Art Theft Program

Art and cultural property crime - which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines -- is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.

To recover these precious pieces--and to bring these criminals to justice--the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 13 Special Agents to investigate, supported by three Special Trial Attorneys for prosecutions...and it mans the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world.

Please note: U.S. persons and organizations requiring access to the National Stolen Art File should contact their closest FBI Field Office; international organizations should contact their closest FBI Legal Attaché Office.

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FBI Top Ten Art Crimes • Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts • Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft • Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco • Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius • The Van Gogh Museum Robbery • Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise • Theft of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, Panels 3-A and 3-B • Theft from the Museu Chacara do Céu • Theft of Van Mieris's A Cavalier • Theft from E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich

Recent Thefts Norman Rockwell's "Russian Schoolroom" stolen during a late night burglary in Clayton, Missouri. • Monstrance, or ostensory • "Virgin of Guadalupe" • "Apostle Saint John" • "Painful Virgin (Dolorosa)" • Crown (Papal Tiara) • "The Scream" and "Madonna" • Norman Rockwell Drawing