6 art heists that made history – including the latest at the Louvre
The Louvre’s latest seven-minute jewel theft joins a long list of daring art heists that shocked the world
ART HEISTS AREN’T JUST FOR THE MOVIES. No matter how many laser grids, alarm sensors or glass cases the world installs, there’s always someone willing to test them. The latest? A pair of thieves at the Louvre who turned Paris’s most famous museum into the set of their own action film – and vanished within seven minutes.
It’s not the first time the Louvre has found itself at the centre of a real-life mystery. Over a century ago, the Mona Lisa herself quietly disappeared from its walls, sparking global headlines and turning an unknown portrait into the most famous painting on earth.
Below, we look back at six of the most daring art heists in history – from royal jewels to missing masterpieces.
1. The 2025 Louvre jewellery heist
On 19 October 2025, on quiet Sunday morning in Paris, two thieves pulled off a seven-minute robbery that left curators, the French Ministry of Culture, and the whole world reeling. Using a lift to reach the Louvre’s famed Galerie d’Apollon, they sliced through glass windows and smashed open display cases holding priceless Napoleonic jewels.
France’s Ministry of Culture confirmed the stolen items included:
- A tiara and brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III
- An emerald necklace and matching earrings from Empress Marie Louise
- A tiara, necklace and single earring from the sapphire set once owned by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense
- A brooch known as the reliquary brooch
The pair escaped on scooters along the Seine. Authorities later found a damaged crown once belonging to Empress Eugénie along the thieves’ escape route, believed to have been dropped in their rush to flee.
2. “Spiderman” and the Paris Museum of Modern Art (2010)
When you’re nicknamed Spiderman, expectations are high – and Vjeran Tomic lived up to it. In 2010, the professional cat burglar climbed into Paris’s Museum of Modern Art, sprayed acid on window mounts, and strolled out with five masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Léger, and Braque worth over $100 million.
The heist was so quiet it went unnoticed until the next morning. The paintings have never been found, and Tomic, now serving time, still insists he didn’t mean to take that many.
3. The Scream, stolen twice (1994 & 2004)
Edvard Munch’s The Scream has spent almost as much time off the wall as on it. During the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, thieves broke into Oslo’s National Gallery, leaving behind a note that read: “Thanks for the poor security.”
It was recovered later, only for another version to be stolen a decade later from the Munch Museum – this time in broad daylight, with masked gunmen. Norway eventually got both back, but the painting’s legacy of existential dread feels oddly fitting for its crime history.
4. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist (1990)
Boston’s most notorious mystery. Two men dressed as police officers talked their way past security, tied up the guards, and made off with 13 pieces – including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Degas – worth around half a billion dollars.
They left behind empty frames that still hang in place today, serving as eerie reminders of a case that remains unsolved. The FBI has chased leads for decades, but the art world’s Holy Grail remains missing.
5. The “takeaway” Rembrandt (1966–1983)
Rembrandt’s Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III at London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery has been stolen not once, but four times – earning it the nickname “the takeaway Rembrandt.”
Small enough to slip under a coat, it became the ultimate repeat offender of the art world. Each time it vanished, it reappeared somewhere slightly ridiculous – once in a bush, another time on a park bench. It’s now (hopefully) under slightly better security, though it clearly has a taste for adventure.
6. The Mona Lisa’s great disappearing act (1911)
Before she was the world’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa was just another portrait hanging quietly in the Louvre. That changed when Vincenzo Peruggia – an Italian handyman with patriotic ambitions – hid in a broom cupboard overnight and simply walked out with her under his coat.
It took two years, a global media frenzy, and one failed sale attempt in Florence for her to resurface. Ironically, it was the theft that made the painting a global icon. So yes, we partially have a thief to thank for that smile’s fame.
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