The 10 Greatest Art Heists of All Time (2 of 6)

A Klimt Goes Into Hiding (1997)

Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of a Lady (1916-17) is notable because it was the only known case where the Austrian artist painted over the original canvas, the subject being a young woman he was having an affair with but who died suddenly, with a depiction of another woman. It vanished from the Galleria d’Art Moderna in Piacenza, Italy in 1997, only to be discovered in 2019 by a gardener who found it partially hidden in a garbage bag behind a panel in the building. The thieves went on to write an Italian journalist to confess they had put it in that panel four years after stealing it because, well, they were feeling charitable. How very kind of them!

When Ancient Mesoamerican History and Modern Drug Rings Collide (1985)

If you were a jade death mask representing a Mayan ruler, 1985 was a very stressful year for you. That was when this priceless artifact along with 123 others were stolen from the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City by a pair of college dropouts working for a drug cartel. Their plan was to trade the artifacts for cocaine, but they were caught just in the nick of time. The duo had done extensive planning beforehand, canvassing the museum more than 50 times before going through with the heist. It even involved crawling through an air conditioning duct. Mission Impossible stuff indeed!