Museum theft

Another object has been stolen from the British Museum—but this time by an artist

Ilê Sartuzi's short-lived heist involving a 17th-century coin draws parallels to the recent scandal over the theft of thousands of items from the museum’s collection

Theft of Bronze Age gold artefacts from UK museum sparks fresh concerns about lack of government investment in sector

A bracelet and torc dating back thousands of years were taken from Cambridgeshire’s Ely Museum last week, shining a light on underfunding and its potential impact on security

Crime news

Final suspect in string of art and memorabilia heists that nabbed works by Pollock and Warhol surrenders

All nine suspects in the string of heists, which spanned 20 years, are now in federal custody

Man pleads guilty to stealing original Wizard of Oz ruby slippers from Judy Garland museum

The film-famous footwear disappeared from a museum in the actress's Minnesota childhood home in 2005

British Museum imposes 'emergency security measures' after staff member allegedly steals priceless artefacts

The museum in London is reckoning with a huge security breach after admitting that jewellery and gems dating back millennia had been removed from its storeroom without detection

Crime news

Swiss court sentences former museum cashier for embezzling more than $1m

The 54-year-old woman used ticket-sale tricks at the Fondation Beyeler near Basel to fund luxury cars and holidays

Suspects arrested in theft of gold coins from German museum

The trove stolen from the Kelten Römer Museum near Munich was the biggest Celtic gold find of the 20th century

Crime news

Ukrainian art dealer found guilty of stealing £1.3m Paul Signac from French museum

Vadym Huzhva handed a five-year sentence for 2018 theft and for stealing four other paintings in France, including a Renoir

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s head of security is running for statewide office in Massachusetts

Anthony Amore, who has overseen security at the Gardner for 17 years, is running as a Republican to be the Bay State’s auditor

Art theftfeature

The shocking story of a Picasso painting that was brazenly stolen and held at ransom by the 'Australian Cultural Terrorists'

Weeping Woman is one of the star works in the new exhibition Picasso Century at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria

Last photograph of Lucian Freud’s stolen Francis Bacon portrait published for first time

Image taken at Neue Nationalgalerie moments before the 1988 theft features in a new book of the artist’s copper paintings

Theftsnews

Thieves steal rosary beads carried by Mary Queen of Scots to her execution

Around £1m worth of artefacts were taken from Arundel Castle in West Sussex on Friday

Dutch police arrest over Van Gogh smash-and-grab raid: how long until the landscape is recovered?

The suspect is linked to a Frans Hals theft, which should help track down paintings from two museums

a blog by Martin Bailey
Podcastspodcast

Can Netflix help solve the Isabella Stewart Gardner art heist?

Plus, vaccine passports in museums and Gossaert's Adoration

Theftsnews

German police arrest three suspects in Dresden jewel heist investigation

More than 1,600 police officers take part in raids in Berlin to solve violent theft from Dresden’s Green Vault

Criminal claims 13 works from legendary Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist are hidden in a Dublin house

BBC4 documentary—released today—unpicks theory that the stolen art was shipped to Ireland

Asian art museum located in Israeli kibbutz targeted by thieves

14th-century Buddha and Tang Dynasty sculpture among 27 works stolen by masked burglars from Wilfrid Israel Museum of Asian Art on Tuesday night

Van Gogh held hostage: private detective tells us he has more photographs

Will Arthur Brand’s images of the stolen painting lead to a recovery?

a blog by Martin Bailey
Art crimecomment

Don't let your guard down: three things you can do now to protect your art during the pandemic

With sparse personnel and visitors, some criminals will try to see if the “closed” sign actually means “open”, say K2 Intelligence FIN's art crime experts

In recent decades 28 Van Goghs have been stolen in the Netherlands—but all have been recovered

Detectives are intensifying their investigation into the latest crime, at Laren’s Singer museum, which was committed this week on the artist’s birthday

a blog by Martin Bailey

Man who stole painting in broad daylight from Moscow museum is sentenced to three years in prison

Denis Chuprikov took the landscape from State Tretyakov Gallery with the aim of "causing hype", he says

Lootingarchive

Works of art vanish from Kinshasa

The change of regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo coincided with thefts from the Institut des Musées Nationaux