A good – and bad – week for Italy's art police and museum security

On Friday, Italian police said they'd recovered three paintings stolen from a museum near the city of Parma. By Saturday night, thieves in Sicily had made off with four more masterpieces.

The top 3

1. Mona Lisa's Daring Louvre Escape: Vincenzo Peruggia stole Leonardo da Vinci's iconic "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre in 1911, keeping it for over two years before attempting to sell it in Italy.
2. Gardner Museum's Billion-Dollar Unsolved Theft: In 1990, thirteen artworks, including Vermeer's "The Concert" and Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, remaining unrecovered with a $10 million reward.
3. Dresden Green Vault's Dazzling Jewel Heist: In 2019, thieves broke into Dresden's Green Vault and stole priceless 18th-century jewels with an estimated insured value of over €113 million, though many pieces have since been recovered.

Sources

• NPR Arts & Life

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