The most expensive items stolen art

On the black market sale of art objects on demand, of course, loses drug trafficking, weapons and sexual services. However, the theft of museum exhibits or cultural values ​​from private collections with a view to their subsequent sale has long been a part of well-established and profitable business. Turnover alone American underground art market experts estimated at six billion dollars. It is not surprising that only added to the cost of the world's lost tens of thousands of pictures each year, sculptures, prints, collages, from year to year.

Here is a list of the ten most expensive stolen works of art, whose fate remains a mystery.

Raphael "Portrait of a Young Man"

The price: about $ 100 million

The Nazis committed many crimes against the art: the avant-garde of unwanted Nazis recognized the "degenerative" and classical examples of painting appropriated. This is what happened with the canvas by Raphael, which belonged to the Czartoryski noble Polish race. "Portrait of a Young Man" was confiscated in 1939. Shortly before the end of the Second World War, the picture fell into the hands of the governor general of occupied Poland Hans Frank. During interrogation, the eve of the Nuremberg trials, he listed the places where the losing party had hidden the stolen painting, but Raphael's masterpiece was not there. On the trail of the portrait could only attack in 2012: it was reported that he allegedly is in a bank vault in the territory if the United States is whether Europe.

Vincent Van Gogh "Poppies"

The cost: about $ 50 million.

Dutch postmodernist painting stolen in 2010 from the Cairo Museum of Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil, who is about to be closed for repairs. Apparently, so there really was not working either supplied to the exhibits alarm or tracking equipment. Hoping to seize the painting, security services blocked the airports, railway stations, docks, but all efforts were in vain. After a couple of years of British experts have made a sensational statement that these "Macs" were stolen from the museum in 1977 and thieves risked freedom for forgery. Original same first was in possession of some Egyptian officials, and later was more profitable to sell abroad. Unequivocally confirm or deny this information can not to this day.

Pablo Picasso's "Dove with Green Peas"

The cost: about $ 28 million.

In May 2010, there was a robbery of the century in France - at least, those he considered art lovers. Thief, which is likely to have acted alone, entered the Paris Museum of Modern Art, cracking the window grille. Slowly, he pulled out of the frame five paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Leger. According to the records from the cameras, the perpetrator was quiet - as if he were sure that he would not get caught. He was wrong: a half years after the theft investigators calculated and the thief, and the customer. The latter admitted that he felt under surveillance, panicked and destroyed all the paintings, including the most valuable - "Dove with Green Peas". The police did not believe him, and continues to look for stolen goods.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's "Nativity with Saints Francis and Lawrence"

The cost: about $ 20 million.

Tradition kept the great paintings in the churches and cathedrals of the Italians played a cruel joke: in 1969, from the chapel of San Lorenzo in Palermo faded one of the works of Caravaggio. The main suspects in the theft were considered representatives of the Sicilian Mafia, but the secret services for a long time did not manage to find neither customers nor the performers nor the painting. The truth about the sad fate of "Christmas" opened in 2009, when the hitman Gaspare Spatutstsa said in court that the picture was kept in a barn on a farm Pullara family. Mafiosi did not consider it necessary to take care of the canvas, and it gnawed rats and pigs. Realizing that the damaged canvas sell fails, it burned. The public, however, still hopes to find a rebuttal testimony Spatutstsi.

Paul Cezanne "View of Auvers-sur-Oise"

The cost: about $ 5 million.

Luxury Christmas gift made himself in 1999, the organizer of stealing the painting "View of Auvers-sur-Oise" from the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology in Oxford. While the whole country launched fireworks, drank champagne and counted the seconds before the millennium, a thief crept unnoticed into the hall, where are the paintings of the Impressionists, and took one of the most valuable of them. Naturally, neither of which the vigilance of the guards on the night of the new millennium and the speech could not be - for what they later paid jobs. Interestingly, by the way, that Cezanne himself was not completely satisfied with his work: he did not leave a signature on the canvas, and thus considered it unfinished. For peer review stoimocti "Vida at Auvers-sur-Oise" is not too affected.

Henry Moore "Reclining figure"

The cost: about $ 4 to 6 million.

Whatever the size or was the picture, its transportation after the theft does not represent a special problem: cut out of its frame, rolled in a roll - and carry it wherever you want. With sculptures of the situation it is much more complicated, however, and craftsmen are here: in 2005 in Britain, three unknown stole the statue, the size of which reaches three and a half meters long and two - in height and width. "Reclining Figure" created modernist Henry Moore, was in territory belonging to his estate in Hertfordshire county. Skulturu in minutes lifted into the truck with a winch - just under the CCTV cameras. After several years of unsuccessful searching the police came to the conclusion that "Reclining figure" was melted.

Violin Davidov-Morini Stradivarius

The cost: about $ 3 million.

One of the most cynical of kidnappings in the arts has been committed in 1995, when a New York apartment renowned Austrian violinist Erica Morini disappeared instrument made by Antonio Stradivari. The woman, who had already passed for 90 years, was in the hospital in serious condition. After some discussion, the friends and relatives of the Morini decided not to tell her the sad news: the fear that the old woman's heart simply will not sustain such a loss, because the violin to her father gave over half a century ago. Morini died after a few days - in blissful ignorance. Because of a break-in was discovered apartment, police believe that the responsibility for the theft of, most likely, lies on the shoulders of a person, enter the family of the deceased old lady.

Auguste Renoir "Madeleine with flowers in her hair, leaning on his elbow,"

The cost: about $ 1 million.

Expensive paintings rarely casual catch: as a rule, they maintained a long and aiming the hunt. The exception in this sense, is the canvas Auguste Renoir, which has got the robber just by coincidence. September 8, 2011 a gunman burst into a rich house to the west of Houston, Texas, and, threatening with a pistol, demanded to put on the table money and jewelry. Frightened landlord found the strength only then to point to a picture hanging on the wall and call it the approximate cost. Delighted unexpected luck, the offender grabbed the "Madeleine" and disappeared into the darkness. At this his luck ran out: the police is confident that secretly sell such a piece of art is valuable from an ordinary thief will not work.

Franz van Miris Senior "Cavalier"

The cost: about $ 1 million.

It is unlikely that the Dutch portraitist Franz van Miris Senior imagined that his tendency to paint small format will continue to be into the hands of robbers. The staff of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia, where in 2007, lost self-portrait van Mieris, suggest that the thief was a crime inspired the small size of the canvas - a total of 20 to 16 centimeters. Moreover, experts are inclined to consider the theft of spontaneous: someone from the visitors suddenly realized that carry "Chevalier" in the bag will not be difficult - and immediately realized his plan. In this case, its purpose is hardly included resale, and therefore, to find a picture, most likely, will not succeed, and it will continue to adorn the walls of the most common apartment or house.

Barbara Hepuort "Two Forms"

The cost: about $ 900,000

The idea of ​​preserving the national cultural heritage is extremely popular among the residents of Albion. However, the stolen statues enterprising British punctually fall to local scrap metal receiving points. And it's not just about the faceless street decorations, but also about the work of the acknowledged masters. According to statistics, the crime of this nature annually bring damage to the state in the amount of 700 thousand pounds. In 2011, London police reported that Scotland Yard will be a special unit to combat theft of metal objects. The threat had no effect: the next day revealed that from Dulwich Park sculpture disappeared Barbara Hepuort "Two Forms". Hope for its return is low.