The FBI's Top Ten Art Crimes List

For decades, the FBI has been known for their "Ten Most Wanted" list of fugitives from justice. They also have a "Top Ten Art Crimes" list. According to their website, art theft is big business "with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually." Their Art Crime Team consists of twelve Special Agents "supported by three Special Trial Attorneys" to prosecute the criminals.

The following are some of the top recent art crimes listed on their site:

1) During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, looters broke into the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad and stole many valuable ancient artifacts. Among the most priceless of these missing items was a 4,400 year old statue of King Entemena of Lagash.

In 2005, after a three year search, the three-foot-high statue was recovered thanks to information provided by a Lebanese antiquities dealer with a gallery in New York. After its authenticity was confirmed, the statue was given to the Iraqi embassy in Washington D.C., where it now resides. Given Iraq's present state of turmoil, no one knows when it will be returned.

As for the Iraq National Museum, it's not only closed, its main entry is now blocked by a brick wall.

2) In 1990, works of art estimated at $300 million were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The two thieves wore Boston police officer uniforms, tricking the museum's security personnel into granting them access during off-hours. They then bound and cuffed the guards. It took them over an hour to steal twelve works of art, including Rembrandt's "The Storm over the Sea of Galilee", Vermeer's "The Concert" and Manet's "Chez Tortoni."

There's a $5 million reward for information leading to the recovery of these masterpieces.

3) In 1969, thieves stole Caravaggio's "Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence" from the San Lorenzo oratory in Palermo. For years, police have believed that the Sicilian Mafia was behind the theft. In 2005, Mafia informant Francesco Mannoia confessed to taking part in the theft, but has yet to reveal the painting's whereabouts.