Last October, seven paintings of Monet, Picasso, and Gauguin which were exhibited at Kunsthalle Art Gallery in Amsterdam were stolen. Since the thieves stole very famous paintings, concern in the artist world was enormous. Though on January 21, Romania police succeeded in capturing the thieves, they failed to find the paintings. The value of the stolen paintings is estimated at 250 million dollars. However, it is too early to know for sure. This is not the first time that big theft has occurred in the artist world.

 

The most beautiful smile has gone!

Of all the famous painting thefts in the world, the most famous one is of the “The Mona Lisa” theft. In 1991, The Louvre, the world’s most popular museum, had the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci stolen. The Thief was an Italian glass cutter who made the safe case for “The Mona Lisa”. The Louvre did not notice until 27 hours had passed after “The Mona Lisa” had been stolen. The glass cutter sold the painting to a rich man and he made six fake paintings of “The Mona Lisa” to make money. Feeling guilty about it, the glass cutter got the painting back and sent it to an antique dealer with a note on it; I want to return a national treasure of my country which was stolen.

 

The biggest and the worst masterpiece theft in the world.

A theft that happened in 1990 at Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is known to be the worst masterpiece theft in the world. It is because 20 years after the paintings were stolen, police cannot find any trace of the thieves or the paintings which are very famous and popular masterpieces. The thieves stole the paintings of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet, and Degas. The painting of Vermeer had an especially huge impact since there are only six paintings of Vermeer in the world. The museum calculated the holding value of these paintings as 500 million dollars. Though at that time the museum offered a reward of 300 million dollars for the paintings, the masterpieces are still missing.

 

“The Scream”, painting that was stolen in the Olympics.

“The Scream”, painting of Edward Munch, was stolen from The Norwegian National Museum in 1994. It was the date of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and most of the police forces were focused on the Olympics. The thieves waited for this perfect chance. At dawn, they broke into the museum and took the painting leaving a message saying “Thank you for the lax security.” All of Norway was shocked since “The Scream” was a national treasure. After three months of all the efforts of Norwegian police, the painting came back.

Another painting of “The Scream” of Munch was stolen at the date of the opening ceremony of Summer Olympics. Two men with guns and masks threatened tourists and staffs and stole the painting. They loaded the painting to the black van and fled away. Two years later, Norwegian police got back the painting.

 

Masterpiece theft is thought to be the 3rd largest crime market following drugs and weapons trafficing. Some people can think that this as just bad crimes but in other point of view, these prove the popularity and high value of paintings in modern society.

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