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NEWS ABOUT: art heist

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Stolen Masterpieces 'Crushed by Garbage Truck'

Paris cops reveal fruits of art heist probe

(Newser) - A Paris watchmaker says he threw out several priceless works of art before being arrested last year, the Telegraph reports. Revealing a 17-month investigation today, police say a Serb nicknamed "Spiderman" stole works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and others from a poorly guarded Paris museum in May 2010. An... More »

Rembrandt Lifted From LA Hotel

Drawing stolen while curator was distracted

(Newser) - A small pen-and-ink drawing by Rembrandt was stolen from a California Ritz-Carlton Saturday night in what detectives are calling a "well-thought-out and well-planned theft." The Judgment, an 11-by-6-inch drawing worth more than $250,000, was on display at the Marina del Rey hotel during an exhibit for potential... More »

Recovered $50M Van Gogh Actually ... Still Missing

'Poppy Flowers' was taken from museum in Egypt

(Newser) - Despite reports of a quick recovery , a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting is still missing from Egypt's Mahmoud Khalil Museum. The minister of culture said police confiscated the artwork, known as Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers, at an airport in Cairo from an Italian couple just hours after... More »

Cops Quickly Recover Stolen $50M Van Gogh

'Poppy Flowers' was taken from museum in Egypt

(Newser) - A $50 million painting by Vincent van Gogh has gone missing from a museum in Cairo, and it's not the first time. Police in Egypt have put airports and seaports on alert for the artwork, which goes by Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers. It's not clear how thieves got... More »

Thieves Snag 2nd Picasso in France

Lithograph lifted from private collector in Marseilles

(AP) - Thugs stole a Picasso lithograph and four paintings from a collector's home yesterday in Marseille, on the heels of the $123 million art heist from Paris' Museum of Modern Art. Judicial police said today that two men managed to get past two security gates yesterday at the home of the... More »

The 20th Century's Biggest Art Heists

Even the Mona Lisa was lifted once

(Newser) - Yesterday’s massive theft from the Paris Museum of Modern Art is already being called the “heist of the century,” although we have a few years yet to see how it holds up. The Independent looked over the 20th century and compiled a list of 10 major art... More »

Why We Love Gutsy Art Heists

Thefts of masterpieces just classier than other crimes

(Newser) - Sure, it was a tragic loss when a thief made off with a priceless haul of Picasso, Matisse, and Braque paintings yesterday. But it was also a pretty great story, Paul Farhi writes in the Washington Post . Big art heists "aren't like ordinary crimes, which are dreary and depressing,... More »

Paris Heist Museum's Alarm Was On the Fritz

System 'partially malfunctioning' since March

(Newser) - So how does a lone thief manage to steal five masterpieces from a museum? It doesn't help when the alarm isn't working. The mayor of Paris says one of the systems at the Museum of Modern Art had been "partially malfunctioning" since March, reports ABC News of Australia . The... More »

Art Stolen From Kate Moss Mansion as She Slept

Cops nab man, 24

(Newser) - A $115,000 Banksy portrait and other art work was stolen from model Kate Moss' $10 million London mansion as she and her family slept. A 24-year-old man has been arrested in the theft, though police did not reveal if the art was recovered. Moss, 36, was staying in the... More »

Picasso, Matisse Stolen in $635M Paris Heist

Paris Museum of Modern Art finds 5 masterpieces missing

(Newser) - Five paintings—including masterpieces by Matisse and Picasso—were reported missing from the Paris Museum of Modern Art this morning, the AP reports. Staff discovered that a window and padlock had been broken, and security footage shows a person climbing in through the window. The works are worth an estimated... More »

Missing Picasso Found in Iraq?! Probably Not.

The Naked Woman likely not missing, nor a Picasso, say experts

(Newser) - Iraqi security forces have secured a purported Pablo Picasso painting believed stolen from a Kuwaiti museum during the 1990 invasion, the Times of London reports. Only it’s probably not a Picasso. “It bears absolutely no relation to any Picasso that I can think of,” says one expert.... More »

Picasso Sketchbook Worth $16M Stolen in Paris

(Newser) - Thieves stole a sketchbook containing 33 Pablo Picasso drawings from the Picasso Museum in Paris, the Daily Mail reports. The security system was somehow disabled and there was no sign of forced entry. The theft occurred sometime last night or early today and resembles the 2007 robbery of the home... More »

With Legal Gray Areas, Art Heists Go Digital

Point-and-click age makes for murky copyright arguments

(Newser) - A disconnect between the artistic and legal communities is reigniting the debate over copyright infringement, the Wall Street Journal reports. The law says an artist can adapt an existing work only if the resulting piece is “transformative,” or provides a new spin. “It’s meant to be... More »

Thieves Return Madoff Statue, Lesson Attached

Note suggests 'swindler' return his plunder, too

(Newser) - The thieves who nabbed a $10,000 copper statue from fraudster Bernard Madoff's swank Florida home have returned it, along with this note: "Bernie the Swindler, Lesson: Return stolen property to rightful owners." The advice was penned by "The Educators," whose inspiration may be a German... More »

Brazil Thieves Nab 2 Picassos

Second time in weeks that Sao Paulo criminals have stolen Pablo's work

(Newser) - Picasso remains the artist of choice for the criminal elite of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Three armed robbers made off with two of his prints—The Painter and the Model and Minotaur, Drinker and Women—from a city museum today, Reuters reports. The robbery comes just weeks after thieves nabbed Picasso's ... More »

Muted By Thieves, Scream Returns at Full Volume

Restored Munch masterwork returned to museum walls 4 years after theft

(Newser) - Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream is hanging again in an Oslo museum today, 4 years after armed robbers stole it in broad daylight, CNN reports. The painting has been undergoing restoration since it was retrieved in 2006. It was structurally damaged, stained, scratched (exposing cardboard beneath the paint) and “... More »

Sculpture Thieves Seek Scrap Metal

Commodity prices driving thefts; more artists steering clear

(Newser) - A wave of sculpture thefts has little to do with the pieces’ artistic merit: Police believe they’ve been stolen for their valuable copper content, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the past 18 months, three public artworks displayed in Brea, Calif., have disappeared—and the trend is appearing across... More »

Stolen Art Found in Parking Lot

4 paintings snatched from Swiss museum recovered

(Newser) - The four 19th-century paintings stolen from a Swiss museum have reportedly been found in an unlocked car parked outside a Zurich psychiatric hospital. Although police have not yet confirmed the find, Swiss media are reporting that the $168 million worth of loot—one work each by Cézanne, Degas, Monet,... More »

$160M in Art Stolen in Zurich

'Spectacular' heist nets 4 masterpieces by Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and Cezanne

(Newser) - A gang of armed art thieves absconded with four masterpieces by Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and Cezanne worth $160 million from a Zurich museum yesterday. The brazen daytime robbery follows a theft of two Picassos in Switzerland just two days earlier. The three masked thieves confronted a guard with guns,... More »

Feds Raid Calif. Museums, Gallery in Stolen Art Case

Illegal artifacts donated for inflated tax deductions

(Newser) - Federal agents raided four California museums and a private gallery in a smuggling investigation into stolen foreign antiquities, reports the New York Times. The gallery allegedly imported looted goods from Thailand, Myanmar, and China, and individuals got inflated tax write-offs for donating them to museums. No charges have yet been... More »

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