Four thieves in 2006 pull off a robbery of some of the most valuable paintings in the world. 15 years later and there has been no sign of the paintings, how did they accomplish this and what happened to the works??

A newly discovered painting by an old master will always be something that gets people excited, especially if that master is Leonardo da Vinci himself. da Vinci only has between 15 and 20 paintings verified to be his work so something new is a real find. However, is this painting really the discovery that some think it is?

If you thought Rembrandt’s Jacob de Gheyn III had been stolen a lot, strap in. The work we’ll be discussing today, The Ghent Altarpiece (also called Adoration of the Mystic Lamb), has been involved in at least 13 different crimes. Let’s touch on a few of the major ones.

This week’s article is less of a crime and more of a mystery. Under a few iconic Picasso paintings, conservators and curators have noticed some previously unknown portraits. Why did Picasso choose to paint over these works and who are these people covered up by a new composition? Turns out this is a topic that has caused much debate, let’s find out.

Musée Marmottan, an often overlooked Paris museum, boasts the largest collection of Claude Monet paintings in the world. This made it the perfect target for thieves that wanted some of the most well known and valuable Impressionist paintings of all time.

Spoiler, we’re talking about yet another art forger today. This guy is on another level though, Han van Meegeren is sometimes called the boldest modern forger of Old Masters. So what exactly did he do, how did people find out, and what do the Nazis have to do with it?

I’ve written about the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci before but what made this painting so famous? She is one of the most widely recognized pieces of art in the world today but this wasn’t always the case. Before 1911, Mona Lisa was only really popular in some artist circles. So, the question remains, how and why did she shoot to fame?

You might know Caravaggio from his masterful use of light in his paintings or from another article here where I talked about the theft of his Nativity with St. Frances and St. Lawrence. But what I bet you didn’t know is that he was actually not a good guy and committed a number of crimes in his lifetime.

It really seems like there are a few artists whose work just keeps being the target for thieves. We’ve talked a little about how Rembrandt is like that but so is van Gogh. The van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was opened in 1973 and since then it has been robbed twice, each time multiple paintings were stolen.

I know you’re probably thinking “who the heck is that?!” Don’t worry, I was too. But this man has done over €138 million in damage to famous, beautiful paintings. What compelled him to do this? How did he manage to pull this off so many times? Let's find out.

A New York City heiress, the founder of H&R Block, and the FBI. These three groups of people are linked in the most unlikely way through a Degas painting called Dancer Making Points. She has changed hands many times and the story of how she ended up where she is, is odd, to say the least.

I am on a roll with fraud cases right now, there’s something so fascinating about being able to fool people whose JOB it is to recognize authentic art and appraise it. This time we have New York’s Knoedler Gallery at the centre of the story and over two dozen fake works. Let’s discuss.

Ok boys and girls, we have a homegrown mystery on our hands. In Montreal in 1972, 18 paintings were stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in an event sometimes called The Skylight Caper. Sounds like an Agatha Christie tbh but I can’t give you the perfect ending that she would have. Definitely worth the read anyway.

The works of John Drewe and John Myatt have been called the ‘biggest contemporary art fraud of the century’, needless to say, this one’s a real doozy. These two men are said to have faked over 200 works of art fooling collectors and experts alike for years. How did they do it?

Yes, you read that right, thefts. Plural. This one specific, small, Rembrandt painting has been stolen four whole times. Let’s review these four incidents and talk a little bit about why this particular painting is just so irresistible to thieves. 

The million-dollar (or should I say pound) question. Who TF is Banksy? You know his work already if you’re a loyal reader of this blog but even if you aren’t you know it, he’s an icon of contemporary art. But who is he?

This is yet another case that made headlines around the world in 2012 when it happened. The main question on the surface is how did three guys manage to break into a museum and steal seven masterpieces in 2 minutes and 48 seconds, and leave before the police arrived? But there is so much more to this story than just that, strap in.

Everyone knows the famous Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris and the mystery surrounding her. But, honestly, it has pretty much been solved, she was painted by Leonardo da Vinci and we know her identity but what remains murky is if there are two other Mona Lisas floating around and if he also painted those.

Michelangelo’s Pietà sculpture is revered as one of his best, if not his very best, work. It is a piece of art that is famous and recognizable the world over and people come from all over to see it. However, for one man the trip to see Pieta wasn’t about admiring its beauty, he chose violence instead.

This story sounds like it’s something out of a comic book or like something I just made up but I promise I didn’t. It’s about the insane robbery of the Paris Museum of Modern Art in 2010 and it involves parkour, paint stripping acid, and five missing masterpieces. If that doesn't pique your interest idk what will.