In fiction and film, art theft is depicted as a trade plied by master criminals who plan their robberies meticulously in order to foil elaborate security measures. In reality, most art is pilfered opportunistically by thieves who know an easy score when they spot one. Works that are marketable but not well known make up the bulk of stolen art, but more than $5 billion changes hands annually in the trade, an average fattened periodically by the theft of a masterpiece or, more often, several masterpieces. The lack of security at places where great art is displayed—museums, public buildings, galleries, and collectors’ homes—continually amazes investigators who specialize in such cases, all the more so because the cost of insuring masterpieces is astronomical and most owners pass entirely or insure for a fraction of value.
The twelve paintings by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, and Vermeer, plus a Shang Dynasty vase, that were stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston—worth an estimated $200 million—were not insured against theft at all. It couldn’t have been because the curators never considered the possibility. Art journals and museum newsletters routinely take note of art thefts, and they’ve always had plenty to discuss.
The Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911. Like many art thefts, it was an inside job, and the painting was recovered from a museum guard’s home in 1913. In 1961, Goya’s “Portrait of the Duke of Wellington” was stolen from England’s National Gallery. Two paintings by Piero della Francesca and a Raphael were stolen from the Ducal Palace in Urbino, Italy, in 1975. In 2002, two Van Goghs were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In 2006, paintings by Dali, Picasso, Matisse, and Monet were taken from the Chácara do Céu Museum in Rio de Janeiro.
A 1988 theft in New York netted eighteen paintings, including two by the early Renaissance Florentine, Fra Angelico. It took place at the Manhattan branch of the London dealer Colnaghi’s and illustrated something art thieves had figured out a decade or so earlier: the value of works on display in private homes and galleries often rivals those at museums, and the security is even worse.
In 2012, works by Vermeer, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, and Van Gogh were all listed on the Art Loss Register (an authoritative database of missing art used by museums, art dealers, and law enforcement), among them the loot from a theft at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, in which five paintings worth $123 million were stolen. At the time of the theft at the Musée, an alarm system had been broken for three months. External cameras meant to catch would-be robbers in the act were focused on the roof, but the thief or thieves broke a window and entered unnoticed. Guards were said to be napping. Musée officials refused to discuss how much insurance they had on the paintings, leading most observers to conclude they had none.