Art theft is far more common than most people realize. Only 5 to 10 percent of stolen artwork is ever recovered, and we’re not talking about minor pieces – we mean works by the greatest masters in history. The US FBI maintains a list of “Top Ten Art Crimes,” a grim catalogue that underscores just how permanent many of these losses truly are. Some of art history’s most irreplaceable canvases were cut from their frames, rolled up, stuffed into trunks, or simply vanished into the hands of criminals who knew exactly what they had. What follows is a gallery of ten paintings that left the walls of museums and churches and never came back.
1. The Concert by Johannes Vermeer (1663–1666)
On March 18, 1990, the largest art theft in the world happened in Boston, Massachusetts, and The Concert by Johannes Vermeer was one of the 13 pieces stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The thieves dressed as Boston Police officers and sported fake mustaches, and within a few minutes of entering the museum, the fake officers claimed they had a warrant and arrested the museum guards. Decades later, the theft of the works, worth $500 million, remains unsolved.
Among these was The Concert by Dutch painter Vermeer, one of only 34 paintings attributed to him. The painting accounts for half of the overall theft’s value, estimated at $250 million in 2015. Experts believe that The Concert may be the most valuable stolen object in the world. The museum is still offering a $10 million reward for information that leads directly to the return of the stolen artwork. Since the heist, theories about who was responsible and where the artwork ended up have abounded, with books, podcasts, and documentaries delving into the mystery.
2. Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt (1633)
The painting “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” is the only seascape Rembrandt is known to have painted in his long career. Painted in 1633, the large-scale oil painting shows Christ together with his disciples on a fishing boat. It is his only seascape and the most valuable of his works stolen that night, with estimates placing its value at about $140 million. Five paintings, including Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, were roughly cut out of their frames with blades during the heist, and investigators believed the paintings may have been rolled up to transport them, likely damaging the centuries-old canvases.
As of November 2024, Rembrandt’s “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee” remains missing. In 2013, the FBI announced that it had identified the thieves as members of a criminal organization based in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, and suggested that the artworks had been moved through organized crime networks, but their current location remains unknown. To mark the 35th anniversary of the theft in 2025, the museum unveiled a sound installation in the Dutch Room, where sound artist Skooby Laposky sonically recreated Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, allowing visitors to hear waves and sounds native to the Sea of Galilee.
3. Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence by Caravaggio (1600)
On October 18, 1969, thieves cut the Caravaggio canvas from its frame with a razor, rolled it up, and fled. The nativity scene was nearly nine feet high and, according to the FBI, has been estimated to be worth $20 million. In all probability, the painting was stolen by the Mafia. The theft of the Caravaggio, which is included in the FBI’s list of the top ten art crimes, has featured in the testimony of numerous Mafia informants.
In 2009, Mafia informant Gaspare Spatuzza told authorities that when he was in prison with Mafia member Filippo Graviano in 1999, Graviano told him the painting was destroyed in the 1980s. According to Spatuzza, Graviano said the painting was given to the Pullara family in Palermo who hid it in a barn. Inside the barn, it was slowly destroyed by rats and pigs, and so was burnt. This story is doubted by some authorities. Information garnered from a former Mafia mobster suggests the picture may be intact in Switzerland, a favourite destination for illicitly exported Italian Old Master paintings. The truth about its fate remains one of Sicily’s deepest unsolved mysteries.
4. Portrait of a Young Man by Raphael (c. 1513–1514)
Portrait of a Young Man was created by Raphael probably in 1513–1514. By many, it is considered the most important painting to go missing during World War II. It was most certainly stolen from the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland by the Nazis. When the Nazis entered Poland in September 1939, all three paintings were hidden, walled up in the outbuilding of an aristocratic residence in the small Polish town of Sieniawa. Unfortunately, two weeks later the Nazis discovered the hideaway. The hidden paintings first decorated Hans Frank’s residence in Krakow.
Portrait of a Young Man and 843 other artifacts were missing from storage. In her 1994 book on Nazi plunder, The Rape of Europa, Lynn H. Nicholas suggested that if the painting were to reappear, it would be worth in excess of USD $100 million (equivalent to $217.22 million in 2025). Poland has never stopped searching for Portrait of a Young Man. It remains listed on Interpol’s database of stolen cultural property, and art historians and detectives continue to follow leads. The painting’s location is unknown, although the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that it has been known “for years” that the painting survived the war.
5. The Just Judges Panel from the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck (1432)
The Just Judges is a part of the Ghent Altarpiece, painted by Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert between 1430 and 1432. On April 10, 1934, the panel was stolen from Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. The thief left a note reading “Taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles,” because the altarpiece had been confiscated and taken to Berlin during World War I, but was returned to Ghent under the treaty’s terms in 1920. The Belgian government received ransom notes that they refused, and despite much speculation on the thief’s identity and where it is, the panel is still missing.
The main suspect, Arsène Goedertier, confessed on his deathbed in November 1934 that he knew where the panel was hidden. However, despite finding copies of the ransom notes in his possession, authorities never found the painting. After unsuccessful ransom negotiations, only the sawed-off side of the panel, showing Saint John the Baptist in black and white, was found in a locker, in an act of goodwill by the thief. The other side has been lost to this day. The panel was replaced in 1945 by Belgian copyist Jef Van der Veken, who applied a layer of wax to the copy to make sure it blended in with the altarpiece.
6. Poppy Flowers by Vincent van Gogh (1887)
Vincent van Gogh’s Poppy Flowers, also known as Vase with Flowers, has been stolen twice from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. The first theft occurred in 1977, and the painting was recovered ten years later in Kuwait. However, it was stolen again in August 2010. The painting was stolen in 2010 under circumstances highlighting significant security lapses, including only 7 out of 43 security cameras being operational. The theft occurred in broad daylight, suggesting inadequate security measures were in place.
Estimated at $50 million, the work was painted in 1887, three years before Van Gogh’s suicide. The subject and colour palette of Poppy Flowers was said to have been inspired by the works of French painter Adolphe Monticelli, who used vibrant shades and dark backgrounds to create dramatic, Romantic scenes. Egyptian authorities launched a massive investigation, detaining several employees, but the painting was never found. Poppy Flowers remains one of Van Gogh’s most elusive works, its fate shrouded in speculation.
7. Portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud (1952)
Missing since 1988, the portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud was taken from Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, possibly by a fan of Bacon or a student. The gallery was full at the time of the theft. At the time of the theft, the portrait was on loan from the collection at the Tate for a retrospective on the artist at the Berlin gallery. Following the robbery, Freud designed his own wanted poster for the stolen portrait, but this didn’t garner any responses. The poster depicted a monochrome version of the painting with “wanted” in red as well as a reward.
The stolen painting reveals Freud and Bacon’s close friendship and was praised for its intimate nature and tension. Portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud was taken from a gallery in Berlin in 1988. The painting by Bacon’s close friend and fellow artist has never been recovered. With no ransom notes or clues discovered, some concluded the artwork could have been stolen by a Francis Bacon fan. Freud appealed for the return of his artwork by putting up “wanted” posters all over Berlin, in hopes that it would resurface before an exhibition of his works at the Tate Britain Gallery, but the painting remains missing to this day.
8. Harlequin Head by Pablo Picasso (Stolen 2012, Kunsthal Museum)
In 2012, the Kunsthal Museum in the Netherlands was the venue for one of the biggest art heists in history. Thieves stole seven major works by Monet, Matisse, and Gauguin, among them Picasso’s Harlequin Head. Though the perpetrators were later apprehended, the artworks are still missing. Using speed as their main tactic, the group entered through the back exit of the gallery, grabbed the paintings, and fled, all within two minutes. Experts estimate the value of the lost works at 100 to 200 million euros.
One suspect was Radu Dogaru, whose mother claimed that she burnt the paintings in her stove in order to hide the evidence. Forensic investigators tested the remains of the ashes and made a surprising discovery. They found wood, canvas, staples, and paint fragments that support her statement, meaning that the forensic investigators would need to test these remains further. Rumour has it that Picasso’s oil painting met a fiery end at the hands of a mother attempting to destroy the evidence of her son’s involvement. Whether burned or hidden, the painting has not resurfaced.
9. The Pigeon with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso (1911)
This painting, also known as The Pigeon with Green Peas, was stolen in May 2010 along with four other artworks including pieces by Matisse and Braque, from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, in France. This heist was executed by just one man and the only evidence that the police found at the crime scene was a smashed window, a broken padlock, and the empty frames, from which the paintings were carefully removed. Pablo Picasso holds the record for the artist with the most stolen artworks in the world, with more than 1,000 of his artworks reported missing.
The man responsible for the crime was later arrested, and stated that he threw the Picasso into a trash can, but the claim hasn’t been verified. The $28 million artwork has never been found and was most likely destroyed along with the rest of the trash in the dumpster. Stolen from Paris’s Musée d’Art Moderne in 2010, this Cubist masterpiece vanished along with four other paintings. The thief slipped through a window overnight and escaped with works by Matisse, Braque, and others. Authorities caught the suspect, but the artworks were gone.
10. View of Auvers-sur-Oise by Paul Cézanne (c. 1879–1882)
At midnight on January 1, 2000, as fireworks exploded over Oxford, England signaling the new millennium, a Mission Impossible-style art heist occurred at Oxford University’s art museum. The thief shattered the museum’s skylight and rappelled into the museum to steal an important Paul Cézanne landscape and set off a smoke machine to block out the security cameras. View of Auvers-sur-Oise was painted by Cézanne between 1879 and 1882 and is a landscape of the countryside outside of Paris. This theft was conducted by a professional burglar who smashed a skylight, lowered himself down with a rope, and created a smokescreen to hide from the security cameras. The act was carefully planned to occur on New Year’s Eve, allowing the burglar to easily blend into the crowd once exiting the museum.
More than 27 years later, the painting is estimated to be worth €3 million and is yet to be recovered. Despite the relatively modest estimate compared to other entries on this list, the Cézanne theft stands out for its sheer audacity. Throughout history, dozens of artworks have been stolen from galleries, museum collections, homes, and even from artists’ studios. It is believed that many paintings have been sneakily replaced with fake copies, and based on previous crimes it has proven difficult for investigators to solve cases of missing masterpieces. The Cézanne joins a long, sorrowful gallery of works whose whereabouts remain entirely unknown, the frames empty and the investigations open.
