dogaru was a pimp and sold stolen watches. Before the theft, he visited the Kunsthal under the guise of a visitor, taking with him a girl and an accomplice. At the museum, he carefully pretended to be an art connoisseur and calmly walked through the halls in sweatpants, looking for paintings that would fit in his backpack.

At night, Dogaru returned with an accomplice and, using wire cutters, opened the door leading to the museum from the park. There were no CCTV cameras there, and there were no security guards either. The thieves quickly removed the selected paintings from the walls and disappeared without hesitation. The alarm went off, but by the time the police arrived, there was no trace of the criminals.

On the same day, the Romanians visited Brussels and met with a man nicknamed George the Thief. Having secured a promise that he would find a buyer for them, Dogaru and his friend returned to Rotterdam, and from there they went to their homeland.

Over the next month they tried to sell the loot. George-Vor tried to connect them with people in France, Belgium, Monaco, Belarus and Russia, but nothing worked. A month later, rumors about stolen paintings reached a museum employee in Bucharest. She talked about suspicious types of police.

Black market laws

According to the RAND Corporation, almost all successful deals in the underground art market follow the same pattern. The direct perpetrators, as a rule, are narrow-minded people with a criminal past - such as Radu Dogaru. Their loot falls into the hands of buyers - experts with excellent education and extensive connections both in the criminal world and in the art market. Their task is to “launder” the reputation of stolen goods and, with the help of smugglers, transport them to dealers. They, in turn, find traders who often do not even suspect the origin of the goods.

In most cases, the chain connecting the contractor and the buyer consists of five people. Some of them combine several roles, and the traders turn out to be ordinary auction houses or antique shops. But if we're talking about O famous work art, everything is much more complicated. In this case, you cannot count on legal buyers. There remain criminal syndicates that use stolen paintings as currency, and private collectors who are not embarrassed by problems with the law.

Three paintings stolen from the National Museum in Stockholm were worth about $40 million. Dogaru's production is from 100 to 200 million dollars. However, the amount that the criminals could count on is an order of magnitude less. Alice Farren-Bradley of Art Loss Registry, which maintains the largest database of stolen art, estimates that prices on the black market are 10 to 20 times lower than usual.

For famous paintings they pay even worse. “Even 10 percent is too expensive when it comes to masterpieces,” said Anthony Amore, who is in charge of security in Boston. “No one will spend millions on a work that cannot be shown to others.”

Lost Masterpieces

In July 2013, Dogara and his accomplices were arrested, but they did not have the stolen paintings. It is possible that the paintings no longer exist: Dogaru’s mother claimed that after her son’s arrest she got scared and burned them in the stove. Then she changed her testimony, but the remains of canvases and paint were actually found in the ash.

Experts are not surprised by this plot twist. For one reason or another, a significant proportion of stolen works of art are lost. Sometimes they are destroyed to get rid of evidence. Sometimes paintings are ruined by improper handling. "If they're stolen by lay people, they don't know what they're doing," explains Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry. - Paintings must be stored at a certain temperature conditions" IN otherwise they will quickly become unusable.

The most famous case of this kind occurred in 2001, when 53-year-old resident of a small French town, Mireille Breitweiser, destroyed works of art and valuables worth 1.4 billion euros. Her son Stefan Breitweiser mined them for seven years. During this time, he and his friend Anna-Katerina Kleinklauss robbed 172 museums in five European countries. Canvases of old masters, ancient ceramics, weapons and musical instruments The thief was hiding in his mother's house.

In 2001, Stefan made a mistake and got caught. When his mother found out about this, she was terribly angry and decided to get rid of her son’s things. The woman chopped up more than 60 paintings into pieces, mixed them with garbage and threw them away, and drowned jewelry, ceramics and figurines in the river. They managed to get something from the bottom, but the destroyed paintings disappeared without a trace.

Criminal currency

International databases of stolen goods have made the lives of museum thieves much more difficult. Now you can’t, as before, lie low and wait for the hype to die down, or take the loot to another country where they don’t know about the theft. “A thief cannot take stolen goods to auction house, because they check all the lots, says Will Corner of the Art Loss Registry. - The same applies to decent dealers and pawnshops who check the goods against our database. As a result, the profitability of such crimes has decreased significantly.”

But even if the painting cannot be sold, it may be valuable to criminals. “Stolen works of art change hands very quickly,” says Dutch art historian Arthur Brand. - In the criminal world they are used instead of banknotes. The canvases are exchanged for weapons and drugs.”

Sometimes criminals agree to take stolen paintings as collateral or payment for goods. There is a logic to this: transporting them across the border is much easier than a large sum cash. Moreover, the nominal value of the paintings can be very high (at least in theory). In addition, paintings can be useful in negotiations with justice authorities. For the return of a priceless masterpiece, the sentence may be reduced. This is good insurance for a rainy day.

Good example- the fate of 18 paintings that were stolen in 1986 by Irish thief Martin Cagill, nicknamed the General. At first, the Irish Republican Army, which ordered the theft, tried to exchange the paintings for captured comrades. When that didn't work out, Cagill tried to find another use for the loot. He exchanged one of the paintings for a large shipment of heroin in Istanbul. He gave four more as collateral for the loan. The thief wanted to open his own bank in the Bahamas, but did not have time: he was killed by his former partners from the IRA.

Sometimes criminal tycoons buy paintings out of love for art - this also happens. The famous Dutch criminal Cor van Hout, the organizer of the kidnapping of beer magnate Alfred Heineken, was eyeing Van Gogh's paintings, which were stolen by Octave Durham in 2002. On the day of the deal, van Hout was killed in a shootout, and Durham had to look for another buyer. As a result, the paintings went to an Italian who sold marijuana in an Amsterdam coffee shop. Thirteen years later they were found in the residence of the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia.

Parisian Spider-Man

According to a study by the RAND Corporation, it is most profitable to be a buyer: there is almost no risk, and most of the proceeds go to him. The immediate executor receives pennies - often not more than a percent from the price that the buyer agreed to pay.

The story of Vjeran Tomic, nicknamed Spider-Man, confirms these calculations. In 2010, a Serb stole from the Paris Museum contemporary art works by Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Georges Braque and Fernand Leger, worth 125 million dollars, and received only 40 thousand euros for them.

Antique dealer Jean-Michel Corvez promised to pay the money. He claimed that he had found a man in Israel who was willing to buy the stolen Leger painting. In the dead of night, Tomich broke out a museum window, entered the building, found the desired canvas and carefully removed it from the frame. He expected the alarm to go off and security to come running, but it was quiet. Then the thief decided to stay and look at other paintings. Tomich wandered through the halls for an hour and eventually took four more canvases, after which he climbed down from the window using a rope. The loss was noticed only at seven in the morning.

We know the story of the Parisian Spider-Man or Radu Dogaru only because they got caught. This makes them exceptions to the rule, because most criminals who steal paintings get away with it. "Often in cases where we do recover stolen goods, the thieves get away with it," says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner of the FBI. “Over the years, works of art have passed through so many hands that it is very difficult to determine who exactly stole them.”

The chances of finding the missing canvas are also low. FBI statistics show that more than 90 percent of stolen works of art disappear without a trace. Art Loss Registry founder Julian Radcliffe's assessment is a little more optimistic: he believes that within twenty years, owners manage to return up to 20 percent of the stolen property.

The RAND Corporation estimates that $8 billion in art transactions are made annually on the black market. Most of the income for underground dealers comes not from missing masterpieces that cost millions of dollars, but from much cheaper works that cost less. famous artists.

“95 percent of art is stolen from private homes, and it is usually worth up to $10,000,” says art black market expert Paul Hendry. “Once stolen, they go through several intermediaries and pop up on the legal market at full price.” As an example, he cites Meissen porcelain figurines. “There could be 500 or 1000 variations of this figurine,” he explains. “Who will figure out which of them is stolen and which is not?”

The most famous kidnappings paintings October 22nd, 2012

On Tuesday night, 7 masterpieces were stolen from the Rotterdam Kunstel Museum, including paintings by Picasso, Mastisse, Monet and Gauguin.

This robbery was the largest robbery to take place in Holland in the last 20 years. One of the paintings is famous "Waterloo Bridge" Claude Monet. Thieves sometimes use the most incredible ways to commit their crimes. Find out about the most famous painting thefts.

1) Kidnapping "Mona Lisas" Leonardo da Vinci

More than a hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "Mona Lisa" became the most famous painting in the world after being stolen from a museum Louvre in Paris on August 21, 1911.

Stolen by a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed that he fell in love with the Mona Lisa as soon as he looked into her eyes, the painting stood in his kitchen for two years. "Gioconda", another name for this unique painting, became a worldwide sensation. The fame was beneficial in the search for the painting, as it could not be sold to any collector willing to fork out the cash.

Peruggia, a worker from Paris who once worked at the Louvre, simply removed the painting from the wall on a day when the museum was closed and walked out of the building, hiding the masterpiece under his clothes. Although the thief claimed that he stole the painting for patriotic reasons, the prospect of making a lot of money from the sale of the painting was the true motive for the theft. The Italians, of course, never forgot about the origin of the painting, so they actively advocated for the canvas to be returned to Florence. This robbery became one of the most famous painting thefts in history.

2) The most successful painting thief

Stefan Breitwieser is perhaps the most successful art thief in history, or at least he could be until he was caught.

A waiter, self-taught art historian and traveler, Breitwieser stole a total of 239 works between 1995 and 2001, worth a total of $1.4 billion.

He was caught in November 2001 right at the crime scene in Lucerne, Switzerland. According to the press, after Breitwieser's arrest, his mother burned more than 60 stolen masterpieces.

For his crimes, Breitwieser received 3 years, but served only 26 months in prison, and his mother was convicted as an accomplice and spent 18 months in prison.

3) The largest robbery of an American art museum

On March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as police entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest robbery in US history, which is still unsolved. The thieves handcuffed the museum's night guards under the pretext that they had a warrant for their arrest.

Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. According to some estimates, the value of one of the stolen paintings was $200 million. This "Concert" by Johannes Vermeer, painted in the second half of the 17th century.

Also among the 13 stolen masterpieces was a painting by Rembrandt "Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee". The value of all the stolen paintings was estimated at $300 million, but some experts argued that the paintings could be worth much more.

Many of the paintings had been cut from their frames, leading investigators to believe the perpetrators had little understanding of art.

4) Robbery of the Munch Museum in Oslo

On August 22, 2004, armed masked men entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch "Scream" And "Madonna". The masterpieces were found by police in 2006, and each of the paintings showed signs of damage, so it took another 2 years for their restoration before they returned to their place in the museum.

"Scream" is the most famous picture artist and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its value is $82 million, according to the publication. The Telegraph.

5) Zurich museum robbery

In February 2008, armed people broke into the museum Collection of the Emil Bührle Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, and stole 4 masterpieces worth a total of $140 million. This is the largest art theft in Swiss history.

Painting "Poppy field near Vetheuil" Claude Monet was one of the stolen paintings (pictured). The criminals also stole such masterpieces as "Louis Lepic and his daughters" Edgar Degas, "Blooming chestnut branches" Vincent Van Gogh and "The Boy in the Red Vest" Fields by Cezanne.. Paintings by Van Gogh and Monet were quickly discovered by the police and they were returned to the museum, the rest disappeared without a trace.

6) Robbery of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam

On May 21, 1988, burglars broke the first floor window of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam, Holland, and stole 3 paintings worth a total of $52 million, according to the Associated Press. Today, the value of these paintings is $100 million, adjusted for inflation.

This robbery was the largest in Dutch history, but fortunately, the paintings were discovered 2 weeks later, when the criminals attempted to sell the loot.

One of the most famous and recognizable paintings of Van Gogh's series "Sunflowers"(second version 1889) was one of the stolen works.

7) Museum robbery in Rio de Janeiro

"Luxembourg Garden" Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, while the entire city was enjoying the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and made off with works by famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

The paintings have still not been found and their value has never been determined, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

8) The theft of Leonardo da Viinci's "Madonna of the Spindle"

"Mona Lisa" is not the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci that robbers once had their eye on. In August 2003, criminals disguised as ordinary tourists visited Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland and took the painting with them. "Madonna of the Spindle", escaping in a Volkswagen Golf. The castle museum contains famous paintings such artists as da Vinci, Rembrandt and Hans Holbein, worth a total of about 650 million dollars.

Painting by Leonardo the most famous artist 500 years ago, valued at $65 million. Luckily, she was discovered 4 years later in Glasgow. Four people were arrested and convicted for their involvement in the crime.

9) Robbery of the National Museum in Stockholm

December 22, 2000 from National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir have disappeared "Young Parisian" And "Conversation with the Gardener", as well as a self-portrait by Rembrandt. Three men, one of whom threatened the guard with a machine gun, managed to escape with the famous paintings in just a few minutes.

According to reports BBC News, the police suspect that the robbers were assisted in committing this crime. While the crime was being committed in the museum, the police were distracted by a call about a car on fire, just as the museum's alarm went off.

"Conversation with the Gardener" was unexpectedly discovered during a raid on drug dealers, and two other paintings were found in 2005. According to the FBI, the total value of these three paintings is $30 million.

10) Robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

Robbery Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Holland) in April 1991, as a result of which as many as 20 paintings were stolen, can be called the fastest revealed kidnapping paintings in history. All the works were found 35 minutes later in the thieves' car, the newspaper reported. New York Times.

The robbers committed the crime after hiding in the museum after it closed. At approximately 3 a.m., they came out of hiding, wearing stocking masks with cutouts for the eyes to hide their identities.

Among the stolen paintings was a painting "Potato Eaters" Van Gogh from his early creativity. The total value of all stolen paintings is about $500 million. Unfortunately, almost all the paintings were damaged, especially three of them.

The theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa

More than a hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, became the most famous painting in the world after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris on August 21, 1911.

Stolen by a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed that he fell in love with the Mona Lisa as soon as he looked into her eyes, the painting stood in his kitchen for two years. “La Gioconda,” another name for this unique painting, became a world sensation. The fame was beneficial in the search for the painting, as it could not be sold to any collector willing to fork out the cash.

Peruggia, a worker from Paris who once worked at the Louvre, simply removed the painting from the wall on a day when the museum was closed and walked out of the building, hiding the masterpiece under his clothes. Although the thief claimed that he stole the painting for patriotic reasons, the prospect of making a fortune from the sale of the painting was the true motive for the theft. The Italians, of course, never forgot about the origin of the painting, so they actively advocated for the canvas to be returned to Florence. This robbery became one of the most famous painting thefts in history.

The largest robbery of an American art museum

On March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest robbery in US history, which remains unsolved. The thieves handcuffed the museum's night guards under the pretext that they had a warrant for their arrest.

Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. According to some estimates, the value of one of the stolen paintings was $200 million. This is the Concert by John Vermeer, written in the second half of the 17th century.

Also among the 13 stolen masterpieces was Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee.” The value of all the stolen paintings was estimated at $300 million, but some experts argued that the paintings could be worth much more. Many of the paintings had been cut from their frames, leading investigators to believe the perpetrators had little understanding of art.

Munch Museum robbery in Oslo

On August 22, 2004, masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in broad daylight and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna. The masterpieces were found by police in 2006, and each of the paintings showed signs of damage, so it took another 2 years for their restoration before they returned to their place in the museum.

"The Scream" is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world

“The Scream” is the artist’s most famous painting and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its cost is $82 million, according to The Telegraph.

Museum robbery in Zurich

In February 2008, armed men broke into the Emil Bührle Foundation Collection museum in Zurich, Switzerland, and stole 4 masterpieces worth a total of $140 million. This is the largest art theft in Swiss history.

“Poppy field near Vetheuil” by Claude Monet

In 2008, works of art worth $140 million were stolen in Switzerland.

Claude Monet's Poppy Field near Vetheuil was one of the stolen paintings. The criminals also took away such masterpieces as “Louis Lepic and His Daughters” by Edgar Degas, “Blossoming Chestnut Branches” by Vincent Van Gogh and “The Boy in a Red Vest” by Paul Cezanne. The paintings of Van Gogh and Monet were quickly discovered by the police and returned to the museum, the rest disappeared without a trace.

Robbery of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam

On May 21, 1988, burglars broke the first floor window of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam, Holland, and stole 3 paintings worth a total of $52 million, according to the Associated Press. Today, the value of these paintings is $100 million, adjusted for inflation.

This robbery was the largest in Dutch history, but fortunately, the paintings were discovered 2 weeks later, when the criminals attempted to sell the loot.

One of the most famous and recognizable paintings by Van Gogh in the “Sunflowers” ​​series ( second version 1889) was one of the stolen works.

Museum robbery in Rio de Janeiro

"The Garden of Luxembourg" by Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, while the entire city was enjoying the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and made off with works by famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

The paintings have still not been found and their value has never been determined, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The theft of Leonardo da Viinci's Madonna of the Spindle

“Mona Lisa” is not the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci that robbers once had their eye on. In August 2003, criminals disguised as ordinary tourists visited Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland and took with them the painting “Madonna of the Spindle”, escaping in a Volkswagen Golf. The castle museum houses famous paintings by such artists as da Vinci, Rembrandt and Hans Holbein, worth a total of about 650 million dollars.

Madonna of the Spindle is estimated to be worth approximately $65 million

Leonardo's painting, painted by the famous artist 500 years ago, is valued at $65 million. Luckily, she was discovered 4 years later in Glasgow. Four people were arrested and convicted for their involvement in the crime.

Robbery of the National Museum in Stockholm

On December 22, 2000, Pierre Auguste Renoir's "Young Parisian Woman" and "Conversation with a Gardener," as well as Rembrandt's self-portrait, disappeared from the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Three men, one of whom threatened the guard with a machine gun, managed to escape with the famous paintings in just a few minutes.

According to BBC News reports, police suspect the robbers were assisted in committing the crime. While the crime was being committed in the museum, the police were distracted by a call about a car on fire, just as the museum's alarm went off.

“Conversation with the Gardener” was unexpectedly discovered during a raid on drug dealers, and two other paintings were found in 2005. According to the FBI, the total value of these three paintings is $30 million.

Robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

The robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Holland) in April 1991, which resulted in the theft of 20 paintings, can be called the fastest-solved painting theft in history. All the works were found 35 minutes later in the thieves' car, the New York Times reported.

In April 1991, approximately $500 million worth of paintings were stolen in Amsterdam.

The robbers committed the crime after hiding in the museum after it closed. At approximately 3 a.m., they came out of hiding, wearing stocking masks with cutouts for the eyes to hide their identities.

Among the stolen paintings was “The Potato Eaters” by Van Gogh from his early work. The total value of all stolen paintings is about $500 million. Unfortunately, almost all the paintings were damaged.

People have come up with a lot of scary things like CCTV cameras, bulletproof glass and security agencies to protect works of art from vandals and thieves, but so far they haven't been very successful. For almost seven centuries, people have been saving paintings in a fit of patriotic feelings, exchanging them for household goods and melting down sculptures for non-ferrous metal. Look At Me answered eleven reasonable questions about what is happening in the world of such thefts.

Who was the first to come up with the idea of ​​stealing a painting?

The first attackers who thought of stealing a work of art were pirates led by a certain Paul Beneke. In 1473, they attacked the ship Matteo, which was transporting a diptych by Hans Memling to Florence. Last Judgment", ignored the flag of a neutral party hanging on the ship, took the painting and handed it over to their owners in Gdansk. Neither the owner's protests nor diplomatic missions, not even the bull of the then Pope Sixtus IV helped to return the stolen property. Since then, many people have tried their luck in this field.

Where should museum security look? Why don't they protect the paintings properly?

In most cases, absent-mindedness or gullibility are to blame. The theft of thirteen paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was made possible because a security guard himself let in the robbers disguised as police officers; complied when presented with a false arrest warrant, and watched the subsequent events already tied up on the floor. Such gullibility cost the museum $500 million, a record amount to date for such crimes. Neither the painting nor the intruders have yet been found.

What paintings are stolen most often?

Chris Marinelli, executive director of the Art Loss Register, a catalog of stolen art, points to Picasso: "He has a lot of work and everyone has heard of him." By the way, he himself is an artist and part-time author famous saying « Good artists they copy, great artists steal” once found himself a victim of his own wit. Thus, he himself was charged with the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 (the second suspect was Guillaume Apollinaire; both, of course, turned out to be innocent).

What does it take to steal a painting?

What does it take to find a stolen painting?

I want to find the stolen painting and get a reward. Where are they hidden?

This painting by Rembrandt is called Takeaway Rembrandt. This artist’s canvas is smaller than others, only 29.99 by 24.99 centimeters, so it was stolen a record four times - more often than any other work of art. Each time she was found in some strange place - in a storage room at a British Army garrison railway station, in a cemetery or on the trunk of a bicycle.

Is it possible to exchange a Francisco Goya painting for a TV subscription?

A bus driver named Kempton Benton followed art news too closely. In 1961 he learned that British government is going to pay an American collector a large sum of money, just so that he does not take out of the country his portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Goya. The amount of money was so much more than the salary of the poor Benton that he got angry and decided to steal the ill-fated portrait, which he did quite successfully. Benton calculated the time when the museum's alarm went off so that it would not disturb the cleaners, climbed into the toilet window, took the painting and climbed out. Benton agreed to give the painting in exchange for an amnesty for himself and a television subscription for all the poor, but his terms were not accepted. He kept the painting for another four years and then voluntarily returned it, but, unfortunately, he forgot to return the frame, for which he served three months in prison.

Is it possible to steal a painting and become a national hero?

An employee of the Louvre, Italian Vincenzo Perugia, loved his homeland with all his soul and fiercely hated France. He was sure that the Italian masterpieces contained in the Louvre were too beautiful for this terrible museum in the capital of a terrible country and were generally stolen by Napoleon, and therefore he, Vincenzo Perugia, must save them and take them back to Italy. There were too many paintings, so Perugia chose Gioconda as the most beautiful, easily coped with the protective glass, which he himself designed, and stole the masterpiece. He was caught pretty quickly, but the story didn’t end there. Perugia quarreled with everyone at the trial, including his own lawyer, said that the painting was to blame for everything, because of which he lost his head, as a result he was declared mentally incompetent and released. What's most interesting is public opinion was entirely on his side. Perugia recognized a true patriot, the gentlemen brought him wine, and the ladies baked pies for him.

Is it possible to steal a work of art without getting rich?

In 2005, intrepid men stole Henry Moore's two-tonne Reclining Figure sculpture, worth £3 million, and melted it down for metal, selling it for two thousand times less than its real value. A few days ago, the sculpture “Sundial 1965” was stolen, most likely for the same purposes.

Is it possible to steal a painting without any desire to get rich?

A lover of antiquity and beauty, Stefan Breitwieser traveled around Europe from 1994 to 2001, worked as a waiter and at the same time regularly visited museums, after which valuable works of art disappeared there. In total, he stole more than 200 items worth $1.4 billion, all of which were not intended for resale. He got caught, returning for the hunting horn he liked to the place where he had already been. Brightwieser's mother was terribly annoyed by her son's love of antiques, so when he was arrested, she destroyed everything without blinking an eye.

Among them are paintings by Picasso, Mastisse, Monet and Gauguin.

This robbery was the largest robbery to take place in Holland in the last 20 years. One of the paintings is the famous "Waterloo Bridge" Claude Monet (pictured). Thieves sometimes use the most incredible ways to commit their crimes. Find out about the most famous painting thefts.

1) Kidnapping "Mona Lisas" Leonardo da Vinci

More than a hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "Mona Lisa" became the most famous painting in the world after it was stolen from a museum Louvre in Paris on August 21, 1911.

Stolen by a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed that he fell in love with the Mona Lisa as soon as he looked into her eyes, the painting stood in his kitchen for two years. "Gioconda", another name for this unique painting, became a worldwide sensation. The fame was beneficial in the search for the painting, as it could not be sold to any collector willing to fork out the cash.

Peruggia, a worker from Paris who once worked at the Louvre, simply removed the painting from the wall on a day when the museum was closed and walked out of the building, hiding the masterpiece under his clothes. Although the thief claimed that he stole the painting for patriotic reasons, the prospect of making a lot of money from the sale of the painting was the true motive for the theft. The Italians, of course, never forgot about the origin of the painting, so they actively advocated for the canvas to be returned to Florence. This robbery became one of the most famous painting thefts in history.

2) The most successful painting thief

Stefan Breitwieser is perhaps the most successful art thief in history, or at least he could be until he was caught.

A waiter, self-taught art historian and traveler, Breitwieser stole a total of 239 works between 1995 and 2001, worth a total of $1.4 billion.

He was caught in November 2001 right at the crime scene in Lucerne, Switzerland. According to the press, after Breitwieser's arrest, his mother burned more than 60 stolen masterpieces.

For his crimes, Breitwieser received 3 years, but served only 26 months in prison, and his mother was convicted as an accomplice and spent 18 months in prison.

3) The largest robbery of an American art museum

On March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as police entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest robbery in US history, which is still unsolved. The thieves handcuffed the museum's night guards under the pretext that they had a warrant for their arrest.

Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. According to some estimates, the value of one of the stolen paintings was $200 million. This "Concert" by Johannes Vermeer, painted in the second half of the 17th century.

Also among the 13 stolen masterpieces was a painting by Rembrandt "Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee". The value of all the stolen paintings was estimated at $300 million, but some experts argued that the paintings could be worth much more.

Many of the paintings had been cut from their frames, leading investigators to believe the perpetrators had little understanding of art.

4) Robbery of the Munch Museum in Oslo

On August 22, 2004, armed masked men entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch "Scream" And "Madonna". The masterpieces were found by police in 2006, and each of the paintings showed signs of damage, so it took another 2 years for their restoration before they returned to their place in the museum.

"The Scream" is the artist's most famous painting and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its value is $82 million, according to the publication. The Telegraph.

5) Zurich museum robbery

In February 2008, armed people broke into the museum Collection of the Emil Bührle Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, and stole 4 masterpieces worth a total of $140 million. This is the largest art theft in Swiss history.

Painting "Poppy field near Vetheuil" Claude Monet was one of the stolen paintings (pictured). The criminals also stole such masterpieces as "Louis Lepic and his daughters" Edgar Degas, "Blooming chestnut branches" Vincent Van Gogh and "The Boy in the Red Vest" Fields by Cezanne.. Paintings by Van Gogh and Monet were quickly discovered by the police and they were returned to the museum, the rest disappeared without a trace.

6) Robbery of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam

On May 21, 1988, burglars broke the first floor window of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam, Holland, and stole 3 paintings worth a total of $52 million, according to the Associated Press. Today, the value of these paintings is $100 million, adjusted for inflation.

This robbery was the largest in Dutch history, but fortunately, the paintings were discovered 2 weeks later, when the criminals attempted to sell the loot.

One of the most famous and recognizable paintings of Van Gogh's series "Sunflowers"(second version 1889) was one of the stolen works.

7) Museum robbery in Rio de Janeiro

"Luxembourg Garden" Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, while the entire city was enjoying the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and made off with works by famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

The paintings have still not been found and their value has never been determined, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

8) The theft of Leonardo da Viinci's "Madonna of the Spindle"

"Mona Lisa" is not the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci that robbers once had their eye on. In August 2003, criminals disguised as ordinary tourists visited Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland and took the painting with them. "Madonna of the Spindle", escaping in a Volkswagen Golf. The castle museum houses famous paintings by such artists as da Vinci, Rembrandt and Hans Holbein, worth a total of about 650 million dollars.

Leonardo's painting, painted by the famous artist 500 years ago, is valued at $65 million. Luckily, she was discovered 4 years later in Glasgow. Four people were arrested and convicted for their involvement in the crime.

9) Robbery of the National Museum in Stockholm

December 22, 2000 from National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir have disappeared "Young Parisian" And "Conversation with the Gardener", as well as a self-portrait by Rembrandt. Three men, one of whom threatened the guard with a machine gun, managed to escape with the famous paintings in just a few minutes.

According to reports BBC News, the police suspect that the robbers were assisted in committing this crime. While the crime was being committed in the museum, the police were distracted by a call about a car on fire, just as the museum's alarm went off.

"Conversation with the Gardener" was unexpectedly discovered during a raid on drug dealers, and two other paintings were found in 2005. According to the FBI, the total value of these three paintings is $30 million.

10) Robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

Robbery Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Holland) in April 1991, as a result of which as many as 20 paintings were stolen, can be called the fastest-solved theft of paintings in history. All the works were found 35 minutes later in the thieves' car, the newspaper reported. New York Times.

The robbers committed the crime after hiding in the museum after it closed. At approximately 3 a.m., they came out of hiding, wearing stocking masks with cutouts for the eyes to hide their identities.

Among the stolen paintings was a painting "Potato Eaters" Van Gogh from his early work. The total value of all stolen paintings is about $500 million. Unfortunately, almost all the paintings were damaged, especially three of them.