The 50 Greatest Art Heists of All Time

Everyone wants to claim, "Mine."

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Stealing art is a billion-dollar industry, and it’s no secret that you have to be clever, creative, and a bit crazy to pull it off. The risks are high—felony jail time, damage to art, restitution fees, market deficiency, angry crime bosses—and the reward is hardly ever the million dollar-filled fantasy imagined, but the glamour of the art heist has fascinated humans since the beginning of time. This list is not a Hollywood throwdown: no Catherine Zeta-Jones, no Julia Roberts, no Pierce Brosnan. But if you click on, we can promise speedboats, million dollar watches, machine guns, and fake mustaches. Add that to some incredible criminal minds (and some incredibly dumb ones), and you have our list of The 50 Greatest Art Heists of All Time.

50. 1786 Portrait of Thomas Jefferson Stolen from Polaroid Warehouse

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49. A Bunch of Expensive Art Gets "Stolen" From Two Cali Collectors

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48. WWII American Army Lieutenant Ships Medieval Treasure Nazi Spoils Home

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47. Picasso's Electrician May Have Stolen That Art

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46. A Truck Holding 28 Very Expensive Pieces of Art Drives Away

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45. Doctor Steals His Two Most Expensive Artworks From Himself

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44. Caretaker Steals Warhol From his Employer

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43. The United Kingdom Steals Marble Reliefs Off of the Acropolis

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42. E. Forbes Smiley Steals 97 Maps Over 8 Years

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41. NY Theives Break Into an Apartment by Drilling Through the Hallway

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40. Art Pirates Rob a Picasso Off of Wealthy Arab's Yacht

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39. Collector's Warhol Collection Is Stolen, He Doesn't File Insurance Claim

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38. Caravaggio is Stolen From Church, Rumors Abound

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37. Thieves Rob Vanderbilt/Whitney Murals From the Edenhurst Gallery

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36. Man Walks Into Museum, Puts Dali Statue in his Bag

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35. Painting in the Malraux Museum is Swiped in 1973, Returned in 2010

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34. The U.S. Invades Iraq, Forgets to Protect Iraqi National Museum

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33. Art Thieves Usher in Y2K By Jacking a Cezanne

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32. The National Museum of Anthropology Gets Robbed on Christmas Eve

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31. Louvre Custodian Steals the Mona Lisa

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30. Burglars Rob Egypt's Mahmoud Khalil Museum For This Van Gogh-Twice

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29. Bus Driver Robs a de Goya From London's National Museum

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28. Looters Take Advantage of Turkey's Invasion of Cyprus

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27. "The Monkey" Climbs a Ladder Into the Van Gogh Museum

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26. "Goldfinger" Steals Picasso While Picasso's Granddaughter Sleeps

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25. Axe Carrying Men Steal a DaVinci Painting on a Tour of Drumlanrig Castle

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24. The Whitworth Gallery Gets Called Out on its Horrible Security

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23. The "Takeaway Rembrandt" is Stolen Four Times

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22. Armed Masked Burglars Rob the E.G. Bührle Collection

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21. Kate Moss Gets Her Banksy Stolen While She Sleeps in Bed

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20. The Henry Moore Foundation Gets Robbed, Statue is Sold for Scrap Metal

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19. Drug Lords Rob the Museu Chacara Do Ceu During Carnival

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18. Howard Carter and Crew Excavate King Tut's Tomb

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17. The Yugoslavian Mafia Hits a German Museum for $40 Million

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16. The First Recorded Art Heist

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15. Three Men Pay The Entrance Fee at the Pinacoteca Do Estado Museum and then Rob It

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14. Three Men Rob the Sao Paulo Museum of Art for $55 Million Worth of Art

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13. The Nazis Spend 12 Years Looting Europe's Art Collections

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12. IRA Members Break Into the Russborough House, Try to Ransom Art to Free Comrades

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11. The Parisian Museum of Modern Art is Robbed While Guards Sleep

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10. Edward Munch's "The Scream" and "Madonna" are Stolen at Gunpoint

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9. The Russborough House is Robbed Again, in Six Minutes

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8. Thieves Rob The Montreal Museum of Art

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7. Japanese Yakusa Set up a Long-Term Art Heist

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6. One Man Steals $30 Million Worth of Clocks

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5. Thief Steals a Portrait in Hopes of Meeting his Brother's Bail

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4. Fake Policemen Rob The Gardener Museum on St. Patrick's Day

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3. One Man Robs $1.4 Billion Worth of Art Over Six Years

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2. An Underground Tunnel Leads to the National Museum

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1. Swedish Criminals Pull a Thomas Crown Affair

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