Armed robbers stole Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ from the Munch Museum in Oslo, the second time in 10 years that a version of the painting was stolen
April 1991, Amsterdam – In what was then billed as the world’s biggest art robbery, 20 paintings, estimated to be worth $500 million, were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, including Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘The Potato Eaters’.
They were found shortly afterwards in an abandoned car not far away.
Nov 1993, Stockholm – Eight works by Pablo Picasso and French cubist Georges Braque, valued at some $60 million, were stolen from Stockholm’s Modern Museum.
Some were recovered in the following months.
Dec 2001, Stockholm – ‘Conversation’ and ‘A Young Parisienne’ by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a self-portrait by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn were stolen from Stockholm’s National Museum. ‘Conversation’ was recovered the following April, the Rembrandt portrait in 2005.
Dec 2002, Amsterdam – Two Van Gogh oil paintings worth an estimated $56 million each were snatched by thieves in a daring robbery at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Both paintings were found in Naples in 2016 at the country house of an alleged mafia drug smuggler.
Aug 2003, Drumlanrig Castle, Scotland – Thieves stole the ‘Madonna of the Yarnwinder’ by Leonardo da Vinci.
The work, painted in the early 16th century, was valued at about $53 million. It was recovered in Scotland four years later.
Aug 2004, Oslo – Armed robbers stole Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ from the Munch Museum in Oslo, the second time in 10 years that a version of the painting was stolen.
Thieves also took Munch’s ‘Madonna’. The paintings, from 1893, were recovered in August 2006.
Dec 2004, Sao Paolo – In Brazil thieves stole Picasso’s 1904 work ‘Portrait of Suzanne Bloch,’ worth up to $50 million, and local painter Candido Portinari’s 1939 ‘The Coffee Worker,’ valued at about $5.5 million, from Sao Paulo’s leading art museum.
Both paintings were recovered the next month.