In 2025, thieves stole roughly $100M of jewels from the Louvre

Breaking down the details on how the art heist at the Louvre unfolded

On October 19, 2025, several people dressed as construction workers climbed a construction lift and broke into the Louvre, stealing roughly $100M of crown jewels. This podcast breaks down the specifics of the heist.

In 2013, a lone bandit stole $136M in jewels from a luxury hotel in just 30 seconds

The robbery took place in broad daylight. Without any armed security guards present, the thief quickly stuffed a duffel bag with 72 precious items. They remain at large. The heist drew particular attention for its location—the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes, which was prominently featured as a setting in Hitchcock's 1955 film "To Catch a Thief" about a reformed cat burglar.

Priceless paintings were quickly taken during a 2008 raid of a Zurich museum

Three men walked into Emil Bührle Foundation during open hours. One of the men pulled out a loaded gun and forced the museum staff to the floor, while the others stole four paintings close to the door. The stolen paintings included a Degas, a Monet, a Van Gogh, and a Cezanne, totaling a whopping $160M in stolen art.

The largest jewelry heist in US history resulted in $100M of jewelry stolen

Robbers stole the gems from a Brinks truck in Lebec, California, in July 2022. The truck was transporting the jewels to different jewelry shows in the state, and thieves stole diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies, and designer watches while one driver was asleep and the other was getting food. Some of the stolen jewelry has been recovered.

Two men dressed as cops stole artwork from a Boston museum valued at over $500M at the time

On March 18, 1990, the thieves entered Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum pretending to be police officers responding to a disturbance. After overpowering and handcuffing the guards on duty, they stole 13 precious items, including works by Rembrandt and Manet. The theft is the largest art heist in US history. The pieces are still missing, and the museum is offering a $10M reward to anyone who provides valuable information about their location.

Some robbers have been able to steal works of art with surprising ease

A number of heists have taken place in just a few minutes, relying on a small team and minor weapons. Once pieces are stolen, some are sold as high-quality replicas, leaving art collectors unknowingly holding original masterpieces in their collections.

In 1911, a solo thief stole the 'Mona Lisa' from the Louvre, propelling the painting to a new level of celebrity.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide.

Learn about eight art heists that have gone terribly wrong

Half-baked plots, car troubles, and poor forgeries are some examples of blunders that led to failures in stealing works of art. For example, one heist by armed gunmen led to the theft of 20 van Gogh paintings. Before the robbers could declare victory, a flat tire on one of the getaway cars forced them to abandon the Dutch master's works and escape. They were later arrested for the crime.

On Christmas Eve in 1978, a San Francisco museum lost possession of a Rembrandt

Thieves stole four paintings on the night before Christmas, including Rembrandt's "Portrait of a Rabbi," which was worth around $1M at the time. The museum was under construction at the time, and police speculated that the robbers got in through the roof by way of the scaffolding. Over two decades later, three of the pieces were returned.

Breaking down the numbers on art theft trends

Cultural property theft has been on the rise in recent years, and the recovery rate of such artifacts is estimated to be below 10%. Explore dozens of other statistics here.

Stolen art is often ransomed rather than resold because it is too risky for collectors to purchase.

Why can't we see Mona Lisa's eyebrows?

The world's most famous painting is missing something. And it took centuries for experts to figure out what. In this episode, August Moon investigates what happened to the Mona Lisa's eyebrows—analyzing infrared scans, tracking 500 years of restoration, and examining a forgotten copy from Leonardo's studio. But he uncovers something bigger: what we lost after the 1911 theft that has nothing to do with the painting leaving the Louvre.

Successful art thieves run into the problem of having a painting too famous to sell

This potentially explains why some robbers hold onto these pieces for years, even decades. Security experts say no reputable art dealers, or even black-market dealers, are willing to sell stolen works by famous artists like Van Gogh or Modigliani.

Picasso was on trial for the theft of the 'Mona Lisa'

On August 22, 1911, the world was stunned by the theft of the "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre in Paris. As an international investigation searched for the culprit, a young Picasso was suspected to be part of a group of its thieves. While innocent in the disappearance of the Mona Lisa, he found himself on trial with reasonable suspicion: He was in possession of two Iberian statues that were the property of the same museum.

Looting art is often a byproduct of war

During WWII, Hitler orchestrated the theft of many masterpieces to eventually create his own museum. While many of these were recovered, iconic works such as Raphael's "[Portrait of a Young Man](https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-story-of-the-lost-raphaels-portrait-of-a-young-man/)" and Vincent van Gogh's "Painter on His Way to Work" remain missing or were destroyed by the Nazis.

Seventeen strange historical heists

High-dollar chocolate and cheese robberies to art thefts and audacious train robberies. Explore history's most peculiar stories of stealing with this list of seventeen tales of burglaries.

Americans touring the Louvre were inspired to create their own grand museums

The one-time royal residence was first transformed into a public museum in 1793 amid the French Revolution. Americans visiting in the early 1800s were both turned off by the aristocratic grandeur and compelled by the open access to the public. James Fenimore Cooper, the author of "The Last of the Mohicans," apparently came and measured the length of galleries.

The dark side of museum collections

Using the example of a sacred Nepali religious object that was stolen from a village in the 1980s and which later appeared in the Met’s collection, this article looks at the controversies that have swirled around some of the museum’s pieces. In addition to the Nepali statue, the piece outlines decades of questionable collection practices––some of which are clear-cut cases of theft.

Tiffany & Co. was among LVMH's most expensive—and complex—acquisitions

Three years after LVMH acquired Tiffany in 2021 for $15.8B, the jeweler's profits doubled to over $1B per year.

Haute couture and horses: The Met’s most popular temporary exhibitions

In addition to the millions of pieces in its permanent collection, the Met regularly hosts temporary exhibitions that draw in even more visitors to the museum. This list of the ten most-visited exhibitions includes works from Picasso, Impressionist masterpieces, artifacts from Egypt’s King Tutankhamun’s tomb, and more. What was the most popular exhibit ever, with nearly 1.7 million visitors? You might be surprised.

The Louvre in Paris has its own particle accelerator for art analysis

The Accélérateur Grand Louvre d'analyse élémentaire serves as a noninvasive tool for identifying and quantifying trace elements present in artworks by analyzing how particles backscatter off targets. This information can help detect forgeries and determine a piece's provenance. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Hermes once usurped LVMH as the world's most valuable luxury company in April 2025

At the time, Hermes's market capitalization surpassed LVMH's after a tough earnings report for LVMH in Q1 2025. The news came roughly fifteen years after LVMH tried to quietly build a stake in Hermes.

Worldwide cryptocurrency heists tracker

A look at the biggest cryptocurrency heists, be they from an exchange, smart contract, or a business, including amounts, methods, reparations, and consequences.

A librarian stole $8M worth of rare books from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library over 25 years

Greg Priore, who managed the library's rare book collection, systematically removed maps and prints and sold them through a local bookseller. He was eventually caught during a routine audit and sentenced to three years of house arrest.

Meet the Dutch art detective who's recovered a Van Gogh, Dali, and Picasso

Known by some as the "Indiana Jones of the art world," Arthur Brand has recovered more than 150 stolen paintings and artifacts. He works independently, existing as a helpful bridge between the police and the people who might know where the stolen art is hiding. He is motivated by the thrill of the chase more than any financial payoff.

Tiffany & Co. released a $200K Advent calendar in 2021

Tiffany & Co. has released ultra-luxury Advent calendars containing more than $100K worth of jewelry, including gold bracelets, diamond earrings, and platinum pendants. The 2021 edition cost $200K and featured daily drawers of high-end pieces.

Purchasing art is a common money laundering technique

Art is easy to transport internationally, susceptible to price inflation, and usually paid for with cash, making it a frequently used money laundering tactic. Additionally, loose regulations surrounding art transactions allow buyers to remain anonymous, adding an additional layer of ease for people trying to launder money.

Often dubbed the 'king of bank robbers,' George Leonidas Leslie stole an estimated $7M (equivalent to $200M today) and charged other criminals a $20K fee to evaluate their heist plans

Leslie studied architecture and used blueprints of safes and banks to execute meticulously planned bank heists across the Northeast between 1869 and 1878. Although Leslie was an infamous bank robber by night, he posed as a member of high society by day, providing critical intel on the institutions he'd rob and helping conceal his crimes. Months before his largest planned heist, where he planned to turn on his gang, Leslie's body mysteriously washed up along the Hudson River. His killer remains a mystery.

Louis Vuitton is considered LVMH's most valuable brand

Louis Vuitton consistently ranks among the world's top 10 most valuable global brands—it's worth an estimated $100B as of this writing.

LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault was among the world's 10 wealthiest people as of early 2026

With a reported net worth of about $190B, Arnault consistently ranks among the world's richest individuals. He held the number one spot on the list until early 2023, when Elon Musk overtook him.

22 fascinating discoveries of massive gold coin hoards

The gallery highlights major gold coin treasures from ancient to modern times, from the Saddle Ridge hoard in California in the 1800s (now worth $10M) to finds in Baltimore, Kentucky, and more. Each discovery reveals something about the period, with some buried and others left in vaults.

5 works of art that were destroyed and repaired

Art preservation is a delicate skill; art reconstruction is even more challenging, especially when the damaged works are centuries old. This Artnet guide details five of the most famous cases of dismembered works (from Manet, Cézanne, and more) that were repaired by specialists, allowing audiences to see the pieces in the way they were intended.

Many of luxury holding company LVMH's acquisitions were due to chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault's search for undervalued companies.

A unique art piece became the most expensive NFT when it sold for $92M

Non-fungible tokens sold for millions of dollars during their popularity peak from 2021 to 2022, with the top ten most expensive NFTs all costing upwards of $7M.

Bellagio hotel sells Picasso artwork

Eleven Picasso paintings and other works that helped turn Las Vegas into an unlikely destination for art were sold at auction for more than $100 million.

The World Cup trophy was stolen in 1966—and eventually found by a dog.

While on display at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, England, the Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen while a church service was being held in another room. It was eventually sniffed out a week later by Pickles, a black-and-white collie.

The deadliest fireworks accident in history was Marie-Antoinette's wedding

In 1770, a fireworks display in Paris celebrating the marriage of Marie-Antoinette to the Dauphin, later known as Louis XVI, resulted in as many as 3,000 deaths. Most casualties were caused by trampling from a panicked crowd of thousands rushing away after some fireworks were blown into the spectators.

Explore the French palace royals fled from during the 1789 revolution

This virtual reality tour lets viewers explore the Palace of Versailles, which King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were forced to flee during the French Revolution. Versailles was later made a public establishment by order of King...

One of LVMH's key business innovations was widening the luxury market's target audience

While certain items under the LVMH umbrella can cost thousands of dollars, like large Louis Vuitton bags, others, like coin purses or lipstick, cost significantly less. Some argue that these comparatively lower-priced items allows LVMH's target audience to be much larger in size than it would have been if it only targeted the world's wealthiest shoppers, whereas others argue that it makes the brand more vulnerable to economic downturns.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

In 1969, one British taxi driver stole a Goya from the National Gallery in London

Francisco de Goya's portrait "The Duke of Wellington" was believed to be seized by a criminal mastermind. In reality, a 60-something cabby named Kempton Bunton confessed to the crime about four years later. In 2021, it was revealed that he was actually covering for the actions of his son. The heist has since been immortalized in the film "The Duke."

Listen to a podcast episode about the time a 'Bored Ape' NFT—a valuable, unique digital asset stored on a blockchain—was kidnapped.

When a museum closes, it may need to sell or auction assets to pay off its debts, which can result in the breakup of valuable collections and the relocation of pieces to successor institutions and private collectors.

See LVMH's current market capitalization

As of early March 2026, LVMH has a market cap of $292.8B, making it the world's 49th most valuable company by market cap.

Watch what would happen if you literally had all the money in the world.

Tombaroli steal precious items from ancient people's tombs in central Italy

The tombaroli, or tomb-robbers, raid ancient Etruscan tombs in the dark hours of the night to recover vases, statuettes, mirrors, ornaments, jewellery, and other objects in gold, bronze, and terracotta. Read a firsthand account of a tombarolo who made a living handing stolen items to middlemen who sold them to wealthy buyers abroad. The lives and practices of tombaroli are also explored in the 2023 film "La Chimera."

The locksmith who posthumously opened Prince's music vault

When legendary musician Prince died in 2016, he left behind thousands of unreleased songs in a locked vault, and no one knew the combination (even Prince had forgotten it before his death). Safecracker Dave McOmie was called in to break the 6,000-pound Mosler American Century vault by microdrilling into it and using a periscope to view the combination lock.

A funeral director lied and claimed he discovered a centuries-old Roman brooch

An amateur metal detectorist knowingly deceived thousands into believing he found an 1,800-year-old horse figurine. He received payment for the artifact to be featured in a museum, but he later admitted he bought the brooch online and planted it.

Organized crime, including money laundering, drains $1.96T from the global economy annually

Overall, financial crime drains $3T from the global economy, with organized crime making up nearly $2T of that total. Drug trafficking is the second-largest drain on the global economy.