By committing a robbery, you can not only become a target for the police, but also get your share of fame. All you need to do is steal an impressive amount of money, preferably several million dollars. And then the media will start talking about this crime, and the thieves will be searched all over the world. Many even dream of committing a theft that would provide them with free money for the rest of their lives.

Fortunately, in most cases, things don’t go further than fantasies. However, criminology knows several cases when people managed to carry out the robbery of their entire lives. These high-profile crimes have already become part of history, but it was not always possible to escape fair justice.

(Total 12 photos)

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Harry Winston's jewelry house is the most popular in Hollywood. At the Oscars, many stars show off rented jewelry from this manufacturer. One of the most famous robberies in modern history is also associated with the name of Harry Winston. In 2009, four armed men entered a jewelry boutique on the Champs Elysees in Paris just before closing. Moreover, three of them were dressed in women's clothing, including wigs. The criminals cleared out display cases and even forced staff to open the vault. The stolen millions were clearly not enough for them. As a result, the thieves took all the jewelry from the store. The amount stolen was estimated at 80 million euros. After news of the theft became known, shares of the jewelry house immediately fell by 9%.

2. In June of the same year, French police detained 25 suspects and found some of the jewelry and proceeds from the sale. The detainees were men and women aged from 22 to 67 years. They are said to be working for the major criminal cartel, the Pink Panther. This organization, created by immigrants from Yugoslavia, operates in many European countries. The cartel specializes in theft of luxury goods, but does not hesitate to engage in drugs, smuggling and murder. It must be said that the affected boutique was robbed a year before this incident. Then the thieves stole 10 million euros worth of jewelry.

Not everyone knows that 80% of all uncut diamonds pass through Antwerp. But criminals have such information. As a result, there have been quite a few thefts involving precious stones in the city. However, this crime stands out from the total number both in terms of execution technique and taking into account the amount of stolen goods. The trophy turned out to be so large that the thieves could hardly carry it out. Of the 160 safe deposit boxes of the diamond exchange, 123 were emptied. This daring crime was planned by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a thief with 30 years of criminal experience.

4. The robbery was planned for several years, and four people directly took part in it. Three years before the theft, the bandits rented an office in the same building where the exchange itself was located. Thanks to the front company, the attacker gained access to the magnetic keys. Leonardo himself played the role of a diamond dealer, creating a corresponding reputation for himself. The thief met with potential clients, made deals - no one thought that he was a fictitious person. On February 15, 2003, during the weekend, the attackers taped over the lenses of video cameras and replaced the tapes in the cameras, which concealed their actions. Although the vault was protected by ten types of security equipment, including infrared and magnetic sensors, and a lock with 100 million combinations, the thieves somehow entered the vault. The police were never able to understand how exactly the bandits were able to bypass the security. The thieves slowly cleared almost all the safes; they simply could not take away all their contents - the entire floor was strewn with diamonds. The jewelry belonged to 70 individuals and organizations.

The best detectives joined the investigation. A day later, Leonardo Notarbartolo was arrested. His accomplices, his wife and a Dutch couple, were also caught. They were found with evidence in a high-profile case. But the diamonds themselves, worth $100 million, were never found. Notarbartolo is now serving a long prison sentence. Interestingly, at the trial he stated that they were hired by a certain Jewish merchant, and they stole only part of the diamonds, worth 20 million dollars. By the time the thieves arrived at the vault, some of the safes had already been emptied. Notarbartolo believes he was set up to make the bandits part of a larger insurance scam. The police did not believe this version and later detained three more accomplices of the thieves.

This story happened back in the 1970s. To date, the value of the stolen goods is estimated at $100 million. In those years it was a record robbery. There were seven robbers from Ohio, led by Emil Dincio. A gang called Laguna Niguel broke into one of the California United banks. The thieves quickly cleared the safe. The exact contents of the vault were unknown, so the amount stolen could only be estimated approximately. As a result, the FBI arrested the criminals because they could not stop and went on the case again. Later, one of the thieves described this incident in the book “Super Thief.”

In the 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) launched active terrorist activities. The Arabs, led by Yasser Arafat, wanted to win some land for themselves to live in Palestine. The PLO waged a real war, which required a lot of money. In those years, a civil war was raging in Lebanon, so that real chaos reigned in the country. Then PLO militants robbed more than ten banks, the most famous of which was the British Bank of the Middle East. The terrorists were able to take away $25 million in the form of gold, currency, stocks and jewelry. To get to the vault, the thieves even blew up the wall of the bank. Specialists specially invited from Corsica worked on the safe. The stolen shares were eventually sold back to their owners.

This diamond theft is the largest in history. Then the thieves were able to steal approximately $118 million worth of precious stones. At the same time, it is difficult to estimate the exact cost of the diamonds, since many of them were uncut. This implies their relative valuation and additional difficulties in searching.

Although many famous thefts are distinguished by subtlety and elegance of execution, in this case the thieves acted head-on. A month before the crime, a gang of four men stole a service uniform and a truck. Thus, until the very last moment, thieves did not attract attention to themselves in the secure area of ​​Amsterdam Airport. On February 25, 2005, it was planned to send the valuable cargo to Antwerp. In front of everyone, the bandits threatened the truck driver with a pistol and forced him to get out. The thieves got into the car with the diamonds and drove off. Given that the truck was not chosen at random, the police suspected information was being leaked from within. This was not the first time that a secure airport terminal failed to resist criminals. So it is quite logical for the owners of stolen diamonds to ask questions about the level of security. Although several people were arrested during the investigation, the stolen goods have not yet been recovered.

After getting tired of being on the run from the police for his 54 armed robberies, Valerio Viccei moved from his native Italy to the UK in 1986. The bandit decided to continue his activities in a new country. He came to Knightsbridge Bank with a request to check the safe deposit box rented there. On the way to her, Viccii neutralized the guard. The thief was helped in this by the manager, who, due to cocaine addiction, fell into the Italian’s network. A sign was posted on the storage facility that it was temporarily closed. The manager changed security and disabled the surveillance cameras. Thieves calmly cleaned out a financial institution, making off with £60 million. At today's prices, that amount has tripled.

Authorities only learned about the robbery an hour later, which was enough time for the thieves to escape from the crime scene. Authorities only had a fragment of the print. Interpol found out that it belonged to Viccei. Valerio managed to escape to Latin America, but all his accomplices in England were arrested. Surprisingly, the bandit’s instincts betrayed him - he decided to return to England for his beloved Ferrari and see to it being sent. The police arrested the daring robber, and the court sentenced him to 22 years in prison. Investigators were able to return only 10 million; the rest of the money ended up somewhere in South America. Upon his release, the 45-year-old thief did not break with his criminal past and was killed in a shootout in 2000 while on his way to yet another bank robbery. Money was not so important to him - robberies and fame became a kind of drug for Vicceia.

In 2007, the Dar es Salaam private bank was robbed in Baghdad. When the employees went to work in the morning, they discovered that the doors of the establishment were open, the safe was not locked, and all the money had disappeared from it. Three security guards also disappeared along with $282 million. The huge amount exceeds the budgets of some poor countries. This robbery raises more questions than it answers. It is not clear why the bank contained such a huge amount in dollars and not in local currency. How were the robbers able to take so much money without being noticed? Perhaps the thieves were helped by local police, who led them through security posts. As a result, the robbers were never caught. It must be said that Iraq ranks first in the world in the amount of money disappearing during bank robberies. Every month at least $1 million is stolen here.

On March 18, 1990, two men in police uniform convinced security guards at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that they were on call. Allegedly, the alarm went off, so the halls need to be checked. The guards, contrary to official instructions, allowed those arriving into the museum. The thieves immediately handcuffed the guards and took them to the basement. Moreover, the bandits did not even have weapons with them. Over the next 81 minutes, the thieves selected 12 paintings they particularly liked and made off with them along with the CCTV footage. The amount stolen is estimated at $300 million - among the paintings were works by Vermeer and Rembrandt. The police could not find any traces of the intruders. However, in 1994, a certain anonymous person offered to return the stolen property for the amount of $2.6 million in exchange for refusing further prosecution. However, there was no continuation of the story with that note. Police can only assume that the robbery was carried out by amateurs. The fact is that they treated the paintings rather carelessly, and the most valuable samples remained untouched. Today there is a $5 million reward for any information about the stolen paintings. The authorities even promised not to prosecute their new owner.

This robbery on a quiet London street would have looked like an ordinary street robbery, if not for one thing. 58-year-old courier John Goddard was carrying valuable bonds worth $292 million in his briefcase. These checks belonged to the Bank of the English Treasury and housing construction companies. The essence of bonds is that their owner is the one who holds them in their hands. In essence, it is a kind of cash. Goddard had a knife put to his throat and his briefcase was taken away. Over time, the police arrested Keith Cheeseman, who was jailed for 6.5 years. The perpetrator of the crime is named Patrick Thomas, who was found shot in the head. As a result, the police detained a gang of thieves, only two criminals remained unknown to the authorities. It remains surprising that one of the most notorious robberies of our time was committed on an ordinary dark street with a knife.

This robbery is again connected to Iraq, a country where the disappearance of money from a bank no longer surprises anyone. Typically, crimes of this kind require painstaking planning, often requiring the use of force. But in this case, the robbery was both simple and effective. The fact is that the ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, over time began to consider the entire country his patrimony. And he perceived the Central Bank of Iraq as a personal depository for his money. Early in the morning of March 18, 2003, just a few hours before the start of the military campaign against the country, Saddam Hussein's youngest son appeared at the office of the main financial institution with the dictator's closest assistant. They demanded 900 million dollars and 100 million euros. Instead of documents, the couple presented only a personal order from Saddam Hussein to pay the required amount. The bankers decided that it was better to carry out the personal instructions of the head of the country rather than discuss them. The dictator's envoys refused to say why they needed so much money and where it would be moved. The bank spent two hours loading the cash, which ended up being placed on three trucks. Before the work day even started, the kidnappers left with a billion dollars. But this amount is equal to a quarter of all Iraq's foreign exchange reserves. Bankers report that Hussein and members of his family previously turned to banks for cash, but did so infrequently, and the amounts did not exceed $5 million. The Americans believe that the dictator needed such an impressive sum so that in case of defeat in the war he could use it abroad. However, Hussein was caught and executed, and his son was later killed. And then it became unclear who exactly took the money. The new authorities managed to find only 650 million dollars; they were hidden in a cache in the palace of the former leader. The rest of the money was never found. They say they were taken to Syria.

1. Theft of diamonds worth 5 million euros

On February 15, 2009, three masked robbers found themselves in Europe's largest department store, Kaufhaus Des Westens. The robbery took place while the department store was closed. The robbers used a rope ladder, thus ensuring complete inactivity of various kinds of alarm systems waiting for strangers below.

The robbers stole diamonds worth more than $5 million. However, the team made a stupid mistake by leaving a glove at the crime scene. Based on the DNA of the glove, the police concluded that the robber could be one of the twin brothers, Hassan and Abbas O. German justice requires that the guilt of every person accused of a crime must be proven.

And since the brothers never admitted to the robbery, and it was impossible to determine which of them owned the glove, the lucky ones were simply released without being charged. The third member of the gang was never found. I don’t know, if I were the criminal elements in Germany, I would urgently organize several teams of twin robbers :)

2. Dan “DB” Cooper - 200 thousand cash

This man, in November 1971, on the 24th, decided to take a plane from Portland. He was wearing a suit and raincoat, plus dark glasses. The man calmly sat down in his seat on the plane, and did not stand out in anything special. Then he asked the flight attendant for whiskey, and when she brought him what he wanted, the man gave her a note that literally said the following: “I have a bomb in my suitcase. I will detonate it if necessary. Sit next to me. This is a hijacking.”

The man demanded 200 thousand dollars and four parachutes, which were to be delivered to Seattle. When the plane landed, he released all the passengers, leaving only the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants. As soon as the money was delivered to him, the man forced the pilots to fly to Mexico, rising to an altitude of about 5 kilometers.

On his way to Mexico, he bailed out somewhere in northwest Portland. Nobody ever saw him again. By the way, in 1980, 6 thousand dollars in packaging were found on the beach (which was located in the region of the jump), the dollars were from a stolen batch. No one knows whether the man survived the jump or where the money is. His body was never found, so perhaps everything went well for the thief. At the moment, this is the only unsolved crime of plane hijacking.

3. Tokyo, 300 million yen (817 thousand US dollars)

In December 1968, bank employees of one of the Tokyo banks were transporting 300 million yen in a bank car. You've probably all seen what these cars look like if you've ever watched a Hollywood movie about a bank robbery. So, on the road the car was stopped by a policeman on a motorcycle. He told the surprised people that there was a bomb under the bottom of the car that needed to be eliminated. The policeman climbed under the bottom, ostensibly to defuse the bomb.
A few seconds later, sparks and clouds of smoke began to emerge from under the bottom. Of course, everyone who was in the car jumped out of it. The policeman immediately climbed into the car and drove off in an unknown direction (there was no GPS then, and the car could have been driven into the garage next door).
Despite the fact that there were 120 witnesses and 110 thousand (!) suspects in the case, the case was never solved.

4. Antwerp, $100 million worth of diamonds

This is the largest diamond theft in history. The fact is that $100 million worth of diamonds were stolen, and they were stolen from a vault with 7 degrees of security. Here, thermal sensors, motion sensors, radar, magnetic fields, and a reliable security company came into play. So, on February 15, thieves somehow got into the storage facility, opened the deposit boxes, and took everything that was inside. The leader of the robber squad was apparently arrested and imprisoned, but was soon released. The reason for the release is also unclear.
No one ever understood how the robbery was carried out.

5. Chicago - $1 million

This robbery also looks more like a magician's trick than a real robbery. The fact is that on Friday, October 7, 1977, a bank employee counted 4 million US dollars and put this money in the bank's vault (all this is confirmed, the bank employee has nothing to do with it).
On Tuesday morning the money was counted again, and bad luck - one million dollars disappeared without a trace. In 1981, $2,300 of this amount was found; the money was taken during an anti-drug police action. But no one ever found out where the drug dealer got this money from. And what is $2,300 compared to a million dollars? Yes, it's a small thing.

Agree, each of these stories can be used to make a film that is much more interesting than ordinary Hollywood films. Moreover, it will be almost like a documentary film.

While the 21st century confidently strides across the planet, many events of the past century have forever gone down in history and become legends, including those of the criminal world. What can I say: some people are great at making money, while others have an excellent talent for stealing that same money. The loudest, most daring and most curious robberies of the 20th century will be discussed in the material below.

The Great Train Robbery

August 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, which remains the largest heist of its kind to this day. The attack on the Glasgow-London mail train took place on August 8, 1963, by a gang led by Ronnie Biggs, who, by the way, died only last year.

Then the criminals managed to steal 2.6 million pounds sterling, which today is equivalent to 40 million pounds sterling or 60 million dollars. 15 gang members first changed the semaphore signal, and then managed to unhook two carriages with money from the train, and, having driven them to a safe distance, stole mail bags.

Even then, the daring robbery was dubbed “the crime of the decade,” and therefore its solution became a matter of honor for Scotland Yard. All the forces of the British police were sent to catch the attackers, and soon all members of the criminal group were behind bars.

However, after some time, the gang leader managed to escape from prison, and only after 36 years, being mortally ill, he voluntarily returned to England and surrendered to the authorities.

No weapons, no hate, no cruelty

One of the most “peaceful” crimes “Without weapons, without hatred, without cruelty” (Sans armes, ni haine, ni violence - that was the gang’s motto written on the wall of the robbed place) was the robbery of a large French bank “Societe Generale” in Nice , which occurred on July 18, 1976.

To successfully empty 400 safe deposit boxes, the attackers only had to dig under the bank vault and successfully use it at the right time. Then they needed old maps of the area. But such maps are invariably popular among lovers of searching for antiquities, and the search for the maps themselves turns into an equally exciting adventure. And after the theft of about 60 million francs (money and valuables), directly at the crime scene - in an underground money vault, the criminal geniuses organized a real banquet in honor of the successful operation: they drank expensive vintage wine and ate a generous snack. This was facilitated by the fact that, due to the holidays, the bank was closed for 4 whole days.

But the spectacularity of the robbery did not end there. The organizer of such a “humane” crime turned out to be an unremarkable photographer, Albert Spaggiari.

Soon he was caught, but right in the courtroom, with the help of cunning, he managed to escape, jumping out the window and rushing off without a trace on a motorcycle prepared in advance by his accomplices. Since then, for more than 30 years, nothing was known about the fate of Spazhiari, as well as the fate of the money he stole.

And when in 2011 the French police allegedly managed to find the attacker, then, due to the expiration of the crime, it was no longer possible to bring charges against the former photographer. Everything is in the best traditions of Hollywood gangster films. By the way, more than one film on the theme of “the crime of the century” has actually been made based on the plot of this legendary crime.

The biggest theft in the art world

The robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990 received this status. Two intruders freely entered the museum building under the guise of police allegedly arriving at an alarm signal. Either the museum guards turned out to be too trusting, or the criminals worked very talentedly, but, despite clear instructions not to let anyone outside into the building that day, the fake police managed to find themselves inside the museum. And in a matter of minutes, the guards were already sitting tied with ropes and wrapped with tape in the basement.

As a result, the robbers managed to take thirteen most valuable art exhibits from the museum, including paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, Degas and other great creators. After which the attackers fled the crime scene without a trace, puzzling the American FBI with their search for as long as 23 years. The total value of the stolen paintings was then estimated at about $500 million, and the museum announced a reward of $5 million for the return of the paintings. But time passed, and there were no traces of either the criminals or the paintings on the black art market. And only last year in 2013, the FBI announced the discovery of this high-profile crime. More precisely, the matter concerns only the capture of criminals, but the American feds have not yet been able to return the paintings. According to some information, the FBI already knows the states where the works of art are hidden, but for now, instead of them, empty frames continue to hang on the walls of the museum.

London Knightsbridge bank robbery

Among the particularly daringly robbed banks is the London Knightsbridge, which was robbed on July 12, 1987. Under the pretext of checking their cash deposit boxes, which were specially opened in advance, the criminals, disguised as respectable gentlemen, entered the bank's depository. The robbers did not forget to bring weapons there, which the guards kindly accompanying them did not notice, for which they soon paid with their own lives. Having neutralized the security, the attackers did not hesitate to even hang a sign on the vault doors with the inscription “The depository is temporarily closed” so that no one would bother them to empty the cells.

Having enriched themselves by 60 million pounds sterling, the robbers, disguised as the same respectable guys, calmly left the bank. The crime remains unsolved to this day.

Robbery near Heathrow

6,800 gold bars weighing nearly three tons and two boxes of diamonds stolen from a Rix Mat vault near London Heathrow Airport on November 26, 1983 filled the robbers' pockets with about $80 million. Nowadays, the price of the stolen gold is estimated at about 1 billion dollars (!), and to this day this robbery is considered the largest theft of valuable metals in history.

The criminals managed to steal such fabulous wealth by dressing in security uniforms. Once in the storage room, six attackers turned off the alarm, tied up and doused the guards with gasoline, and then, threatening to set them on fire, found out the passwords of the safes.

And although the police subsequently managed to find and arrest two participants in the grand robbery, the fate of the bulk of the stolen bullion remains unknown.

By the way, how the criminals managed to load and remove the loot remains a reliably unknown fact. Either the English police really don’t know, or they are afraid to tell the public, so as not to make anyone want to repeat Heathrow’s feat.

Stolen Reichstag gold

This review contains the most notorious robberies of the 20th century, recognized by both law enforcement officers and the public. But, do not doubt that there are also those that are simply not customary to talk about out loud. And all because we are talking about simply amazing stolen amounts. An example of such a case is the robbery of the German Reichsbank immediately after the end of the Second World War, in 1945.

According to unofficial data, then the entire gold reserve of the country disappeared from the main bank of ex-Hitler Germany without a trace. At that time, the Reichsbank also contained all the valuables looted by the Nazis. The total amount of missing treasures, according to various estimates, amounts to up to 3.5 billion dollars, which in terms of modern exchange rates equals more than 60 billion dollars!

Who was behind this mega-scale robbery still remains unknown. Some say that the British intelligence services are involved in the case, others claim about the American “hairy hand”, others say that there were members of Masonic lodges involved, and still others are not at all shy about linking aliens to the theft of Reichstag valuables... One way or another, not a single one of the special structures in the world did not give progress to this case.

Big money and high-profile crimes have always gone hand in hand: some people know how to earn money, others have the talent to steal this money. We will tell you about the largest thefts. Interestingly, most of the most notorious robberies were committed at the end of the last and beginning of this century. Banks are still the main target of criminal plots and are by no means as reliable in terms of security as we think.

1. The largest robbery occurred on July 12, 1987 at Knightsbridge Bank in London. Two criminals entered the depository under the pretext of auditing their cells. The carelessness of the guards allowed the bandits to bring in weapons, with which they neutralized the security. Having opened the clients' deposit boxes, the robbers took out $112.9 million. To avoid being disturbed, they hung a sign in front of the entrance: “The depository is temporarily closed.”

2. On August 6, 2005, the Central Bank of Fortaleza in Brazil was robbed. The criminals rented a house located next to the bank. They dug an 80-meter tunnel to the main storage facility. Moreover, for greater work comfort, the tunnel was equipped with an electric lighting and ventilation system. The bandits stole $76.8 million.

3. On the dark night of Sunday December 20, 2004, three people entered the home of a Northern Bank employee in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After interrogating him with passion, they found out where the director of the bank lived and visited him. Having taken the families of the employee and director hostage, the next day the criminals forced the banker to open a depository and stole $50 million.

4. In order to rob the Bank of England in Kent, England, several members of a gang of criminals kidnapped the head of the bank's security service. Other bandits took his family hostage. On February 22, 2006, they broke into the bank, neutralized 15 employees, forced the security chief to open a cash depository and stole $47.1 million.

5. On September 1, 1997, five armed criminals, disguised as postal service workers, seized a post office in Zurich, Switzerland, in an allegedly official car. After forcing postal employees to the floor, they broke into cash registers and took away $42.9 million. One small detail: 11 million dollars in small bills, collected in bags, did not fit into the car, so the criminals threw them on the road.

6. On Christmas Eve, on the evening of December 16, 1992, when bank employees in Toulon, France were already relaxing, a group of bandits broke in. The criminals mined the building and threatened to blow it up. In addition, they also mined one of the bank employees and, since there were many clients in the building, promised them to blow up this poor guy first if any of them tried to stop the robbery. $30.3 million was stolen.

7. Let's move to Spain. On December 24 (also Christmas Eve!) 1982, in the small quiet town of Marbella, the police were so used to numerous tourists that they did not pay attention to three Italians (two guys and a girl) who rented a room in a building that shared a wall with the Banco bank Andalucía. Enterprising Italians broke down part of the wall and went straight to the depository. They hacked about 200 cells and stole $15 million.

8. In Manchester, England, on July 3, 1995, bandits stopped a cash-in-transit car in broad daylight and threw the driver out of it. The police never caught the culprits, and the driver was brought to justice. The police believed that he was in cahoots with the gang and received his share. $12.6 million was stolen.

9. On February 11, 2002, at one of the busiest airports in the world, Heathrow in London, a group of criminals robbed a messenger who was carrying $12,000,000 in cash to an Arab millionaire from Bahrain whose yacht was moored in London. The bandits did not disdain the courier’s expensive watch and his cash.

10. Under the leadership of the famous gangster Albert Spaggiari, the criminals dug an 8-meter tunnel from a sewer pipe to the depository of the Banco Societé Générale bank, in Nice, France. On July 19, 1976, one of the holidays, the bandits opened the floor and entered the bank, which was considered extremely reliable, where they operated for 4 days. They had a picnic and enjoyed wine. Before leaving, Spaggiari wrote on the wall: “No hate, no violence and no weapons.” $9.8 million was stolen.

The theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa

More than a hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, became the most famous painting in the world after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris on August 21, 1911.

Stolen by a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed that he fell in love with the Mona Lisa as soon as he looked into her eyes, the painting stood in his kitchen for two years. “La Gioconda,” another name for this unique painting, became a world sensation. The fame was beneficial in the search for the painting, as it could not be sold to any collector willing to fork out the cash.

Peruggia, a worker from Paris who once worked at the Louvre, simply removed the painting from the wall on a day when the museum was closed and walked out of the building, hiding the masterpiece under his clothes. Although the thief claimed that he stole the painting for patriotic reasons, the prospect of making a fortune from the sale of the painting was the true motive for the theft. The Italians, of course, never forgot about the origin of the painting, so they actively advocated for the canvas to be returned to Florence. This robbery became one of the most famous painting thefts in history.

The largest robbery of an American art museum

On March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest robbery in US history, which remains unsolved. The thieves handcuffed the museum's night guards under the pretext that they had a warrant for their arrest.

Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. According to some estimates, the value of one of the stolen paintings was $200 million. This is the Concert by John Vermeer, written in the second half of the 17th century.

Also among the 13 stolen masterpieces was Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee.” The value of all the stolen paintings was estimated at $300 million, but some experts argued that the paintings could be worth much more. Many of the paintings had been cut from their frames, leading investigators to believe the perpetrators had little understanding of art.

Munch Museum robbery in Oslo

On August 22, 2004, masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in broad daylight and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna. The masterpieces were found by police in 2006, and each of the paintings showed signs of damage, so it took another 2 years for their restoration before they returned to their place in the museum.

"The Scream" is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world

“The Scream” is the artist’s most famous painting and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its cost is $82 million, according to The Telegraph.

Museum robbery in Zurich

In February 2008, armed men broke into the Emil Bührle Foundation Collection museum in Zurich, Switzerland, and stole 4 masterpieces worth a total of $140 million. This is the largest art theft in Swiss history.

“Poppy field near Vetheuil” by Claude Monet

In 2008, works of art worth $140 million were stolen in Switzerland.

Claude Monet's Poppy Field near Vetheuil was one of the stolen paintings. The criminals also took away such masterpieces as “Louis Lepic and His Daughters” by Edgar Degas, “Blossoming Chestnut Branches” by Vincent Van Gogh and “The Boy in a Red Vest” by Paul Cezanne. The paintings of Van Gogh and Monet were quickly discovered by the police and returned to the museum, the rest disappeared without a trace.

Robbery of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam

On May 21, 1988, burglars broke the first floor window of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam, Holland, and stole 3 paintings worth a total of $52 million, according to the Associated Press. Today, the value of these paintings is $100 million, adjusted for inflation.

This robbery was the largest in Dutch history, but fortunately, the paintings were discovered 2 weeks later, when the criminals attempted to sell the loot.

One of the most famous and recognizable paintings by Van Gogh in the “Sunflowers” ​​series ( second version 1889) was one of the stolen works.

Museum robbery in Rio de Janeiro

"The Garden of Luxembourg" by Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, while the entire city was enjoying the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and made off with works by famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

The paintings have still not been found and their value has never been determined, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The theft of Leonardo da Viinci's Madonna of the Spindle

“Mona Lisa” is not the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci that robbers once had their eye on. In August 2003, criminals disguised as ordinary tourists visited Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland and took with them the painting “Madonna of the Spindle”, escaping in a Volkswagen Golf. The castle museum houses famous paintings by such artists as da Vinci, Rembrandt and Hans Holbein, worth a total of about 650 million dollars.

Madonna of the Spindle is estimated to be worth approximately $65 million

Leonardo's painting, painted by the famous artist 500 years ago, is valued at $65 million. Luckily, she was discovered 4 years later in Glasgow. Four people were arrested and convicted for their involvement in the crime.

Robbery of the National Museum in Stockholm

On December 22, 2000, Pierre Auguste Renoir's "Young Parisian Woman" and "Conversation with a Gardener," as well as Rembrandt's self-portrait, disappeared from the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Three men, one of whom threatened the guard with a machine gun, managed to escape with the famous paintings in just a few minutes.

According to BBC News reports, police suspect the robbers were assisted in committing the crime. While the crime was being committed at the museum, the police were distracted by a call about a car on fire, just as the museum's alarm went off.

“Conversation with the Gardener” was unexpectedly discovered during a raid on drug dealers, and two other paintings were found in 2005. According to the FBI, the total value of these three paintings is $30 million.

Robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

The robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Holland) in April 1991, which resulted in the theft of 20 paintings, can be called the fastest-solved painting theft in history. All the works were found 35 minutes later in the thieves' car, the New York Times reported.

In April 1991, approximately $500 million worth of paintings were stolen in Amsterdam.

The robbers committed the crime after hiding in the museum after it closed. At approximately 3 a.m., they came out of hiding, wearing stocking masks with cutouts for the eyes to hide their identities.

Among the stolen paintings was “The Potato Eaters” by Van Gogh from his early work. The total value of all stolen paintings is about $500 million. Unfortunately, almost all the paintings were damaged.